France Takes Hard Line on Trade Pact

BRUSSELS — France demanded Monday that the European Community and the United States rewrite a farm subsidy agreement considered vital to concluding world trade talks.

France’s hard-line position risked creating a deep rift among its EC partners. Most have opposed altering the transatlantic deal.

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd warned that reopening the accord could endanger the 116-nation Uruguay Round negotiations, which are designed to drop global barriers to trade.

In Paris on Monday, angry farmers protested possible cuts in subsidies by burning Ronald McDonald in effigy, blocking transportation and massing outside government buildings.