INTERNATIONAL

Tokyo, Seoul Lobbying on Rice: Japan and South Korea have joined forces in the GATT trade talks to try to stop their rice markets from being opened. With GATT chief Arthur Dunkel’s deadline for an agreement just a week away, the two countries have been waging a last-ditch campaign at the Geneva talks for rice to be excluded. After the deadline, Dunkel has promised a document giving the broad outlines of an agreement to end the current round of negotiations, which have lasted five years. If Dunkel’s document is written as expected, trade sources say, Japan and South Korea will lose the battle to preserve their closed rice markets.