|
The Working Party on Shipbuilding is working to reduce or eliminate competition distorting government support by establishing normal competitive conditions in world shipbuilding.
In 1994 the Working Party concluded the Agreement Respecting Normal Competitive Conditions in the Commercial Shipbuilding and Repair Industry, which provide a set of binding, legally enforceable disciplines addressing both subsidies and injurious pricing practices. A copy of the final text is provided here as a matter of record. However, as one of the signatories was unable to ratify the Agreement, has never come into force.
In 2002 the judgement was made by signatories to the 1994 Shipbuilding Agreement that it would be most unlikely that the Agreement would ever come into force, and called on the OECD to consider the commencement of a new round of negotiations aimed at an Agreement that would find broad agreement amongst the majority of economies with significant shipbuilding activities.
The OECD Council issued a mandate in September 2002 to a Special Negotiating Group (SNG) created to undertake detailed negotiations on a new Agreement. In order to ensure the broadest possible representation at those negotiations, and in contrast to the composition of the negotiations leading to the 1994 Agreement, the SNG was directed to invite all non-OECD economies with significant shipbuilding industries to participate in the negotiations on an equal footing with OECD member countries.
Eventually, Brazil, China, Croatia, Malta, the Philippines, Romania, the Russian Federation, Chinese Taipei and Ukraine participated in the negotiations. Together with the OECD members, they represented around 95% of world shipbuilding capacity.
The negotiations continued until September 2005, when the Chairman of the Special Negotiating Group "paused" them for an unspecified period, in order to allow the parties to reflect on their positions, to talk to each other and to observe developments in the market. The negotiations could be resumed when the environment for success had improved. A copy of the announcement of the pause is available here.
Certain documents related to the negotiations will be posted on this site as they are progressively declassified in order to permit public release.
|
