U.S. Abandons Hope of Immediate GATT Pact : Administration Will Ask Congress for Indefinite Extension of Its Negotiating Authority

The Clinton Administration, abandoning hope for early completion of long-stalled global trade talks, said Thursday that it will ask Congress for an indefinite extension of its authority to negotiate new trade rules.

U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor made the announcement after an occasionally rancorous two-hour meeting with Sir Leon Brittan, the top trade negotiator of the 12-nation European Community.

After the meeting, the two officials said that they remain far apart on critical trade issues involving steel, government contracts, textiles, intellectual property and agricultural products. Kantor and Brittan made no effort to paper over their differences on these questions but said they are hopeful that the issues can be resolved in renewed talks to complete the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

In a related development, President Clinton met with Japanese Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe in the first high-level meeting between Washington and Tokyo since Clinton took office.

In a half-hour session in the Oval Office, Watanabe expressed his government’s willingness to help complete the GATT talks and to open its markets to more imports. But the strains in the U.S.-Japan relationship were evident even in this early meeting, which was meant to be largely a courtesy call.

U.S. relations with Japan have become increasingly strained because of this nation’s growing trade deficit with Japan, which reached nearly $44 billion last year. Japan’s global surplus was $107 billion in 1992.

Watanabe said that Tokyo is willing to “recycle” some of its large surplus by supporting aid programs in the developing world. But he also delivered a blunt warning to Clinton against taking unilateral retaliatory action against Japan, according to an aide.

Sadaki Numata, deputy spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said that Watanabe gave Clinton a note from Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa saying that Tokyo would take steps to increase its domestic demand and open its markets to fair foreign competition, thus reducing its trade surplus.

But Miyazawa also said the renewal of a U.S. trade regulation known as “Super 301” that authorizes harsh retaliation against alleged trading violations “is not a good approach” and would sour relations between the two nations. The retaliatory measure is popular with Democrats in Congress, who for years have been calling for a more aggressive trade policy.

For his part, Clinton said that Japan’s bulging trade surpluses are costing American jobs and that he would take measures to improve American competitiveness and to chip away at foreign trade barriers, particularly the elaborate protection of domestic industries in Japan, aides said.

On the global trade talks, Kantor gave no indication how long an extension of “fast-track” negotiating authority the Administration would seek from Congress. The current authority, which speeds the ratification process of trade agreements through Congress, expires March 2.

Many trade officials here and abroad had hoped that the new Administration would make a final negotiating push and complete the complex talks by March 2.

But Kantor indicated that he is in no hurry to complete the global trade accord, which has been under negotiation for more than six years since it was initiated in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

Kantor said Thursday that “getting it quick doesn’t necessarily mean getting it right. And what the President has directed me to do is to get it right, to make sure that we just don’t come away with any agreement.

“What we want is a successful round, a good agreement in order to expand trade and open markets,” the U.S. trade representative said.

Officials said privately that agreement on the trade pact is unlikely before fall and could take until next year.