Sulphur 2020 (IMO Regulation) - What is and how it would affect International Trade

The regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution of Ships seek to control the air emissions of ships and their contribution to local and global air pollution.

The current global limit for the sulphur content of the fuel oil of ships is 3.50% m/m (mass per mass). The regulations to reduce sulphur oxide emissions have introduced a new global limit for the sulphur content of ships, and from January  1st 2020, the new global sulphur content limit will be 0.50% m/m.

Ships can also meet SOx emission requirements using approved equivalent methods, such as exhaust gas cleaning systems or "scrubbers," which "clean up" emissions before they are released into the atmosphere.

Naturally, such compliance requirements entail additional costs and uncertainty in terms of fuel costs for shipments and shipping lines.

Although the BAF surcharge is designed to recover the increases in costs related to the bunker, these compliance costs have not been covered by any of the shipping companies.

Important container lines have already commented that these compliance costs will have to be transferred to customers and/or trade through the implementation of new fuel surcharges or an adjustment to existing ones, which may vary depending on the commercial routes.

Obviously, the first reaction of the international trade has not been favorable.

But do the shipping lines have any other option, since these regulations are aimed at improving the environment and reducing its impact for all?

New International Maritime Organization Regulation

IMO has set a global limit of sulphur content in the fuel oil used on board ships of 0.50% mass / mass as of January 1st, 2020. The implementation of this limit will significantly reduce the amount of sulphur oxide coming from the ships, which will imply important health and environmental benefits for the world, particularly for the populations near the ports.

When did the IMO adopt the rules to control air pollution caused by ships ?

IMO has worked to reduce the harmful effects of maritime transport on the environment since the 1960s. Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Convention) was adopted in 1997 to address atmospheric pollution caused by maritime transport.

What are the limits of sulphur content provided in the rules ?

The global limit of the sulphur content of the current fuel oil of ships is 3.50% m/m. The new global limit will be 0.50% mass / mass and will be applied from January 1st, 2020.

Can this date change ?

The date appears in the MARPOL treaty. So it can only be modified by an amendment to Annex VI of the MARPOL Convention. This would require an amendment proposal to be submitted by a Member State that is a Party to Annex VI. The amendment proposal would then be circulated and finally adopted by the MEPC. An amendment to the MARPOL Convention is required to be circulated for at least six months prior to adoption and to enter into force after at least 16 months after adoption. Given that Parties in Annex VI of the MARPOL Convention decided in October 2016 to implement in the 2020 term, a proposal of this type is not expected to be presented.

So, can implantation be delayed ?

No, there can be no change in the implementation date of January 1st, 2020 as it is too late to modify the date and for a new date to take effect before January 1st, 2020.

However, IMO Member States will work in relevant IMO technical bodies to address all issues that may arise with respect to ensuring consistent implementation.

When was the date of January 1st, 2020 decided ?

The date of January 1st 2020 was established in the rules adopted in 2008. However, a provision was adopted requiring IMO to conduct a review on the availability of low sulphur fuel to use by ships, with the aim to assist Member States in determining whether the new lower limit to the global limit of sulphur emissions from international maritime transport could effectively enter into force on January 1st 2020 or be deferred until January 1st 2025.

The IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 70), in October 2016, decided the limit of 0.50% will apply as of January 1st, 2020.

What will this new maximum limit mean for ships ?

With the new maximum limit, vessels must use on board fuel oil with a sulphur content not exceeding 0.50% mass / mass, compared to the current limit of 3.50%, which has been in force since January 1st 2012.

The interpretation of "fuel oil used on board" includes that used in main and auxiliary engines and in boilers.

How can ships comply with low sulphur emission standards ?

Vessels can comply with the prescription using fuel oil with a low sulphur content.

In addition, an increasing number of ships also use gas as fuel, since the emissions of sulphur oxides they produce are of negligible nature, which has been recognized in the elaboration of the International Code for ships that use gas or other low-flash point fuels (IGF Code), which was adopted in 2015.

Another alternative fuel is methanol, which is used in some short sea shipping services.

Vessels can also meet the requirements for SOx emissions by using some of the approved equivalent methods, such as exhaust gas cleaning systems, or "scrubbers" that "clean up" emissions before they are released into the atmosphere. 

What controls will be put in place once the global limit comes into force ?

Ships that have fuel oil for use on board ships must obtain a fuel delivery note, which will establish the sulphur content of the fuel oil supplied. Samples may be taken for verification.

Each Flag State will have to issue to ships an International Air Pollution Prevention Certificate (IAPP Certificate).

This certificate includes a section indicating that the vessel uses fuel oil with a sulphur content that does not exceed the applicable limit value as recorded in the fuel delivery notes, or that uses an equivalent provision.

Port States and riverbanks may use supervision by the Port State to verify that the ship complies with the rules. They could also use surveillance - for example, aerial surveillance - to evaluate smoke columns and other techniques to identify possible infractions.

What sanctions will be applied in case of non-compliance ?

Sanctions will be established individually by the Parties to the MARPOL Convention as flag States and port States. The IMO does not establish sanctions or fines: it is up to each Party.

What additional measures will be put in place to encourage a consistent  implementation ?

The implementation belongs to the field of competence and responsibility of the Administrations of flag States (States governing ports / coastal States). Ensuring uniform and effective implementation of the sulphur content limit of 0.50% mass / mass by 2020 is a high priority.

What is currently the average sulphur content in the fuel oil used on board the ships ?

IMO monitors the sulphur content of the fuel oil used on board ships worldwide. Samples are taken of residual fuel oil (the "heavy" fuel normally used in ships), as well as of the distillate fuel ("light" fuel, with low sulphur content, which is normally used in emission control areas that have limits stricter for sulphur emissions).

The latest figures showed that the average sulphur content of the residual fuels analyzed in 2016 was 2.58%. The average sulphur content worldwide of the distillate fuels was 0.08%.

Where can I find more information related to the sulphur rules ?

Find more information here: 

IMO - Pollution prevention

Source: International Maritime Organization (IMO)

Vikings - Norse Gods and War (2013-)

Blog Rating: 9.25 out of 10

Vikings is a very well filmed series that manages to reflect in a very real way the brutality and beliefs of those times. The story of Ragnar Lothbrok, a Norse farmer who succeeds in becoming the King of the Vikings. Together with his family and his men he achieves many victories in the historic lands of Great Britain and France.

Katheryn Winnick as Lagertha

Blood and looting are constant in the battles to conquer new territories, but Ragnar tasks his friend Floki with building a ship capable of sailing long distances to the mysterious West.

Ragnar recruits his brother Rollo with whom he will secretly gather a crew for a journey into the unknown.

Gustaf Skarsgard as Floki

The shots of the Viking ship at sea and the natural landscapes are impressive.

The Vikings are pagan believers in the gods Thor, Odin, and others, so their assault on a monastery on the outskirts of England leaves them baffled.

Clive Standen as Rollo

The participation of a monk named Athelstan whom he took as a slave, will keep Ragnar in continuous religious debate between the beliefs of his people and this new religious thought.

Despite all its warfare and bloodshed, Vikings is also a story of family and sisterhood, managing to capture the love and affection between Ragnar and his wife, Lagertha, a respected warrior in her own right.

Trailer Vikings

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Feminism - From its beginnings to the 60s

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* To read the version in another language, select language in translator (right side of the page)

The purest definition of feminism says that it is an ideology that defends that women should have the same rights as men.

On another level, which is a social and political movement that began formally at the end of the 18th century, in which women as a human group struggle against the oppression, domination, and exploitation of which they have been and are being targeted by the collective males.

In France and England, at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the idea began to take shape that women were not recognized as deserving in many aspects and that the inferiority condition of women was not a natural matter but that it was the product of poor and limited access to education.

During the French Revolution (1789) the women fought hand in hand with the revolutionary men for the maxims that were intoned those days: «Freedom, equality, fraternity». They participated in political speeches, in republican clubs, in the march to Versailles to capture the monarchy and in the taking of the Bastille.

The citizens also presented in 1789, before the French Assembly, the notebooks of reforms, in which they asked for the right to vote, the reform of the institution of marriage and the custody of children, as well as access to education.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

In England the most relevant figure of this moment was Mary Wollstonecraft, considered as the woman who started the feminist movement in 1792. This vindication focused mainly on economic and political rights: it also claimed the independence of women against men, in particular, in front of the husbands to whom women were totally submitted physically and legally, and went further: it demanded the equal access of women to education.

A period of change and progress was followed by a period of regression: not only were they not granted the rights they claimed, but they were oppressed even more. In 1793 the women's clubs were closed, the free association of women was forbidden by not allowing meetings of more than five of them, they were denied access to political assemblies and, in 1795, the Napoleonic Code established the obedience of women to husband within the marriage contracts. This code, as well as its copies in other countries, was valid for more than one hundred years.

From the mid-nineteenth century until the end of the Second World War, although many aspects were claimed, the main claim of women in this period was the right to vote and political participation.

On the other hand, liberal feminism sought political reforms that would allow women to choose and be elected: they did not question the political system, what they asked was to participate in it. Their demands focused on obtaining equality in issues such as the right to property, the disposition of their property and wages (which, although they earned, they were managed by their parents or husbands), equality of rights and treatment within marriage and, from the second half of the 19th century, the right to vote. Women's suffrage gave birth to what was probably the greatest feminist movement in history: suffragism.

Suffragists Parade down 5th Avenue (1917)

In England the suffragettes emerged; women of upper middle class, civil rights activists, who sought the bulk of their affiliates among the female working class exploited in the factories. The most outstanding names of this period are that of Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Sylvia and Christabel.

The suffragists took the movement to the terrain of activism and demonstrated an enormous power of association and struggle: their actions ranged from non-violence, through demonstrations, pamphlets, rallies and chaining in public places to more radical actions such as breaking street furniture, commercial shop windows, detonations to cut communications, etc. that not only led to the split of the movement, but to the detention of thousands of them.

By the beginning of the twentieth century the two movements, the radical and the moderate, joined forces and progress was made in the race for the female vote. English women won the vote in 1918, for those over 30 years. Men could vote at 25, but women between 25 and 30 were considered too 'frivolous' to exercise the vote. In 1925 they obtained the rights over their children, until then totally in the hands of the husband, and in 1928, the vote on equal terms with men.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928)

By its own ideology, feminism found part of its path alongside socialism. The women of this movement asked, in addition to equality between the sexes, equality between social classes.

Socialist feminists criticized liberal feminism as a 'bourgeois' feminism, although they also participated in suffrage movements calling for women's votes.

Once the equality in the vote was achieved, between the beginning of the First World War and the beginning of the 60s the feminist movements lost strength and were relegated to the background.

At the outbreak of World War I, most women abandoned their own claims and joined the national cause in which they collaborated, ironically, as labour especially in factories; in those positions that men had left empty when they marched to war.

During the Second World War, women ended up forgetting and abandoning all struggle and vindication as a collective, and many of them turned back into labour. 

Once the war was over, they were stripped of the work they had done. Men returned and women were removed from work outside home; the governments considered that these positions had to return to men to recover the existing balance before the war.

The fifties created a prototype of femininity that spread through television, films and the media. And that was exported abroad as something wonderful. Women could not ask for more, because they had everything: state-of-the-art appliances, houses with gardens in residential neighborhoods, modern cars, magazines that cared for them and taught them how to take care of their children in a scientific way and how to run the domestic economy practically professional. They were the queens of their houses.

In the decade of the 60s, the anti-system, pacifist and anti-racist movements arose due to the dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War. New feminist currents appeared that now fought for social and cultural equality.

For all this, the idea of women as a sexual stereotype in the media, in art and in advertising should end. The abolition of patriarchy was requested, since it was concluded that beyond the right to vote, education and other achievements of the first feminists, patriarchy was the social structure that caused inequalities and that continued to establish hierarchies that benefited men.

The debate on female sexuality, violence against women, abortion and contraception began.

House of Cards - Intriga política en su máxima expresión

* To read the version in another language, select language in translator (right side of the page)

House of Cards es una historia llena de intrigas que nos hace ver la política de una forma distinta, quizás como es en el mundo real.

Francis Underwood es un congresista estadounidense astuto y despiadado que trabaja con su esposa Claire -igualmente manipuladora- para vengarse de las personas que lo traicionaron. Para cumplir su objetivo Underwood comienza un plan elaborado a espaldas del presidente, con el objetivo final de ganar poder para sí mismo.

Su esposa Claire, dirige una ONG, donde parece usar su caridad para cultivar su propio poder e influencia.

Underwood entabla una relación de conveniencia con Zoe Barnes, una joven y ambiciosa reportera política, con quien hace un trato para que publique historias dañinas que filtra sobre sus rivales políticos. 

Al mismo tiempo, manipula a Peter Russo, un congresista con problemas de alcohol, para que lo ayude a socavar la elección del Secretario de Estado.

Luego de varias manipulaciones, Frank mata a Russo dejándolo desmayado en un garaje cerrado con el auto en marcha. Underwood convence al vicepresidente de que renuncie y se postule para su antiguo cargo de gobernador, dejando abierta la vicepresidencia a Underwood, como fue su plan desde el principio.

House of Cards Theme - Spotify

Netflix cancela el contrato de su protagonista

A fines del 2017, Netflix dejó de trabajar con Kevin Spacey en su programa House of Cards y también se negó a estrenar una película protagonizada por el actor, quien fue acusado de comportamiento sexual inapropiado.

Spacey se disculpó ante el actor Anthony Rapp, quien lo había acusado de intentar seducirlo en 1986 cuando Rapp tenía 14 años. Spacey se reconoció públicamente como gay al mismo tiempo que se disculpaba.

En el año 2000, Spacey ganó el Oscar al mejor actor por su papel en American Beauty, donde interpretó a Lester Burnham, un ejecutivo de publicidad que se enamoró de la mejor amiga de su hija adolescente.

House of Cards - Trailer

Merlí - A very special way of teaching philosophy

Blog Rating: 9.35 out of 10

Merlí is a Catalan series that deals with the arrival of a philosophy professor at a public school. The series revolves around the revolution produced by this passionate and unorthodox teacher, mainly in a group of teenagers.

David Solans (Bruno Bergeron)

In the first chapter, Merlí invites his students to form a group called the "peripatetics," referring to the group of followers of Aristotle. This name has its origin in a Greek word that means "walk", as the teacher taught while walking with his disciples.

Elisabet Casanovas (Tania)

It is a series that moves and guides us through several everyday issues that relate to philosophical thinking, which enhances the value of thinking and reflecting. The different adolescent characters are shown in continuous search for answers something very typical of their age, which defines them as people.

This teacher who breaks schemes and does not show a moral norm, manages to enchant his students and involves them in the world of the different philosophers who are studying chapter by chapter.

Carlos Cuevas (Pol Rubio)

In this varied group we can find young people with different realities as in everyday life, children of separated parents, a gay boy, a single mother, etc. all very well linked to the theme that is developed in each chapter.

In short, a good story to review the different philosophical currents and their connection to the real world.

Merli official site

Who is Jair Bolsonaro ?

Bolsonaro is a candidate for the presidency of the Republic of Brazil and always appears first in the intentions of votes in all Brazilian states, after former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was declared ineligible.

Born on March 21st, 1955 in the city of Campinas in São Paulo, Jair Mesias Bolsonaro is captain of the Brazilian Army Reserve and Federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro in his seventh term.

The controversial Federal Deputy is known for his nationalist discourse, conservative right, defender of family values and more severe punishment of the criminals.

Descendant of Italians Bolsonaro is the son of Perci Geraldo Bolsonaro and Olinda Bonturi.

Politics

The political career of Jair Mesias Bolsonaro began in 1988 when he was elected councilor for the city of Rio de Janeiro, at the time by the Christian Democratic Party (PDC).

Already in 1990, due to his performance as a municipal parliamentarian, he was elected a Federal Deputy by the PDC.

In 1993 Jair Bolsonaro was one of the founders of the Progressive Party (PPR) that merged two parties the PDC and PDS.

Bolsonaro was reelected in 1994 and already in 1995 he joined the Brazilian Progressive Party (PPB).

In the year 2002 for the fourth time a federal deputy, the deputy left his former PPB party and joined the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB). Shortly after the deputy leaves the PTB and migrates to the late Liberal Front Party (PFL).

In his parliamentary mandates, he stood out in the fight against child erotization in schools and for a greater disciplinary rigor in these establishments, for the reduction of the criminal age, for citizen's armament and the right to self-defense, for legal security in policing and for Christian values.

Political Proposals

Among all the proposals of Jair Mesias Bolsonaro, we can find the following:

Privatizations

One of the main intentions of Jair Bolsonaro is to make a program of privatizations in Brazil.

Labour Reform

He voted in favor of the proposal in the Chamber of Deputies. He already informed in interviews that it would be better for the worker to have more employment than more benefits.

Public Security

This is one of the strengths of Bolsonaro's candidacy, that is, it aims to fight crime, aims to make the hardening of criminal laws and give more strength to the police.

Attack to Bolsonaro

On September 6th, 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed in the abdomen at the time he was in the middle of a crowd campaigning in the mining town of Juiz de Fora. Bolsonaro was taken to the Casa de Misericordia, where he underwent surgery. The blade reached the small intestine and the large intestine. After the surgery, Bolsonaro was transferred to the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo. On Sep 13th, after being diagnosed with adherence in the intestine, Bolsonaro underwent emergency surgery and is in recovery. The aggressor was arrested and taken to the Federal Police to give clarifications.

The Candidates with the Highest Possibilities

Fernando Haddad will obtain the votes of who, opposed with a male chauvinist, racist and homophobic Bolsonaro finds in the candidate of the left the only way that Bolsonaro does not come to power.

Jair Bolsonaro will get the votes of who, fearing that Brazil approaches the Venezuelan model and the Workers' Party retakes the power that allowed him to empty the State, find in the "Donald Trump without money", the option to avoid including the former President Lula da Silva is not only pardoned as he could end up as Chief of Staff in a possible presidency of Haddad.

Results of the Presidential Elections - First Round (Oct 7th 2018)

The candidate of the right has capitalized on the dissatisfaction of the Brazilians with a radical discourse that his detractors claim to be racist, homophobic and misogynist. Today is the favorite to win the second round.

Some extracts from :
- Biografia Resumida
- Ebiografia
- Infobae

Stranger Things - Reliving the 80s (update)

* To read the version in another language, select language in translator (right side of the page)

Stranger Things is an entertaining story that takes place in Hawkins, Indiana, in 1983 where a child, Will Byers, disappears near a high security government laboratory. The same night, a strange young woman - nicknamed Eleven - appears in a restaurant in the city fleeing from a laboratory that investigates supernatural phenomena.

Later, many people will go out to look for Will, including his mother, Joyce; his brother Jonathan; his friends - Mike, Dustin, Lucas and the police chief, Jim Hopper.

As the search for Will goes by, the inhabitants of the small town begin to discover the secrets of the laboratory, portals to another world and sinister monsters. 


The child's mother tries desperately to find him and she is convinced that he is in serious danger, while the police chief seeks answers.

At the Hawkins National Laboratory, Dr. Martin Brenner of the Department of Energy, secretly conducts a CIA experiment on humans. One of the patients is pregnant, giving birth to a girl named Jane, later known as Eleven. 


As a result of the experiments, Eleven was born with psychic abilities. His lack of control over her powers led to a space-time continuum that allows a terrifying monster -nicknamed Demogorgon by Mike and his friends- to enter Earth and cause troubles on Hawkins.


This critically acclaimed supernatural drama and winner of several awards has already premiered 2 seasons and its third version is recently available on Netflix.

Ver Stranger Things en Netflix

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Bolivia Demand in The Hague: Chile is not really complying with the 1904 Treaty?

Chile has a complex conflict related to Bolivia's sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean.

It is not a conventional case of border limits. The objective of the Bolivian demand before the International Court of Justice is to make Chile accept a dialogue to give Bolivia a sovereign exit to the Pacific Ocean.

In recent years, the Chilean-Bolivian political relations show a tense atmosphere, that neither the political tendencies of the same sign have served to advance a solution to the case.

The facilities that Bolivia has to access the sea

After the War of the Pacific and with the signing of the Treaty of 1904, Bolivia loses all possibility of sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean; however, from that moment, Chile has given different facilities to Bolivia to access the sea.

In the world there are 47 Mediterranean countries and in the case of Bolivia, the benefits granted by Chile are the most advantageous. Chile has been concerned to maintain in good condition the road routes that unite it with Bolivia among many other benefits for its international trade.

Comparative analysis

Access roads to the coast

- Chile has taken care to maintain the road routes that connect it with Bolivia in good maintenance status, unlike other transit countries that have not had the same consideration with the mediterranean ones.

- In the case of the railways, Chile financed the construction of the Arica / La Paz Railroad and transferred the Bolivian section without cost and is currently repairing it through a private company, which has been subsidized by the State itself.

- The distances between Bolivia and the Chilean ports of Arica and Antofagasta and the Peruvians of Matarani and Ilo are at least half that of the ports of the Atlantic.

- Only Switzerland has better roads and rail network at its disposal, but in no case built specifically to solve its problem.

Border crossings

- Between Chile and Bolivia there are five border crossings, which are surpassed by 12 existing between India and Bhutan, but considering the geography of our border and since Bolivia only uses two Chilean ports, it is not necessary to implement more border crossings.

- The waiting time in Chile of two hours is reduced in comparison with other South American countries, however, Switzerland has eliminated border controls with the European Union (EU), disappearing the costs of waiting or customs taxes.

- Chile could reduce the waiting time more by simplifying and homologation of the immigration documentation between both countries.

Use of ports

- Chile grants Bolivia the widest use of all its ports; Of which they onlyuse Arica and Antofagasta, the customs franchises in these ports are the most extensive granted in South America and also grants a subsidy to Bolivian cargo rates, a benefit that no other country grants. All the South American countries grant Bolivia and Paraguay spaces for cargo storage in or near ports.

- Although Peru and Argentina have assigned Bolivia land (without sovereignty) for the construction of port facilities, the latter has not materialized. Chile for its part has not granted this facility to Bolivia.

Free Transit

- All countries included in the study give freedom of transit to the mediterranean countries.

Commercial exchange and bilateral relations

- As it has been seen in the cases of Switzerland and Bhutan, the excellent relations with the EU and with India have allowed them to obtain important benefits. Switzerland has managed to eliminate border controls with the EU and sign a Free Trade Agreement. For its part, Bhutan has obtained important benefits for the import and export of its products from Indian ports.

- On the other hand, given the bad bilateral relations between Nepal and India, it has not been able to obtain facilities to trade its products, despite the fact that, due to its rugged geography, it is the only possibility to have access a port and be able to export their products.

BOLIVIA HAS ACCESS TO THE SEA THIS IS AN UNDENIABLE FACT

Under the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1904, Chile recognized in favor of Bolivia and in perpetuity "the broadest and freest right of commercial transit through its territory and Pacific ports". Along with this, Bolivia enjoys customs autonomy, tariff preferences and storage facilities, tax exemptions and free movement along the connection routes with the ports. These benefits arise from the Treaty of 1904 and from different instruments signed between both States. Through these facilities, privileges and rights in Chilean territory, Bolivia has broad access to the Pacific Ocean.

CUSTOMS AUTONOMY OF BOLIVIA IN THE PORTS OF ARICA AND ANTOFAGASTA

As a consequence of the Treaty of 1904, Bolivia exercises customs authority in the ports of Arica and Antofagasta over cargoes bound for Bolivia. This implies that Bolivia has its own customs authorities in the ports of Arica and Antofagasta. It is the said authorities and not the Chilean ones that issue or authorize the documentation related to said cargo for dispatch to Bolivia. And it means, in addition, that Bolivia has the discretion to dictate its own tariffs and set the rate of import duties, among other measures. The ability to have own customs authorities in Chilean ports is a distinctive element that Bolivia has and that is not applied in the case of other landlocked countries.

RIGHT OF BOLIVIAN CARGOES TO REMAIN STORED FOR SUBSTANTIALLY LARGER DEADLINES

Bolivian goods in transit can remain in the primary zones of the ports of Arica and Antofagasta for a period of one year under the Bolivian customs authority. This period may be extended for three more months (90 days) under Chilean customs authority. That is, the Bolivian merchandise can be 1 year and 3 months in the primary zones of the mentioned Chilean ports (455 days). In those same areas, Chilean or third-country goods can only remain three months (90 days), a term at which they fall under the presumption of abandonment, and must pay fines to obtain their recovery.

FREE STORAGE

Bolivia enjoys free storage in the ports of Arica and Antofagasta for up to one year for its imports and up to 60 days for its exports. This free storage does not exist for Chilean or third country cargoes. The free storage in favor of the Bolivian cargo exceeds the obligations of free transit predicted in the 1904 Treaty, as well as the standards of international law.

PREFERENTIAL RATES FOR THE USE OF DOCK FOR FIO CARGO

There is a flat fee of USD 0.85 per ton, which applies to all Bolivian goods whose freight rates have been agreed under FIO conditions (Free in and out, the cost of the freight is from the freight contractor) or, the goods in which the payment of the service of loading and / or unloading is of the consignee. This reduced rate does not apply to Chilean or third-country cargoes: for the same service, they must currently pay USD 1.98 per ton in the port of Arica.

TAX EXEMPTION TO ALL SERVICES APPLIED TO CARGOES IN TRANSIT

Chilean legislation exempts from all taxes that may affect cargo coming from or destined to Bolivia in free transit through Chilean territory and ensures the exemption of Value Added Tax (VAT) to all services rendered to that cargo.

BOLIVIA HAS A PORT

More than 7 thousand Bolivian companies carry out their foreign trade through Chilean ports. In the last five years, the movement of Bolivian trade cargo by Chilean ports increased by 132%. As of December 2015, 80% of the cargo moved by the port of Arica corresponded to Bolivian cargo. Bolivia has other facilities to access the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, under agreements signed with countries in the region. However, a high percentage of its foreign trade is made through the Port of Arica, confirming its effective access to the sea and its preference for Chilean ports.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST CHILE?

The set of benefits and privileges of free transit available to Bolivia cost Chile about USD 100 million per year. This, without considering the investments that Chile has had to make from time to time to expand and improve the port, customs, road and railway infrastructure, which significantly increases the amounts indicated.

FAVORABLE TRADE TO BOLIVIA

Finally, of the multiple trade agreements that Chile has signed, the only one that was negotiated asymmetrically, that is, agreeing to clearly grant more than what has been received, is the Agreement of Economic Complementation with Bolivia. While Chile granted a 0% tariff to all Bolivian products (except for sugar in excess of 6,000 tons), Bolivia only granted 0% tariff to 300 Chilean products.

SICA SICA PIPELINE - ARICA

Free transit has a particular expression in the Sica Sica - Arica pipeline. Chile granted Bolivia a concession for the use of two plots of land in Arica, one of 13 hectares and another of 3.5 hectares, destined to the operation and transfer of hydrocarbons that would be exported through the pipeline. Likewise, a strip of land for the pipeline from Arica to the border of 10 meters wide and more than 150 kilometers long, with an area exceeding 150 hectares, was granted in concession of use. By a 1992 agreement, Chile allows the use in both directions of the pipeline and fuel storage, leaving those facilities suitable for export and import thereof. In other words ... BOLIVIA HAS ACCESS TO THE SEA.

Conclusions

Chile grants Bolivia more than what is established in International Law towards landlocked countries to facilitate their access to the sea.

There is no Mediterranean country in the world that receives all the facilities that Chile grants to Bolivia.

In spite of the great amount of benefits that Bolivia receives from Chile, to have access to the coast, when compared with what other States grant to landlocked countries, it is appreciated that it could be improved in:

- Mutual trust and bilateral relations, which would allow progress towards greater and better benefits for Bolivia, such as achieving a Free Trade Agreement.

- Reduce the time it takes to carry out border procedures between both countries, and perhaps in the future eliminate controls.

- Cede non-sovereign land for Bolivia to build its own port facilities.

Finally, it is concluded that Chile grants more facilities to Bolivia to access the sea that any other State grants to a Mediterranean country in similar circumstances, even before the International Law in relation to this matter.

What do Chileans currently think about the conflict?

The last national measurement (UC - GFK Adimark), carried out in mid July 2018, registered the following results.

With regard to the maritime demand of Bolivia, and before the question: How strongly do you agree with the following statements?

71% of the respondents answered that the borders between Chile and Bolivia were fixed in the 1904 Treaty and nothing remains to be discussed on this issue.

70% of respondents think that Chile is not obliged to negotiate because Bolivia already has privileged access to ports in northern Chile.

61% do not believe that Bolivia has not had sea is one of the main causes of its delay and underdevelopment

69% of the respondents do not think that Bolivia has the right to request negotiations for a sovereign exit to the sea based on previous talks and promises between both countries.

The Chilean Chancellery in February 2018 published the video "Chile and the Bolivian Maritime Aspirations" which explains in detail the current conditions of compliance of the current treaty of 1904.

Source of information

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Marina Magazine - Carlos González M.

UC-GFK Adimark