The economic role of open registers
The movement towards open registers started in the 1920s, when US shipowners
saw registration under the Panamanian flag as a means of avoiding the high tax
rates in the United States, while at the same time registering in a country within
the stable political orbit of the United States. There was a spate of registrations
during this period, but the real growth came after the Second World War when the
US government sold off Liberty ships to US owners. Anxious to avoid operation
under the American flag, US tax lawyers approached Liberia to set up an
advantageous regime for ship registration, and the registration conditions in Liberia
were developed specifically to attract shipowners to register under that flag on the