Bush to Urge More Talks on Global Trade : Negotiations: But a breakthrough on European farm subsidies seems unlikely this year.

President Bush will meet with top European officials this week in an effort to get negotiations moving on a global trade agreement, but sources on both sides said that they are pessimistic about the likelihood of progress soon.

“I’m feeling especially worn down and bitter,” one senior U.S. official said last week after another set of fruitless consultations with European negotiators. He added that “nothing has changed since Dec. 21,” when representatives of the 108 countries participating in the talks began reviewing the latest draft of a possible agreement.

At issue is an ambitious effort to overhaul the post-World War II rules governing international trade. Although the system worked well for decades, it has failed to keep pace with rapid changes in the nature of global business.

As a result, no agreed-upon rules exist for international trade in such vital areas as agriculture and services. Only 7% of international commerce falls within the system, known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and nations increasingly are turning to protectionism and political muscle to resolve their disputes.

Although a host of issues remain to be resolved, the primary dispute centers on the European Community’s ample farm subsidies. The United States and its allies in the talks say that the payments make it impossible for other countries to compete in the sale of agricultural products.

A European official insisted that an agreement still is possible, because “we cannot afford to have this fall apart.”

Yet he conceded that the talks--known as the Uruguay Round, because they began in Punta del Este--are so bogged down that an agreement is unlikely until after the fall elections.

That would push them dangerously close to next June’s expiration of congressional authority for the United States to continue the talks. Lawmakers are increasingly disillusioned over the lack of progress, and many on Capitol Hill have said that obtaining renewal of the authority could be difficult.

Although the talks began in a burst of enthusiasm and optimism, “unfortunately, the promise of the Uruguay Round has not been realized,” Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee’s international trade subcommittee, said recently. “Congress has demonstrated enormous patience during the past six years. . . . Enough is enough. It is time for a new direction.”

In addition to meeting Wednesday with European Community officials, President Bush hopes to give the talks new momentum by making them the topic of a week-long series of speeches. The first was Monday in Columbus, Ohio, where he appealed again for freer trade at a ceremony marking the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America by the city’s namesake.

Although he made no specific mention of the stalled negotiations, Bush echoed former President Richard M. Nixon in calling for an “open world, open cities, open hearts (and) open minds.” Campaign advisers said that the President is likely to address the issue head-on in two more major trade speeches later in the week.

The emphasis on trade marks the first stage in a Bush-Quayle reelection campaign strategy designed to highlight different issues on a formal “theme of the week schedule.”

Victoria Clarke, Bush’s campaign press secretary, said the campaign intends to emphasize trade no matter what the fate of the talks because “it is one of the single best things you can do for the economy.”