Background
The Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Marine
Pollution from Ships of the People's Republic of China
(PRC) 2010 (the Regulations) have
been the centre of attention for ship owners and operators trading
with the PRC, since they came into effect on 1 March 2010. Under
the Regulations, ship owners, operators and managers (together
called "ship operators" in the Regulations and below) of
any ship carrying polluting and hazardous cargoes in bulk, or any
other ship above 10,000 gross tons, are obliged to conclude a ship
pollution response agreement (SPRA) with a
pollution clean-up company, approved by the Maritime Safety
Authority (MSA), prior to its entering PRC ports,
or conducting ship-to-ship transfers in PRC territorial waters.
