GENEVA: A solution to the late-breaking row over access to the US shipping market appears to have received serious consideration among delegates from leading shipping nations.
Disappointment felt by the European Community that, during bilateral talks with the US, it had not secured its previously anticipated access, has worried several other key shipping nations, which expected their own offers to be framed by the EC's negotiations.
EC officials have been concerned that as a result of talks between US trade representative Mickey Kantor and EC trade commissioner Sir Leon Brittan, the EC was only being granted access to the cargo reservations sector of the market.
This accounts for only three per cent of the entire US shipping market, and reserves 75 per cent of that market for US ships.
However, a view gaining support last night was that the US deal would stand, but be subject to a five-year review of the US Jones Act, giving US carriers preference to cargo shipments entering and leaving US ports.
One negotiator whose country stands to benefit from increased openness in shipping said: ''It is possible that we could put the regime under regular review every so often, so they have to explain to the GATT system what they are doing and why they are doing it.'' The shipping negotiations are proving to be another fraught area of the round, and several Asian and Nordic countries are keen to see this sector satisfactorily concluded.