Word: montreal
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...layer over Antarctica. Although the size of the hole varies with the seasons and weather patterns, at times Antarctic ozone has been depleted by as much as 50% in some spots. As a result of this disturbing development, 24 nations, including the U.S. and the Soviet Union, met in Montreal two summers ago and agreed to cut back on CFCs. The so-called Montreal Protocol is designed to achieve a 35% net reduction in worldwide CFC production...
...soil and water. A framework for the effort exists within the U.N., which has already taken some important initiatives. In 1972 the U.N. organized the landmark Stockholm conference, which set up the United Nations Environment Program. It was under UNEP's sponsorship that 24 countries signed the 1987 Montreal Protocol, calling for a reduction in the output of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons. There have also been proposals to enhance UNEP's role as a sort of intergovernmental superagency on environmental questions...
...farm-policy debate overshadowed all other discussions in Montreal. Delegates were able, though, to adopt a framework for continued negotiations in the fast-growing services industries, including banking, investment and communications, which now account for some 30% of all international trade. Yet efforts to protect intellectual-property rights were stymied. The U.S. estimates that pirating and counterfeiting of such goods as tape cassettes and computer software cost American firms more than $40 billion a year...
After the lackluster Montreal performance, many countries may be tempted to bypass GATT and negotiate more bilateral or regional pacts with only a few trading partners. Still, no one is quite ready to abandon GATT. Says Bill Martin, chief economist of Phillips & Drew, a leading London brokerage firm: "There's not great hope that GATT can achieve much in the way of further trade liberalization. But GATT is a very important bulwark against galloping protectionism." An important bulwark, but an increasingly leaky...
Faced with a labor force sadly lacking basic skills, a growing number of companies are forced to teach the three Rs. -- The Montreal trade talks end with a major deadlock...