THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512020485
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Talk of the Town
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
There's a commercial shipbuilding boom under way in the world, but you would never know cruising the James River off Newport News Shipbuilding, the largest private employer in Virginia.
While the massive James yard ranks as the world's premier manufacturer of nuclear aircraft carriers, other countries have capitalized on commercial ship construction, relying on government aid to compete.
Early this year the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development helped negotiate an end to shipbuilding subsidies throughout the world, but the landmark treaty recently stalled.
The European Union prolonged shipbuilding subsidies until next October because Japan, South Korea and the United States had not ratified the treaty. Budget bills preoccupied the U.S. Congress.
``We will do our best to consider the legislation promptly,'' says House Ways and Means Committee chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas, a treaty proponent.
Those Pirates: Officials in Norfolk have tossed around the idea, talked to Virginia Beach, mulled the cost and the benefit.
We're talking, of course, about the Shreveport Pirates, the Canadian Football League franchise knocking on Norfolk's door.
Norfolk city officials quietly have queried the National Football League about Hampton Roads' prospect of snaring one of the several NFL franchises intent on relocation.
While folks in Norfolk doubt they'll soon lure the NFL - there's no suitable stadium, nor a ready mountain of money - they are discussing with officials in Virginia Beach the Pirates' planned relocation, checking the financial wherewithal of the CFL.
``We're not looking for a one-time attraction,'' a Virginia Beach official said. by CNB