SINGAPORE, July 1: UN-backed rules to protect shipping from terrorists came into force Thursday with the world's biggest port at Hong Kong displaying no early snags but a maritime expert in Singapore warning that strict enforcement of the code could gum up global trade.

Everything was normal at Hong Kong with no delays or other problems, the chairman of that port's Cargo-Vessel Traders' Association, Choi Kim-lui said. "Some vessels may require our staff to show identification cards or documents under the new guidelines," Choi said.

Port facilities, owners of ships larger than 500 tons and the companies that unload them must make detailed plans for responding to a terrorist threat under the new International Ship and Port Facility Security Code endorsed by the UN International Maritime Organization.

The rules were drafted after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and came into force Thursday. "The big question is: how strictly will the new rules be enforced?" said Michael Richardson, a visiting senior research fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

"If ships that don't have official certificates of compliance show up in Singapore today, will the port authorities here turn them away, will they give them a warning, will they delay them?" Richardson said.

While the US Coast Guard has said it would strictly enforce the new rules from day one in US waters, "shipping companies and organizations are calling for a commonsense approach," said Richardson, author of a recent study on terrorism and the global maritime trade network.

The IMO said Wednesday that 58.6 per cent of ships and 53.4 per cent of ports were compliant. Richardson said most major shipping lines and large ports were believed to have already met the new guidelines, but many smaller players had yet to comply.

"It is clear that all parties concerned, governments and the industry alike, are doing their utmost to be ready for the entry-into-force date," IMO Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos said in a statement. -APP