Talks Soon On Shipbuilding Subsidies

The accord on subsidies, which took five years to negotiate in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, was thrown into uncertainty on Friday when intense opposition from leading US shipyards blocked a decisive vote in the Senate.

The Clinton admin-istration, which supported the agreement, has not said whether it plans to ask the next Congress to endorse it.

Donald Johnson, secretary-general of the OECD, was on Tuesday urging Washington to clarify its position. Industry experts warned that a further long delay in US ratification of the deal, which was due to take effect at the start of this year, would lead to a fresh outbreak of price-cutting in the industry.

That could increase pressure on European governments to step up state support for troubled shipyards. European subsidies and tax breaks to the industry, worth almost $1 billion a year, are the largest in the world.

A US trade official on Tuesday said the planned meeting, on October 17 and 18, would provide an opportunity to sound out the intentions