Nov 9, 1990
CAN THE URUGUAY ROUND BE SALVAGED?
AN INTER PRESS SERVICE FEATURE. BY DEBRA PERCIVAL. BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 7 (IPS) – European Community (EC) officials Wednesday attempted to ease fears that the Uruguay round of trade talks have been scuttled by the shilly shallying over farm subsidies that ended with an eleventh hour accord Tuesday night. At a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State for Trade, Carla Hills here Wednesday, European Commissioner for External Trade, Frans Andriessen said the agreement by EC farm Ministers to cut agricultural subsidies had opened the way for talks on the 14 other sectors in the Uruguay Round. Some 100 countries are involved in the Uruguay Round of trade talks, being held under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) based in Geneva. The talks are designed to liberalise trade in a vast range of areas including services, textiles and agriculture. But progress in the negotiations have been stalled by the stalemate over EC farm subsidies. Washington, and agricultural producer nations in the Cairns Group, wanted a 75 percent cut in internal EC subsidies, and a reduction of as much as 90 percent in export subsidies. EC Ministers could not agree on the European Commission's modest plan for a 30 percent cut in subsidies. This week’s meeting was the seventh attempt by the Community in the space of about four weeks to reach accord on the subsidy reduction. "The United States and other partners were unwilling to discuss other issues without prior knowledge of our agriculture offer", commented an EC spokesperson.