U.S. turns talks into showdown

Press, 27 November 1982, Page 9

U.S. turns talks into showdown

NZPA-Reuter Geneva The United States piled the pressure on the European Economic Community and developing countries at the 88-nation G.A.T.T. conference at Geneva yesterday. American officials said that the United States and the Common Market had made scant progress in their feud over the Community's subsidies on food exports, which Washington says must be submitted to a study by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Washington has rejected Third World attempts to bridge the gap between an American demand that G.A.T.T. study trade in services such as banking and insurance and widespread opposition to it in the developing countries. Approaching the meeting like a poker game with high stakes, Washington has turned the session into a showdown on subsidised European food exports. It says that American sellers are being crowded out of tradional overseas markets, while E.E.C. officials firmly reject the American proposal as unacceptable.

OTTO LAMBSDORFF

Washington has also kept up pressure on developing States who oppose its proposal that G.A.T.T. draw up fair trade rules for services, a key growth area for the United States economy. Delegates at the G.A.T.T. meeting are focusing their attention on a Common Market council of ministers meeting today which is mapping out the Community’s final position in the talks.

A problem the council is having to resolve is the continuing split in views between the free-trade minded West Germans and an increasingly protectionist France. Michel Jobert. France's Foreign Trade Minister, questions the whole rationale of the G.A.T.T. conference, and he later told journalists that talks had now been reduced to a face-saving. In contrast, the West German Economics Minister, Dr Count Otto von Lambsdorff, and the British Junior Trade Minister, Mr Peter Rees, argued for a more flexible Community stand and tried to defuse the feud. The two feuds illustrate a clash of philosophies dominating the talks as G.A.T.T. members struggle to protect jobs, revive sluggish economies, and win approval for policies they see as necessary in the 1980 s. Although developing countries make up two-thirds of G.A.T.T.’s membership, they have found themselves in the weak position of pleading with only limited success for G.A.T.T. commitments already made to be upheld by all members.