Embargo Announcement Clouds Summit

The Reagan Administration’s decision to announce a trade embargo against Nicaragua on the eve of the economic summit conference has cast a shadow over the conference and affected Washington’s sensitive ties with West Germany.

Western Europeans have long had reservations about U.S. policy in Central America, and the decision to impose trade sanctions, which they believe are counterproductive, has reportedly upset several of the leaders attending the summit.

They are said to have expressed concern that the trade sanctions will make the Marxist-led government of Nicaragua even more dependent upon the Soviet Union and Cuba than it already is.

The fact that President Reagan announced the sanctions in Bonn has embarrassed and upset the West Germans, who were smarting already from the public outrage that has erupted in the United States over Reagan’s plans to lay a wreath at a German war cemetery.

Tense Debate Reported

Senior U.S. officials attempted to hold down the level of anger at the move, but participants in a meeting of foreign ministers Thursday indicated later that the sanctions generated a tense, 50-minute debate. Roland Dumas, the French minister of external relations, and Joe Clark, the Canadian external affairs minister, reportedly led the criticism of the U.S. move.

Only British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe did not join in the criticism, according to people who were present.

“It was an intense exchange,” a European commented, asking not to be identified by name or nationality.

Asked how Secretary of State George P. Shultz defended the trade embargo, the European replied, “Weakly.”

West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher was asked at a news conference if France had agreed to the embargo, and he replied bluntly: “The United States asked for no one’s agreement and none was given.”

Embarrassed Hosts

The West German hosts were so embarrassed that the announcement was made here that they initially tried to cover up that fact. In the hours just after the sanctions were announced, West German Foreign Ministry officials were saying that word of the sanctions had come from Washington. Later, they acknowledged that they were notified two hours ahead of time that the announcement would be made.

The intensity of reaction to Reagan’s planned visit to the war cemetery at Bitburg had already brought charges in the press here that Americans want to treat West Germany as a “vassal.” The embargo announcement triggered further criticism.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a Munich daily, commented: “With the American trade embargo against Nicaragua, President Reagan has not just snubbed his German hosts. He has thrown the summit into confusion even before it began.”