New Goods Carriage Treaty Near.

An end to negotiations may be in sight for a new international shipping agreement to replace the antiquated Carriage of Goods by Sea Act.

The United Nations may have a new treaty ready for ratification by nations by the fall of 2008, according to a senior U.S. delegate to the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law working group that is negotiating the new agreement.

"We're agreeing on more and more substantive issues, and leaving more to the secretariat to draft," said Chester H. Hooper, a partner with the law firm of Holland & Knight in New York. The working group of Uncitral, the commission that formulates and regulates international trade in cooperation with the World Trade Organization, completed a second round of negotiations at its fall meeting in Vienna.

The Uncitral staff will write a new draft treaty based on the agreements the working group has reached so far, Hooper said. The working group will begin a third reading in New York next April. When that round ends, likely by spring 2008, the treaty will be ready for approval by Uncitral and the U.N. General Assembly.

If the U.S. ...