Sep 17, 1986

MINISTERIAL MEET HEARS GENERAL STATEMENTS.

PUNTA DEL ESTE SEP. 15 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN) -- The GATT Ministerial Meeting got under way here Monday afternoon, after the formal Inaugural Ceremonies, and heard a number of General Statements from Ministers.

Among the delegations who spoke Monday afternoon were the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Argentina, India, Brazil and several others, with some sharply opposing viewpoints to those of the U.S. are due to speak Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, outside the Conference Hall, bilateral and group consultations were continuing. The Committee of the whole itself is due to begin Tuesday morning.

In addressing the Plenary, the U.S. Trade Representative, Clayton Yeutter told the meeting that the U.S. could not envision any trade negotiations that did not include the issues of agriculture, services and intellectual property rights on its Agenda.

Yeutter blamed the global trade distortions and economic disequilibria to the failure to apply GATT rules and disciplines to several areas of trade, and underlined that this could no longer be tolerated.

The U.S., he said, was itself a victim of this disequilibrium, and President Reagan had been so far resisting tides of domestic protectionism despite the gigantic trade deficit, "but he cannot do so forever".

GATT members would have to work together to bring the world back towards equilibrium.

"If other countries are not interested in doing so, the U.S. will have no choice but to defend its won interests in its own way. We are prepared to do so if we must".

Yeutter's speech was however less strident than some of his preconference statements and declarations threatening to walk out of here if the U.S. did not have its way on its various demands.

Meanwhile, a Brazilian spokesman told newsmen that there had been no change in the Brazilian stand of opposition to any negotiations in GATT on the new themes, but that Brazil could agree to such discussions outside of GATT through an Inter-governmental Ministerial Meeting, which would be parallel to the new round trade negotiations in goods in GATT.

The Brazilian spokesman confirmed that the issue of services and new themes had been raised in Washington D.C. last week, during the visit there of the Brazilian President, Jose Sarney, and his talks with President Reagan, as also at an breakfast meeting he had with Vice-President bush, Secretary of State George Shultz, and the U.S. Trade Representative Yeutter, and Treasury Secretary Baker. The U.S. participants had explained why it was necessary to launch the new round at Punta del Este and include new themes in int, if the congressional protectionist moves were to be resisted. The Brazilian President restated frankly the Brazilian stand on these issues, the spokesman said.

The spokesman said at Punta del Este there had been continuing contacts between Brazil, India an others opposed to any GATT consideration of the new issues, and the EEC which was trying to find compromises.

In others speeches in the Plenary, Argentina's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dante Caputo, charged the powerful industrial countries with trying to bring in new issues into GATT, while at the same time exhibiting an extreme reluctance tackle long pending problems in the area of trade in goods.

He criticised very strongly in this connection the policies of industrial countries, and specially of the U.S. and EEC, that adopted strong protectionist action to protect their domestic agricultures, and engaged in subsidised exports to the detriment of countries like Argentina. Caputo also stressed the injustice involved in asking countries like Argentina to service their debts while their capacity to earn money through exports were being thwarted.

"There are pressures to bring into our consideration in this round of negotiations new international trade situations, at the same time that we verify once and again the reluctance to consider other questions. The agricultural question, the restrictive consideration of the most favoured nation clause in safeguard measures, the rules on status quo and dismantling, the effective application of measures incompatible with GATT, the inclusion of codes of conduct as an integral part of GATT, etc.".

The Argentine Foreign Minister underscored the need for decisions here by consensus, which were freely arrived at and for the rules derived from that consensus to be respected.

While everyone had a responsibility, the main responsibility for saving the trading system lay with the major trading partners, the Argentine Minister added.