(CN) — The world’s top maritime tribunal ruled on Saturday that there was no urgent risk of harm to a dredging vessel or its crew held in Mexico, rejecting a request from Luxembourg to issue emergency measures.
Mexico has held the Zheng He and the 36 sailors aboard since the Luxembourg-flagged ship docked for maintenance in the southern port city of Tampico last year, arguing the owner owes some $96 million in customs duties.
“There is at present no urgency, in the sense that there is no real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to the rights claimed by Luxembourg,” President Tomas Heidar said during the reading at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
During a two-day hearing on the dispute earlier this month, Luxembourg asked the U.N. court to issue provisional measures, allowing the crew to leave the ship and prevent Mexico from moving the Zheng He while the dispute is heard by the tribunal.
Mexico argued the maritime treaty did not apply and Luxembourg did not have the right to bring a complaint at the tribunal. But the country also promised it would ensure the health and safety of those on board the ship. Mexico said that national law prevented it from transferring the title of the ship while the dispute was ongoing.
The Luxembourg-flagged vessel, which is named for a 15th century Chinese admiral, left the Bahamas in October and was given authorization to dock in the Mexican port one day ahead of arrival.
Mexico contends the ship’s owners, Belgian-based civil engineering company Jan De Nul, attempted to illegally import the vessel into the country and wants the company to pay import duties, including confiscating the ship as part of the fine. Luxembourg says the ship only called at the port for maintenance and to rotate its crew.
After diplomatic negotiations failed, Luxembourg filed a complaint with the Hamburg-based tribunal in June, claiming the seizure violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The treaty, which established the tribunal in 1982, regulates maritime activity from boundary delimitation to use of natural resources.
Although Luxembourg is landlocked, some 200 merchant vessels are registered in the country. Thirty-two countries without a coast have signed the treaty as it gives them the right to sea passage and to exploit international undersea resources.
The tribunal will hold hearings on the merits of the case at a later date.
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