GATT FAILURE SEEN AS THREAT TO AMERICAS ENTERPRISE

Nov 13, 1990

GATT FAILURE SEEN AS THREAT TO AMERICAS ENTERPRISE

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 7 (IPS/JIM LOBE) – Failure to successfully conclude current multilateral trade negotiations could undermine prospects for trade concessions to Latin America and the Caribbean under an U.S. initiative, a trade official said here.

Collapse of the "Uruguay" Round of talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) "would not be a killer" for President George Bush’s "enterprise for the America’s" initiative, "but it would make it much more difficult", said Myles Frechette, assistant U.S. trade representative.

Frechette, who spoke with foreign reporters here, said the U.S. Congress would be less likely to approve major concessions to Washington’s trade partners in the Americas in the absence of a new GATT agreement in which "everyone has given a little".