Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 8, 1993 TAG: 9312080038
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GENEVA LENGTH: Medium
The failure to resolve differences over import restrictions on movies and TV shows and government subsidies for jetliner manufacturers came after the United States and European Community agreed on cutting farm subsidies. The agriculture dispute had held up the world trade talks for years.
But with the clock ticking away to the Dec. 15 deadline for completion of broader 116-nation talks on lowering trade barriers, negotiators criticized Washington and the EC for not settling all their differences.
Dec. 15 is the last day President Clinton can notify Congress of a proposed trade agreement under "fast-track" rules barring lawmakers from attaching amendments that could kill the accord.
The head of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Peter Sutherland, described the trans-Atlantic squabbles as "incredible folly."
Japan's negotiator, Koro Bessho, said, "We are urging the United States and European Community to come to an agreement right now."
At stake is a trade package that could add more than $200 billion annually to the sluggish global economy by cutting customs duties on imported goods, easing border controls and adopting tougher measures against unfair trading. It is the most ambitious trade reform package ever undertaken.
After a 24-hour negotiating session, U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor and his EC counterpart, Sir Leon Brittan, were upbeat.
Kantor said there was "absolutely and without a doubt" time to wrap up an overall GATT deal. "This is not a game," he said. "We're playing for jobs and growth and economic leadership in the world."
Many Europeans, notably the French, fear that lowering barriers to entertainment programs would bring an invasion by Hollywood that could wipe out the local filmmaking industry that is viewed as an important part of European culture.
The United States and the EC also remain at odds over subsidies to aircraft manufacturers.
Washington has complained for years about government subsidies to Airbus Industrie, a consortium of companies from Britain, France, Spain and Germany that now rivals America's planemaking giants, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.
In another development, the Japanese government said Tuesday it was likely to agree to allow some rice imports into Japan as part of a trade accord. But it was unclear whether the governing coalition would unite over the plan.
Japan's politically powerful farmers have long been protected from competition by cheap foreign rice, with the result that Japanese consumers pay up to five times the world average for the grain.
by CNB