Stuck in An Old Groove

IF THE ELABORATE TARIFF NEGOTIATIONS CALLED the Uruguay Round finally fail, world trade and most major economies will suffer. For months the talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade have been staggering from one purported last try to another. Again last week no one dared call it failure when a crucial meeting among George Bush, European Community President Jacques Delors and Portuguese Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva ended in impasse.

The hurdle remained, as ever, the question of agricultural subsidies. The U.S. demands a reduction in E.C. aid to farmers to a level that the Community and many of its biggest member nations find politically unacceptable. Bush tried to sound hopeful when he told reporters that some “new ideas” had been presented. Delors was probably closer to the mark when he described the proposals both sides were considering as “modest.” The U.S. and E.C. will have still another try in time for the G-7 economic summit in July.