The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has terminated negotiations on a shipbuilding agreement, following a recommendation from Ambassador Harald Neple, Chair of the OECD's Council Working Party on Shipbuilding (WP6).

The OECD Council took note of the advice by Ambassador Neple that, despite intensive efforts to restart negotiations, the differences of view amongst some parties on the treatment of pricing, in both the negotiations and in any final agreement, had proven impossible to bridge.

The pricing issue had also been identified by the Chair of the Special Negotiating Group, Ambassador Jaggi, when he paused the negotiations in 2005.

"The members of the Working Party, and China, which has been fully involved throughout our efforts to restart the negotiations, explored many possible alternatives to try to find a package that would meet the needs of all the participants, but in the end this proved impossible," Ambassador Neple said.

Neple said the issue of a pricing mechanism was central to some key participants, who believed that this was a crucial element of any workable Shipbuilding Agreement.