From iatp@igc.apc.orgFri Jun 23 19:22:07 1995 Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 11:17:21 -0700 (PDT) From: IATP To: Recipients of conference Subject: Trade News 6-15-95 repost Trade News Produced by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Volume 4, Number 9 June 15, 1995 __________________________________________ Headlines: - RUGGIERO FEARS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES - JAPAN INVITES U.S. TO RESUME CAR TALKS - U.S. THREATENS EU WITH ACTION ON BEEF - U.S., UK WILL EXPAND AVIATION SERVICES - INDONESIA ANNOUNCES DEREGULATION PLAN __________________________________________ WTO NEWS SUMMARY __________________________________________ RUGGIERO FEARS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES On June 13, World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Renato Ruggiero warned that failure to reach a trade agreement on financial services by June 30, as scheduled, would present a worse threat to the multilateral trading system than the U.S.-Japan dispute over cars. Agreement could not be reached on financial services when the bulk of the Uruguay Round was completed in December, 1993. At that time, members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) agreed to negotiate on financial services for another 18 months. Thus far 80 countries have submitted offers. But U.S. trade officials say these offers are inadequate and unless they are improved the United States will not sign the agreement. In lieu of a multilateral agreement, the United States will negotiate market opening financial services agreements on a bilateral basis. This would endanger the progress made in the Uruguay Round, Ruggiero said. Already, the EU has threatened to "scale down" its own offer, and Japan could do the same. According to Ruggiero, failure of the financial services negotiations could negatively affect talks to liberalize basic telecommunications services due to be completed next year. Nancy Dunne, "Ruggiero Fears Over Financial Services," FINANCIAL TIMES, June 14, 1995. __________________________________________ REGIONAL/BILATERAL AGREEMENTS __________________________________________ JAPAN INVITES U.S. TO RESUME CAR TALKS Japan's minister for international trade and industry Ryutaro Hashimoto has invited the United States to send senior officials to Geneva on June 22 and 23 to resume talks on their car trade dispute. The most recent round of talks in the 20-month dispute broke down on Monday, June 12. The United States has declared that it will impose $5.9 billion in punitive tariffs on Japanese luxury cars on June 28 if the Japanese do not liberalize their auto parts market. Japan has challenged the U.S. move to impose unilateral punitive tariffs at the WTO. And while U.S. trading partners have made it clear that they agree that Japan needs to do more to open its markets to foreign competitors, they do not support unilateral U.S. sanctions. Meanwhile, the United States is preparing its own WTO case against Japan. The United States will accuse Japan of engaging regulatory and other practices to keep foreign competitors out of its markets. William Dawkins, "Japan and US Agree to Resume Car Talks," FINANCIAL TIMES, June 15, 1995; Donna Smith, "Course Set in US, Japan Trade Dispute," REUTER, June 11, 1995. U.S. THREATENS EU WITH WTO ACTION ON BEEF On June 4, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman announced that the United States will give the European Union (EU) until the end of the year to lift an import ban on beef from cattle treated with growth hormones before filing a complaint with the WTO. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) maintains that the beef is safe and the ban, imposed in 1989, is an unfair trade restriction. EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler maintains that European consumers are worried about the use of the hormones and has proposed a conference for October 1995 to study the safety of beef raised in this manner. The USDA estimates that U.S. producers could sell $100 million worth of beef each year to the 15 EU members if the ban were lifted. "Trade-Beef," ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 5, 1995. U.S., UK WILL EXPAND AVIATION SERVICES On June 5, the United States and Britain reached agreement to expand airline freedoms between the two countries for the first time in almost two decades and charted a course for additional talks aimed at even greater market opening. The new arrangement gives United Airlines a service between Chicago and London's Heathrow International Airport, adds frequencies for British Airways on the Philadelphia-London route, expands rights to fly into regional cities for both U.S. and British carriers, and widens the opportunities for U.S. carriers to forge partnerships with British airlines. U.S. negotiators also persuaded their British counterparts to agree on parameters for the next round of negotiations, including discussions on increased access for U.S. carriers to Heathrow. Lisa Burgess, "US, Britain Agree to Expand Aviation Services," JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, June 6, 1995. __________________________________________ WORLD TRADE ROUND-UP __________________________________________ INDONESIA ANNOUNCES DEREGULATION PLAN Last month, Indonesia, one of southeast Asia's most protectionist countries, unveiled a major deregulation plan that will open its economy to foreign competition. The plan includes a schedule for tariff reductions over the next eight years to bring the nation's economy in line with Indonesia's commitments to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. The plan calls for across-the- board tariff cuts of at least five percent on over 6,000 products, including newsprint, textile products, sunflower oil, and sawed timber. Tariffs on printing paper will be eliminated altogether. The plan states that all tariffs of 20 percent or less will be cut to five percent by the year 2000 and tariffs now over 20 percent will be cut to a maximum of 20 percent by 1998 and 10 percent by 2000. The minister of finance announced separately that the government is also cutting import duties on luxury cars to 125 percent from 175 percent a Manuela Saragosa, "Indonesia Announces Tariff Cut Package," FINANCIAL TIMES, May 24, 1995. __________________________________________ RESOURCES __________________________________________ International Trade Information Service. ITIS is a global non-profit o social and environmental impacts (both good and bad) to the world's citizens. Targets of ITIS investigations include cargoes which are produced, consumed, or disposed of in manners which violate labor and political rights, encourage armed conflict, or otherwise harm human life and the environment. ITIS also promotes practical environmentally-sound and socially-just trade alternatives. For more information about the new International Trade Information Service, and to obtain a free brochure, including a subscription form, please contact: International Trade Information Service, P.O. Box 73866, Washington, DC, 20009; ph., 1-202-234-2847; fax, 1-202-462-1177; e-mail, itis@igc.apc.org. Migration News. Migration News is a newsletter that summarizes key developments in comparative immigration and integration during the preceding month. Topics are grouped by region: North America, Europe, Asia, and Other. The purpose of Migration News is to provide summaries of recent events that can be read in 30 minutes. Each issue also offers a special report, abstracts of selected papers, and articles and information on recent research publications. Distribution is by e-mail; if you wish to be added to the mailing list, send your e- mail address to: migrant@primal.ucdavis.edu. Current and back issues can be accessed via gopher in the Migration News folder at: dual.ucdavis.edu. Agriculture, The Environment And Trade -- Conflict Or Cooperation, edited by Caroline T. Williamson. This volume is the official proceedings of a conference which was convened by the International Policy Council on Agriculture and Trade (IPC) September 6-8, 1992 in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The first major international meeting on the environment following the Rio Summit in June 1992, the conference brought together leaders in government, business, farming, and academia from over 30 nations. To order, contact the International Policy Council on Agriculture and T0. The Pooring Of America: Competition And The Myth Of Free Trade, Ravi Batra, Collier Books, 1993. This book traces the roots of America's economic crisis to the nation's dependence on foreign trade rather than manufacturing. The book sets out a five year plan for economic revival under the banner of "competitive protectionism" that includes raising tariffs on imports, banning mergers among giant firms, and encouraging domestic competition by splitting huge corporations into smaller units. _______________________________________________ Trade News is produced by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Mark Ritchie, President. Editor: Orin Kirshner. E- mail versions of Trade News are available free of charge for Econet/IATP Net subscribers. For more information about fax or mail subscriptions, contact: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 1313 Fifth Street S.E., Suite 303, Minneapolis, MN, 55414 Phone 612-379-5980. To learn more about IATP's contract research services, please contact Dale Wiehoff at dwiehoff@igc.apc.org