INTERNATIONAL

Trade Standoff Continues: U.S. and European negotiators remained locked in a bitter farm subsidy dispute that has blocked a global trade agreement. European Commission officials, under pressure from Germany and Britain, held out hope that a solution might be found as early as this weekend after talks broke down Thursday. At stake is the 6-year-old Uruguay Round of talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade on a package that could give the recession-hit world economy a boost of up to $200 billion. The talks have torn at the fabric of the 12-nation EC, which negotiates as a single unit at GATT. France, the EC’s top farm exporter, opposes demands from the United States and other nations to cut farm subsidies.