Shipping turmoil threatening global food supplies: UN

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for the restoration of freedom of navigation in key maritime choke points, warning that disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea and the Black Sea were increasingly threatening global trade and food supplies.

"Today, conflicts in different regions are converging in their impact on the world's most vulnerable people," Guterres said at a news briefing.

Disruptions to maritime traffic were restricting the movement of energy, fertilizers and other essential commodities, while the conflict in Ukraine was threatening shipping routes used to export oil, grain and other agricultural products, he said.

"These crises are choking arteries of global trade and squeezing the global food system especially hard," he said. "The result is clear: higher prices, deepening hunger, weaker harvests and greater suffering — especially for the world's most vulnerable people."

The disruption has already had a significant impact on global shipping and commodity markets, he said.

Transits through the Strait of Hormuz have come to a "near standstill", oil prices are about 33 percent higher than at the start of the United States-Israeli war against Iran, and global container rates are 84 percent higher than a year earlier.

The costs of fertilizers and other essential inputs are also rising sharply.

"Navigational rights and freedoms are not abstract principles. They are international law," Guterres said. He called for full respect for international law, including the law of the sea and international humanitarian law, as well as protection for civilian shipping, infrastructure and seafarers.

He urged an immediate end to attacks against commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the Black Sea, the full restoration and respect of navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz, and an end to attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and around Bab al-Mandab Strait.

"Maritime choke points must never become instruments of coercion. And the world's food supply must never become collateral damage of conflict," Guterres said.

Meanwhile, the UN is preparing a mechanism aimed at keeping essential commodities moving despite the continuing conflict around the Strait of Hormuz.

Humanitarian needs

Guterres said he established a task force in March to develop practical mechanisms to address humanitarian needs arising from the crisis.

The effort, led by the UN Office for Project Services, includes the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the International Maritime Organization and the International Chamber of Commerce.

The proposed mechanism would initially focus on fertilizers and related raw materials, with the possibility of being expanded to other products.

"It can be operationalized quickly," Guterres said, noting that the mechanism would not authorize ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz or alter the rights and obligations of any state under international law.

Sovereign decisions would remain with participating states, while the UN would act as a neutral facilitator.

Asked about how the mechanism would work, Guterres said the head of the UN Office for Project Services had been in "intense contact with all the countries involved".

The initial system would involve the "registration, verification of the ships carrying, at least in an initial stage, fertilizer and related products", together with a deconfliction mechanism in Oman, he said.

"We have everything ready to do it," Guterres said, adding that the mechanism could only operate if all countries involved in the conflict agreed to accept it.

"The unimpeded exercise of navigational rights and freedoms is a cornerstone of peace, security and shared prosperity and must be respected," he said. "Protecting it is a legal obligation and a humanitarian imperative."