EU Does Not Reach Understanding for WTO Meeting
10/11/99
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Title: EU Fails to Reach Understanding for WTO Meeting
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 11, 1999
The EU's executive Commission had been hoping for final agreement
from the 15 member governments on Monday on the positions the bloc's
negotiators will advocate at a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting
in Seattle next month which will decide the shape of future global
trade talks.
If the bloc delays much longer in finalising its position, it will
weaken its position in trying to set the agenda for the new talks, EU
officials say.
The EU is united in supporting a comprehensive new round of trade
talks, including agriculture, services, industrial tariffs and
investment and competition rules.
But member governments could not agree on Monday on how to address
the issue of core labour standards in the new trade round. France,
wary of being deluged by U.S. culture, called for a strong statement
on the need to protect national culture but this was opposed by
several other governments, EU sources said.