EC LINKS AGRICULTURAL TRADE TALKS TO OTHER REFORM

  The European Community (EC) considers
  talks on agricultural trade reform to be inseperable from talks
  on other trade reform in the present GATT round, Willy de
  Clercq, external relations commissioner of the EC, said.
      He told reporters here the EC would not bow to pressure to
  reach an early, seperate agreement on agricultural trade.
      He said the EC wanted to stick to the four-year schedule
  agreed by members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
  (GATT) in Punta del Este, Uruguay, last year. That included
  agricultural trade liberalisation for the first time in the
  lengthy program to re-negotiate the GATT.
      Other trade issues being discussed in the current GATT
  round include reform of trade in merchandise and services.
      De Clercq is on his way to China after attending a two-day
  conference for 22 GATT trade ministers held in New Zealand.
      Several of those ministers criticised the EC for what they
  saw as restrictive agricultural trade practices and called for
  urgent reforms. U.S. Trade representative, Clayton Yeutter,
  also said it was important agreement on agricultural trade
  reform was reached as early as possible.
      But de Clercq said the GATT program had been reached after
  long and hard negotiations, and the EC did not want changes.
      "We just want to stick to the agreement which was reached,
  and that was very clear -- that the new round would be one
  undertaking. It is a global negotiation with no two tracks, no
  fast track, no slow track. It has just one track, the track -
  and that's all," de Clercq said.
      "If you start selecting priorities, your priority is not my
  priority. We say that agriculture is urgent, but it's not the
  only urgent thing," he said.
      He said the Punte del Este agreement had taken eight months
  to prepare and eight days of negotiations.
  

