|
The principal objective of the Working Party on Shipbuilding is to establish normal competitive conditions in world shipbuilding through the identification and progressive reduction of factors that distort the market.
In 1994 the Working Party concluded the Agreement Respecting Normal Competitive Conditions in the Commercial Shipbuilding and Repair Industry, which provided 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, it 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 1994 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, both OECD and non-OECD, 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 that led 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. It was intended that the negotiations would be resumed when the environment for success had improved. A copy of the announcement of the pause is available here.
However, despite strenuous efforts by all parties to restart the negotiations, the differences between some of the participants could not be bridged, and in December 2010, the OECD Council terminated the negotiations (a copy of the Statement is available here). In terminating the negotiations, the OECD Council noted that this would not affect the Working Party on Shipbuilding, which will continue to carry out work in fulfillment of its mandate.
|
