Duties on U.S. Goods To Be Discussed

European foreign ministers will likely delay implementation of tough duties on some U.S. imports in an effort to defuse tensions over a ban on hormone-treated meat from America, officials said Friday.

The foreign ministers of the 12 nations of the European Community will meet Monday to discuss the conflict sparked Jan. 1 when the trading bloc banned imports of U.S. meat from cattle treated with growth hormones.

The United States retaliated by imposing, also on Jan. 1, higher tariffs on a variety of products from the community, also known as the Common Market.

Nico Wegter, a community spokesman, said the foreign ministers will be asked to implement as soon as possible counter-measures that would slap stiff duties on American dried fruit and walnuts. The package was tentatively approved earlier this month by the governments’ representatives in Brussels.

But other officials said a number of countries apparently want to defer setting an effective date in order to give the two sides more time to resolve the dispute, particularly with George Bush taking office as President.

Many countries, said one official, want to “see if there’s still a possibility of getting the new Administration moving.”

The officials, who demanded anonymity, said the ministers may also want to await the outcome of a Feb. 8 meeting of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The EC intends to ask the 96-nation GATT to declare the U.S. retaliatory measures in violation of the international body’s rules.