Taipei  - Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp confirmed Wednesday that it would change the registration of 11 of its container ships from Britain to Singapore if Britain changes its tonnage tax rules.

"If it is implemented, we will let our 11 ships which fly the UK flag to register in Singapore," an Evergreen Marine press officer said.

"But our operation in the UK will not change," she said. "Evergreen's subsidiary, Evergreen Marine UK, and our shipping agent in the UK will continue their operations as before."

Chang Jung-fa - chairman of Evergreen Marine, one of the world's leading container shipping lines - protested the proposed change to Britain's tonnage tax rules in a May
16 interview with the Lloyd's List shipping journal in London and threatened to switch his container ships' registration.

Plans to have dozens of other ships fly the British flag in the next few years would also be shelved, he said.

Evergreen has 176 container ships, of which 102 are self-owned.

The French line CMA CGM has already stopped transferring ships to British registration because of uncertainty about future rules, Lloyd's List said.

The move came after Britain's Treasury proposed tax amendments that included taxing British inland transport separately rather than including it in a door-to-door freight rate, the publication said. However, the proposal along with others were withdrawn as the European Union reviews all EU tonnage tax regimes.

Industry observers have warned that the tax changes could threaten Britain's status as a leading shipping nation and could result in the loss of thousands of British jobs. (dpa)