Et Cetera

For a few days, it looked as if the on-again-off-again negotiations for a worldwide trade accord, as part of the Uruguay Round of GATT talks, were finally coming to an end. High-level U.S. and E.C. leaders were said to be ever so close to signing an agreement. They weren't close enough. At the last minute the talks foundered on the same sensitive issue that has persistently stymied negotiators: farm subsidies. Unless France reverses its rigid opposition to European concessions, it appears that a trade pact, if one is ever signed, will come too late to bolster George Bush's election prospects.