THE 26TH IFSMA ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
RECALLING that the IMO International maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code in its present format and layout has, for the past 35 years, been regarded as the most user-friendly version of all existing dangerous goods regulations and, as the "bestseller" of IMO, replaced practically all national regulations,
RECALLING ALSO that Administrations representing some 95% of the world tonnage are Contracting Parties to the 1974 SOLAS chapter VII on dangerous goods and have implemented the IMDG Code for the carriage of dangerous goods on board ships and the handling of such goods in their ports,
RECOGNISING the importance of an undisturbed flow of dangerous goods in international multimodal transport operations, welcomed the harmonisation process of the modal regulations on the basis of the work of the UN Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods,
NOTING however with great concern that the substantially reduced new reformatted IMDG Code deviates from the well established format and layout of the present Code to the extent that, in particular for the mariners, it has lost its user-friendliness and, therefore, retraining will be necessary to familiarise all those concerned with handling and transport, e.g. shippers, packers of cargo transport units (CTUs) at the manufacturers premises and at inland depots, port terminal staff, controllers, the mariners and others involved in such operations as is provided for in chapter 1.3 of the new IMDG Code not only for shipboard but also for shore-based personnel,
NOTING ALSO that IMO has developed the Model Training Course 1.10 on Dangerous, Hazardous and Harmful Cargoes;
