EC Is Cool to New U.S. Proposals on Farm Policy

BRUSSELS — The European Community is unenthusiastic about new proposals from the United States intended to break the impasse in world trade talks, an EC official said Monday.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III joined chief trade negotiators from both sides in Washington last week for an exchange of ideas aimed at nudging forward the long-stalled General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations.

The two sides considered various proposals, said the European Commission official. “None of the parties said they were total rubbish,” he added.

An EC official hinted that the United States had offered Brussels eight years in which to reduce the volume of its subsidized exports by 24% instead of the five years planned in a draft final accord.

“But it’s not time that’s our problem; it’s the figures,” he added.

European Farm Commissioner Ray MacSharry has said that the EC could accept a 24% cut providing it is calculated by sector--applying to cereals as a group, for example, rather than to each crop separately.

GATT negotiations, called the Uruguay Round after the country in which they started in 1986, are stuck in a quagmire of disagreements between the United States and EC over how far and fast to wind down subsidies to agriculture.

“It’s still the intention of the commission, the community and also the U.S., sincerely and honestly, to find a deal for the whole Uruguay Round,” another commission official said.