Baker Conveys Offer Aimed at Saving World Trade Talks

Secretary of State James A. Baker III conveyed what he called “an extraordinarily forthcoming offer” to the European Community on Tuesday in an effort to save the troubled GATT negotiations on world trade from collapse.

Baker met European Commission President Jacques Delors and EC foreign ministers to discuss the fate of the negotiations, which are in deep trouble because of differences over farm trade. The two sides are meeting amid a sudden flurry of high-level activity aimed at solving the toughest problem in the negotiations--how to cut world farm subsidies.

“We made an extraordinarily forthcoming offer which he (Delors) is considering,” Baker told a news conference.

“It is possible for officials to have a meeting tomorrow to explore new proposals from the U.S. and also a new proposal from the Community,” Delors told reporters.

An EC official said U.S. and EC officials would meet again today to find a way to save the talks, held under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

There have been fears here that with the U.S. election campaign now well under way, Washington would lose interest in the talks at least until next year.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a crucial figure in the negotiations and chairman of the Group of Seven industrial countries, has been trying to find a compromise between the U.S. demand for deep cuts in European farm support and France’s rejection of any such suggestion.

Officials said President Bush wrote to Delors in the last few days offering a slight softening of the U.S. position on the question of cutting farm subsidies.

Diplomats said the U.S. offer centered on whether the Community’s subsidy payments to small farmers would be exempt from cuts in payments as part of an agreement.