Long-serving IMO secretary general C P Srivastava set the scene for IAPH’s 14th biennial conference, held in Hamburg. His keynote address at the 1985 edition reflected on three decades of change within maritime transportation, spanning IAPH’s life to date. Srivastava noted the growth of ship sizes, the impact of containerisation, the need for continued technical assistance to developing countries and the founding of the World Maritime University as the major hallmarks of the era. He also noted that collaboration had proven crucial, with the IAPH playing a major role in supporting IMO initiatives – including those around vessel traffic services, ship reporting systems, and port traffic signals – that had improved maritime safety and port efficiency. By this point in the decade, some fundamental societal changes had been catalysed: globalisation and personal computers were slowly but steadily gaining influence. These tectonic shifts in technology and trade were acknowledged in a conference program that aimed to help port management to meet the challenges of the future. Yet outside of conference sessions, delegates were also able to look back, enjoying visits to Hamburg’s Old Warehouse District and a special performance of Carmen at the Hamburg Opera House. During this period, IAPH continued its campaigning work via key resolutions: in Hamburg, opposing changes to standard container sizes that might lead to intermodal inefficiencies, and, at the 1987 conference in Seoul, pursuing the issue of compensation recoverable by ports for their costs in dealing with wrecked or disabled vessels. The latter edition of the conference saw IAPH strengthen its international relationships with a resolution to conclude an MoUwith the Customs Cooperation Council (CCC), founded on the basis of significantly assisting authorities in the gathering of information and combating customs fraud, in particular drug smuggling. In 1994, the CCC adopted the working name of the World Customs Organisation and the organisation continues to be a significant partner for IAPH to this day, producing definitive guidance that, in the spirit of that 1987 agreement, strengthens each organisations’ understanding of the other’s tasks and priorities, for the betterment of global trade.
