ITF har nu optrappet beslutninger om at erklære Dansk Internationalt Skibsregister for "Flag of Convenience", i henhold til tidligere beslutninger, hvorefter den danske regering havde en deadline pr. 1. februar 2004 til at bringe DIS-loven i såkaldt overensstemmelse med ILO-konventionerne.
Det vil imidlertid ske på skib til skib basis, hvorfor den videre udvikling må afventes særlig for så vidt angår de politiske spilfægterier og den praksis ITF nu vil lægge. Jævnfør tidligere nyhed, har de tre rederiforeninger og fire faglige søfartsorganisationer nu indgået en ny hovedaftale for DIS-flåden, som skulle være en imødekommelse af angrebene på DIS-registeret. SiD holder dog stadig uanfægtet angrebsfanen højt.

Her er ITF's pressemeddelelse om sagen:

Danish International register deadline

As the midnight tonight deadline set by the ITF for action to bring the Danish International Register in line with ILO standards approaches, David Cockroft, ITF General Secretary, said: "We do not believe all avenues of negotiation have yet been exhausted.

However, the failure of those so far attempted to reach a satisfactory settlement means that - following last year's democratically reached Fair Practices Committtee decision - from tomorrow those vessels covered by article 10/3 of the DIS Act will be classed, on a ship by ship basis, as flag of convenience vessels. Discussions on the identification of those ships and the practical implementation of the decision will begin tomorrow, unless a meaningful approach to end this impasse is made before midnight tonight. Our door remains open until then."

He concluded: "It's the ITF's standard practice to seek solutions through amicable dialogue and the offer of talks is on the table to the Danish Shipowners' Association now as ever, but I'm sorry to have to say that if they'd shown a little more goodwill and a little less stubbornness all these problems could have been avoided."