This amendment to the cargo preference regulations of the Maritime Administration (MARAD) provides that during the five year period beginning with the 1996 Great Lakes shipping season when the St. Lawrence Seaway is in use, MARAD will consider the legal requirement for the carriage of bulk agricultural commodity preference cargoes on privately-owned ``available'' U.S.-flag commercial vessels to have been satisfied where the cargo is initially loaded at a Great Lakes port on one or more U.S.-flag or foreign-flag vessels, transferred to a U.S.- flag commercial vessel at a Canadian transshipment point outside the St. Lawrence Seaway, and carried on that U.S.-flag vessel to a foreign destination. This provision will allow U.S. Great Lakes ports to compete for certain bulk agricultural commodity preference cargoes under agricultural assistance programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). This rule will extend that policy for an additional five years, after which the Agency would assess the merits of making the rule permanent. MARAD issued substantially identical rules in 1994 and 1995 related to the Great Lakes Shipping season for each of those years, respectively.