
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 15, 1990                   TAG: 9007160193
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AT THE SUMMIT

PRESIDENT Bush deserves much credit for an agreement at the seven-nation economic summit last week that gives a kick in the pants to negotiators working on new rules for global trade.

The president had said before the Houston summit got under way that his top priority would be to break the impasse over agricultural subsidies that has stalled negotiations in Geneva which are aimed at revising the world trading system. That he was able to bring the other summiteers along was no small feat.

The trade talks are scheduled to end in December, but had become bogged down over European subsidies to their farm exports. The directive from leaders of seven top industrialized nations - to get serious in Geneva - offers a measure of hope that an agreement is now possible.

The stakes are higher than most of the American public realizes. If the rules are reformed to cover more areas of trade, freer world trade will result. If the rules are left to wither in force and relevance, the slide toward protectionism may well prove irreversible.

That means, if negotiations succeed, results could include expanded world trade, increased global prosperity, improved international relations and political stability, and all that these things bring.

If the talks fail, on the other hand, the world might see turmoil in financial markets, sharply slowed trade, global recession, political instability, and economic friction and retaliation between trading blocs.

The Houston communique is only a start. The tougher part will be negotiating an agreement by the end of this year, then selling it to domestic constituencies. President Bush's show of leadership has at least given the process a chance.

by CNB