Dec 20, 1984

EEC PRESIDENT DENIES WAY IS CLEAR FOR NEW GATT ROUND.

BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 18 (IPS) – Gaston Thorn, outgoing President of the European Community’s Executive Commission denied Saturday that the EEC was ready for a new round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, stressing that their were several outstanding issues that would have to be resolved first.-

Thorn said EEC officials who suggested that the Community was ready for a new GATT round in 1986 were "talking with a forked tongue".-

Wilhelm Haferkamp, EEC Commissioner responsible for trade had said Friday after high-level talks between the EEC and the U.S. that "we have sufficient substance to prepare for a new round at the Ministerial level in 1986".-

The talks headed by thorn and U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz failed to produce any other substantive agreement.-

But thorn later described Haferkamp’s statement as a "misunderstanding".-

He said although the EEC was rethinking its positions there had been no fundamental change since the last GATT meeting.-

EEC sources said the first task was to determine whether the aims and timetable of a new round could be agreed upon.-

Thorn said this would lead only to a meeting of "high-level officials" at the end of 1985 to evaluate informal discussions. Only then could preparations begin.-

"We are not opposed to a new round", thorn said. But he stressed it would be "more than a question of dismantling tariffs it would entail new fields of trade like insurance and services".-

Thorn also stressed that it was important to "sound out our partners in the Third World and not just talk about it among ourselves".-

EEC officials have said in the past that developing country concerns about extending GATT competence to trade in services and high technology must be heeded, before embarking on a new round to liberalise trade.-

U.S. president Reagan raised the idea of a new trade talks round at the 1983 economic summit at Williamsburg, Virginia, but the EEC has been like-warm towards the idea.-

"I do not believe it could be said that we would agree to a new round of talks" another EEC trade official said Monday reacting to Haferkamp’s remarks.-

Rather than moving nearer on trade as Haferkamp seemed to suggest, the EEC and the U.S. were likely moving farther apart after Friday’s meeting.-

Substantial difference were revealed in farm policy, with the United States proposing a bill to abolish subsidies and the EEC wishing to maintain them.-

"The U.S. government has never believed in dividing up the world market into market shares, we believe in competing", U.S. Agriculture Secretary john Block said Friday.-

But EEC Agriculture Commissioner Poul Dalsager countered "we have an agreement in GATT that we are working with a fair share of the market and we intend to stick to that policy".-

Both sides insisted they would defend their positions in GATT but ruled out the possibility of a trade war.-