Yeutter Reports Progress at Trade Talks

The United States and its major trading partners remained far apart Friday on the contentious issue of farm subsidies, but negotiators reported progress in other areas aimed at reducing protectionist pressures.

U.S. Trade Representative Clayton K. Yeutter said differences had been narrowed in a number of areas, including the procedures to expand the compact that governs world trade to include services and investments, two areas not now covered.

“We haven’t solved all of the problems, but we believe we have come a long way in achieving consensus,” Yeutter said.

His remarks came at a news conference that closed the two days of meetings involving trade ministers from the United States, Japan, Canada and the 12-member European Community.

The discussions were held as part of continuing negotiations to expand and strengthen the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, known as GATT.

The United States has made the elimination of all farm subsidies by the year 2000 its major goal in the GATT talks, but President Reagan faced stiff opposition when he discussed his proposal earlier this week at the seven-nation economic summit in Toronto.

The summit countries ended up directing their trade negotiators to work harder to narrow their differences in preparation for a critical meeting of all 96 member nations of GATT in Montreal in December.

The differences on farm subsidies are so great that the trade negotiators did not even have the issue on their formal agenda for the talks, held at a resort in the lake country of Minnesota.