Focusing on the importance of sea transport for developing countries that need to gain access to other markets (both for imports and their own exports) Strange and Holland examine the political economy of liner conferences by which international shipping capacity is managed. This private management system does not serve the developing states well leading UNCTAD to press for fairer international rules of conduct for international shipping. On one side the authors suggest that developing countries, where possible may need to develop national carriers to allow them to influence the management of shipping as well offering an secure avenue for their own trade. However, the authors also stress that a political response to the problems is required from the developed states before the problem leads to major disruption in international trade. The authors conclude that a form of international shipping authority needs to be set up to replace the market driven liner conferences.