"U.S., EU at Stalemate Over Imports" -
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
Friday December 18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Talks between President Clinton and the 15-nation European Union failed to achieve a breakthrough Friday in a nasty trade fight involving bananas. The United States indicated it will press ahead with punitive tariffs on millions of dollars worth of European imports.
Both sides held out the hope that the dispute, which has dragged on for six years, will be resolved short of a trade war between America and its largest trading partner. But U.S. officials stressed that they would go ahead with plans to select next week a list of European imports that would be subject to 100 percent tariffs, in effect doubling their costs, to American consumers.
The products will be chosen from a preliminary list of $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in imports published last month ranging from wine, cheese and other food products, clothes and toys.
Negotiations will continue after the target list of products is published but if the dispute is not resolved, the United States said the punitive tariffs will go into effect, probably on March 3. The EU has vowed to impose retaliatory tariffs on a matching amount of American goods if the United States makes good on its threat.
The fight involves European import rules that the United States contends favor bananas from the Caribbean and Africa at the expense of Latin American bananas marketed by U.S. companies.
The United States has won a favorable ruling from the World Trade Organization and argues that it is justified in imposing trade sanctions because the EU has failed to remove the objectionable trade barriers in a way that is consistent with the WTO ruling.
After meeting with the president and other officials in the administration, Sir Leon Brittan, the EU minister in charge of trade matters, said the Europeans had appealed for a few more weeks in which to try to find a suitable compromise.
''It should not be the case that we get into a bitter and disagreeable conflict when it can be resolved in just a few weeks more,'' Brittan told reporters outside the White House.
Stuart Eizenstat, undersecretary of state for economic affairs, told reporters at a separate briefing that U.S. officials were willing to listen to suggestions the EU has put forward but would at the same time push forward with the process to impose the sanctions.
''We have to have confidence that when we win WTO cases, that the results will be implemented,'' Eizenstat said.
In addition to the fight over bananas, the two sides talked about a number of other economic issues and various foreign policy problems from Kosovo and the Middle East peace process to the bombing of Iraq.
Clinton's meeting with the European leaders, led by Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima, are part of twice yearly summits the two
sides have.
Coming on a day when the House was debating sending four impeachment articles to the Senate for trial, administration officials said that the president spent two hours engaged in the discussions, including lunch.
Clinton pointed to a rising U.S. trade deficit and stressed the need for Europe to make a greater effort to buy imports from countries suffering from economic troubles because of the current global financial crisis, U.S. officials said.
Brittan told reporters that Europe made the point that it was doing more than the United States in terms of buying steel from Russia and the Ukraine.
''I explained that what is important is that rather than engage in mutual recriminations over who is taking more or who is taking less, we should resist protectionist pressures'' on both sides of the Atlantic, Brittan said.
The two sides also discussed another long-running trade dispute involving a European ban on importing American beef containing growth hormones. While the United States also has won a favorable WTO ruling in that case, the Europeans have yet to remove the barriers although they have until May to do so.
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