GATT ROUND MAY STOP GROWING TRADE PROBLEMS - U.S.

  A successful new GATT
  (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) round is needed to
  halt growing bilateral trade problems between major trading
  partners, U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said.
      Yeutter, in New Zealand for informal GATT ministerial
  talks, told Reuters bilateral trade disputes are increasing
  because the multilateral system is inefficient.
      "That is really a strong rationale why we need a new GATT
  round," he said. "The very existence of all these bilateral
  irritants clearly emphasises the need to develop multilateral
  solutions to some of these problems."
      The eighth GATT round of negotiations was launched at Punta
  del Este in Uruguay in September 1986. Agriculture and services
  were included in the negotiations for the first time.
      The growing debt burden of Latin American and African
  nations will also provide impetus for the GATT round to
  succeed, he said.
      "Clearly those countries need to develop their export
  endeavours and they need open markets for that to happen and
  that's the basic objective of the new GATT round," he said.
      But he said the GATT round is a long term endeavour. It
  will not give any short term relief for debt ridden countries,
  but it will make a difference in 10 to 15 years.
      "It's a worthwhile activity from their standpoint because
  these debts are not going to go away in the next year or two,"
  he said.
      "They ought to be very strongly supported in the GATT round
  as a mechanism for relieving their debt burdens or making
  possible debt amortisation in the future," he said.
  

