World Trade Talks Fall Into Disarray
Talks aimed at liberalizing world trade were in disarray Thursday due to deep-seated disagreements over reforming the rules of commerce and a possible walkout by several Latin American nations.
At stake is the survival of the 4-year-old round of world trade talks, which ministers are due to complete in Brussels early next month.
“It’s a mess,” lamented one delegate at the headquarters of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the global organization overseeing the negotiations.
The two most problematic areas were how far to cut farm subsidies and how to bring the $680-billion-a-year trade in services such as banking and insurance under GATT rules.
No progress was evident in either area, and some positions may even have hardened.
The United States disrupted the services negotiations Tuesday night with a radical proposal to prevent most-favored nation treatment from being a general obligation--a move delegates said threw into question whether there would be a services agreement at all.
On Thursday night, GATT Director General Arthur Dunkel was convening the first meeting on agriculture since Nov. 10, but delegates said it was more likely to be taking stock of positions rather than settling on a compromise.
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