The World - News from June 30, 1987

Leaders of the 12 European Economic Community nations clashed over fund-raising proposals, including a tax on U.S. vegetable oil, on the first day of talks in Brussels on their widening cash crisis. France led demands for approval of the tax, but Britain, West Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark opposed it for fear of sparking a transatlantic trade war. “We should not reject that supplementary revenue of $2.3 billion at a time when the Community needs money,” an aide to French President Francois Mitterrand said. The tax would be levied on domestic and imported oil and fats.