Word: gattes
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...talks have had two main goals: to blunt protectionist pressures and extend GATT's rules to such areas as agriculture, services, investments and intellectual-property rights. Fully half the nations involved would like to see a sharp cutback in the subsidies that rich countries pay their farmers at the expense of their own ability to trade agricultural commodities. Growers in the industrial countries reaped income and price supports to the tune of $250 billion last year. The European Community and the U.S. have been the worst offenders, with farm subsidies totaling $97 billion in the E.C. and $67 billion...
...market access for such agricultural imports as corn and wheat in the E.C., sugar and dairy products in the U.S. and rice in Japan. The so-called Cairns Group of 14 agricultural- exporting countries ranging from Argentina to Australia has threatened to block accords in other trade areas unless GATT members agree on substantial agricultural reforms...
Agricultural subsidies are not the only potential GATT-busters. When the Uruguay Round talks began, industrial nations agreed -- at the demand of many developing countries -- to phase out trade barriers to textiles and apparel. Last month, however, the U.S. Congress approved a protectionist bill that would further limit textile-and-apparel imports and impose new quotas on such European products as Armani suits and Benetton sweaters. The bill, which President Bush plans to veto, would not only undermine the U.S. negotiating position in GATT but also increase the average American family's annual clothing costs by $750 in a decade...
...GATT is to play a central role in global trade, the group's members will have to strike a comprehensive package of intelligent compromises. Success depends significantly on the U.S. and the E.C. Should they take the lead by accepting substantial cuts in their agricultural and textile barriers, other countries are likely to follow suit. That would mean an opening of more international markets and the extension of GATT discipline to all major areas of trade. The resultant growth in trade would generate, according to Hills, an additional $200 billion in domestic annual output for the U.S. alone...
...which restricts U.S.-Soviet trade, as soon as the Supreme Soviet concludes legislation permitting free emigration. For the interim, he proposed that the two nations negotiate a new trade treaty in time for the June summit. He also vowed to support observer status for the Soviet Union at the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) talks, a move long sought by the Soviets to help integrate the U.S.S.R. into the world economic system...