Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic Convention

Members of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted in 1965 the Convention of Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, the so-called FAL Convention. The convention entered into force on 5 March 1967 and has been amended 13 times so far (1969, 1973, 1977, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2009). As of 31 October 2015, 115 of the currently 171 members of the IMO have acceded to the FAL Convention. With this convention members aimed at facilitating maritime transport by simplifying and minimizing the formalities, data requirements and procedures associated with arrival, stay and departure of ships engaged in international voyage. To this end the Annex to the FAL Convention contains Standards and Recommended Practices on formalities, documentary requirements and procedures which should be applied on arrival, during their stay, and on departure to the ships, their crews, passengers, baggage
and cargo. It reduces to nine the number of declarations which can be required by public authorities. These standardized forms include, inter alia, the IMO General Declaration, the Cargo Declaration, and the Crew and Passenger Lists, and Dangerous Goods Declaration.
Introductory Information on the Convention can be found in this link.

The FAL Committee approved in 2010 an explanatory manual to the Convention that contains guidance and interpretation of the provisions of the annex of the FAL Convention, assists in interpreting the legal text of the provisions and provides for a greater understanding of the Convention. The explanatory manual was circulated as FAL.3/Circ.202.

Pages that cite the FAL Convention:

Declaration
Document Alignment
Port Control
Trade Facilitation Bodies