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Japan to challenge subsidies
THE JAPANESE government is looking to resurrect international shipbuilding competition talks amid growing concern over the level of financial support being offered to their Chinese and South Korean rivals.
A senior official within Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has confirmed that it plans to use a scheduled meeting at the OECD in July to push for the restart of negotiations on a “new shipbuilding agreement”.
OECD negotiations stalled in 2005 after they failed to gain a consensus among the five participating parties representing the European Union, China, Korea, Japan and Norway.
Further discussions have been held in abeyance ever since, but the renewed push from Japan towards reopening talks comes amid rising anger within the Association of Japanese Shipbuilders over what they see as unfair government intervention to support the shipbuilding industries of China and South Korea.
A highly-placed source at a Japanese shipbuilder told Lloyd’s List that the provision of government-owned funds was unfairly masking the true credit situation.
