cabotage

President Given’s visit comes on the heels of Canadian seafarers demonstrating solidarity with their Australian brothers and sisters. In February, over 100 SIU of Canada members rallied outside of the Australian embassies in Ottawa and Toronto, calling on the Australian government to strengthen important cabotage laws which are crucial to protecting jobs. 

Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI) has published a new independent report, commissioned by the ITF, into laws around the world on cabotage, which restrict foreign activity in a country’s domestic coastal trade.

In this first-ever report into the extent of these laws, Cabotage Laws of the World found that 91 United Nations member states, out of 140 investigated, have cabotage laws, also known as coasting, coastwise or coastal trade. The number of countries with such laws represent 80 per cent of the world’s coastal UN maritime states.