U.S., EC Seek Way Out of Trade Dispute

U.S. and European negotiators remained at odds Friday over a bitter farm subsidy dispute blocking a global trade agreement.

European Commission officials, under pressure from Germany and Britain, held out hope that a solution might still be found as early as this weekend, although talks broke down Thursday.

But despite a 40-minute telephone conversation between top U.S. and European farm officials, the two sides indicated their positions were firmly entrenched.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward Madigan, in the conversation with EC Farm Commissioner Ray MacSharry, “underscored the point that the United States is willing to continue these discussions,” said a spokesman for Madigan.

But Madigan “stressed that we already have proposed solutions, and that the United States has a definite floor beyond which it will not go,” the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Jacques Delors, the president of the EC’s Executive Commission, said conditions for a balanced deal did not yet exist and warned Washington it should not think it can bring the EC to its knees.

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 size of the goal and the stress of on-again, off-again negotiations is tearing at the fabric of the 12-nation EC, which negotiates as a single unit at GATT.

Britain, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EC, challenged the loyalties of Delors, who is French, saying he is torn between France and the Community.