Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Headline Article Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 16:56:27 EST Message-ID: \SE A;MONEY;THE WEEK IN REVIEW \BY FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS S=NEW STORY GATT matters - honest GATT, the world trade body that economists and policy-makers insist is far more important than it looks, is sometimes referred to as the General Agreement to Talk and Talk. This week, talking was what officials on both sides of the Atlantic hoped for most. For six years, negotiators from 108 nations have been trying to reach an agreement that will revolutionize world trade. The nations participating in GATT - actually the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - are trying to lift barriers on commerce ranging from financial services to agriculture. Free traders are adamant that such an agreement, which is said to be within reach, will bring oodles of financial joy to the world - as much as $200 billion worth of it, by some accounts. But there is a problem. The European Community likes to give its farmers lots of subsidies to grow and sell their produce. The United States, which has been known to hand out a farm subsidy or two itself, wants this to stop. A bitter fight, particularly over EC oil-seed subsidies, has brought the wider GATT talks to a standstill and led the Bush administration to threaten to impose 200 percent tariffs on some European exports, notably white wine. Given the free-trade philosophy of the administration, this is a little like death-penalty opponents calling for an execution. But then again, as the sage said, there is nothing like the prospect of a hanging to focus the mind. GATT chief Arthur Dunkel, known to aficionados as "Uncle Dunkel," arrived in Brussels to express concern - diplo-speak for knocking heads. Tomorrow, he will be in Washington, where talks on those pesky oil seeds are scheduled to resume Wednesday. All expressed confidence a deal can be reached, averting a threatened global trade war that officials fear would pull the rug from under whatever world economic rebound may be in the offing. In France, however, where farm subsidies are something of a cultural icon, at least one official had his own contingency plan for failure. Faced with the prospect of having the U.S. market cut off by Washington's draconian tariffs, Agriculture Minister Jean-Pierre Soisson urged his nation to "drink lots of white wine" - as a patriotic duty. S=NEW STORY Meanwhile . . . The week saw the last of Detroit's Big Three move to change its management team. * Ford announced that its president and chief operating officer, Philip Benton, will retire Jan. 1 but did not name a replacement. Speculation centered on Alexander Trotman, who was promoted to head Ford Automotive Group. Earlier this year, Chrysler's Lee Iacocca confirmed that he will retire soon, and General Motors' Robert Stempel was persuaded to call it quits. * Breaking with tradition, Sears, Roebuck and Co. said some of its Sears stores would begin accepting credit cards other than its own. * Gillette Co. was ordered by European Community antitrust officials to sell its European interests in its main European shaving competitor, Wilkinson Sword. * Air Canada and a group of U.S. investors agreed to pay $450 million for a majority stake in bankrupt Continental Airlines. S=NEW STORY For a life, press 2 Voice mail, a high-tech fixture in corporate offices, has come to the homeless. Homeless job seekers in Chicago can give prospective employers a telephone number for a city-sponsored automated answering service. The employer leaves a message the homeless person gets by calling a toll-free number. "Nobody wants to hire you if they can't call you," says Billy Jeffries, 35, one of Chicago's estimated 5,000 homeless people. He admits his lack of a telephone may not be the only reason he doesn't have a job but says, "It doesn't help." The city's Human Services Department launched the program in September by distributing to homeless shelters 2,000 plastic cards bearing the toll-free number. Thirty-four persons have used the service so far, says Jackie Edens, the city's director of homeless services. She doesn't know whether any of them found jobs. S=NEW STORY Marxists on the mend A group of Marxists met in Massachusetts last week to discuss life after the Cold War. Their conclusion: It's a good thing, because now they don't have to apologize for the Soviet Union. Did somebody say revisionism? This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM