Excerpt from Agricultural Trade Highlights: February 1992

While all participants will apparently engage in the country schedule exercise, a number of countries, including those of the EC and Japan, are still seeking fundamental revi sions to the draft text. The u.s. Position is that the draft text on agriculture could be improved in a number of important areas, but is an acceptable basis for concluding the negotiations.

The first meeting of the reconvened gatt Panel on oilseeds concluded February 4 in Geneva. The United States emphasized that the new EC oilseeds regime would con tinne to nullify and impair benefits under the zero-duty binding. The u.s. Team argued the general level of EC support remains unchanged and that the EC had not restored the competitive price relationship between domestic and imported oilseeds, as required by the Panel in its original 1989 report. The EC maintained that the new regime ad dressed the original Panel's concerns that EC producers were completely insulated from world prices. The Community's view of the terms of reference for the reconvened Panel allowed only for a ruling on this issue. According to the ec, action beyond a ruling of this nature would require another panel. The Panel is to submit its final re port, including findings and conclusion, on March 3.

U.s., Canadian, and Mexican negotiators met during the week of February 17 in Dallas, Texas for the purpose of discussing outstanding issues and putting together a bracketed draft text on agriculture. Details of the discussions were not available at the time of this writing.

Prices in Moldova have increased sharply again, this time due to an influx of rubles from Ukraine. With the introduction of a coupon system in Ukraine, the rubles that Ukrainians were holding are comparatively worthless. As a result, they have been trav eling to the other Republics, and bidding up prices on goods that are not available in Ukraine. Moldova has been a favorite target, both because of its proximity and its large agricultural base. Moldova officials worry that reserves they counted on to carry the Republic through the winter months are being drawn down by this Ukrainian spending spree. Customs checkpoints have been set up to try to curb this activity, but are viewed as being largely ineffective.

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