US, EC PRESSED TO 'GET ACT TOGETHER' AT BRUSSELS

8:24 AM Nov 30, 1993

US, EC PRESSED TO 'GET ACT TOGETHER' AT BRUSSELS
Geneva 30 Nov (TWN) -- On the eve of the Wednesday Brussels meeting between EC Trade Commissioner Leon Brittan and US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, the two major trading entities were pressed to get their act together at Wednesday Brittan-Kantor meetings in Brussels and come back quickly to Geneva and respond to the others on market access and other issues.

This message to the US and EC came at Tuesday's Heads of Delegations meeting, held in the morning to enable US and EC officials to leave for Brussels.

Immediately after the HOD meeting, GATT head Peter Sutherland issued another of his statements about the meeting being 'crucial' and that the two sides were negotiating in good faith.

But the short period of 15 days ahead to conclude the negotiations required the US and EC to reach substantive results and bring a decisive contribution to the multilateral negotiations, Sutherland said, adding: "However, whatever the outcome of the meeting...it should be clearly understood that from next week onwards, in order to conclude on time, all further negotiating activity at bilateral or plurilateral levels must feed directly and immediately into the intensive multilateral process which will be underway in Geneva".

Before the HOD meeting, US Uruguay Round coordinator John Schmidt said that he anticipated others participants to preview their concerns.

India's ambassador to the GATT, Balkrishan Zutshi said he did not expect any serious issues to be discussed and that the meeting could only send a strong message to the US and EC to get their act together. "This is the last chance more or less," he added.

Meanwhile, according to European sources, the top officials of the EC and US on agriculture, Guy Legras and O'Mara, have been meeting in Geneva at some unknown place and discussing the Blair House accord.

In Paris, the EC's chief delegate to GATT, Amb. Tran Van-Thinh was quoted as saying that the US was willing to accommodate on Blair House but was demanding an inacceptable price.

Meanwhile, ministers from some of the other participating countries are expected to be around Geneva this week-end or early next week.

Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, is expected in Geneva. Some other Latin American countries are also expected to have their ministers around. But this seems to be not so much for a ministerial meeting of negotiating countries or even a small group, but to enable the countries concerned to be able to have ministers on hand to give their decisions on key questions -- in the light of any US-EC compromises that might surface by this weekend in Geneva.