Latin America must modernize port legislation, experts say

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 November 2014, 22:14 by GxMedia

Montevideo, Nov 25 (EFE).- The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean must update and modernize legislation on ports to deal with the changes in the maritime transportation industry over the past two decades, experts from 18 countries in the region said.

This was one of the main issues debated by experts attending the first hemispheric seminar on port legislation, which opened on Monday in Montevideo.

The 1st Hemispheric Seminar on Port Legislation, which ends on Tuesday, was organized by the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Committee on Ports and Uruguay’s National Ports Administration, or ANP.

“In fact, the port legislation in Latin America and the Caribbean in general should be revised and updated because there are bigger ships, more cargo and new technologies, infrastructure and procedures,” Inter-American Committee on Ports Secretariat chief Jorge Duran told Efe.

Shipping experts also discussed how to increase trade between the rgion’s countries and the expansion of the Panama Canal, which is expected to boost inter-regional trade by 50 percent, Duran said