🔶Shipping associations: Toll collection in the Strait of Hormuz harms the global economy

Eight of the world’s largest shipping associations have asked the United Nations to oppose the establishment of transit tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. The request has been raised following the publication of reports suggesting that Iran and Oman are on the verge of reaching an agreement regarding the management of this strategic waterway.

These associations, in a letter to Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, and Arsenio Dominguez, the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said that allowing charges to be imposed for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz is inconsistent with international norms and will harm the global economy.

In the letter, which was sent to the United Nations on Monday but whose text was published on Wednesday, August 5, the groups, representing ship owners and operators, wrote: “The imposition of mandatory transit charges or service fees that are effectively equivalent to tolls for the Strait of Hormuz would constitute a fundamental deviation from established and accepted international practice.”