EC OFFICIAL WARNS U.S. ON UNILATERAL TRADE MOVES
Roy Denman, the European Community
representative in Washington, warned the United States against
setting a rule that trading partners running a surplus should
be "beaten over the head" for not removing trade barriers.
    Denman, in an Op-Ed piece in today's Washington Post, said
trade disputes should be dealt with through negotiations,
either bilaterally or multilaterally, through the Geneva-based
United Nations agency, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade,
GATT.
    Denman's comments came as the Senate was to begin debate
this week on a major trade bill.
    "It is dangerous to establish a rule that trading partners
running a surplus with the United States should be beaten over
the head if trade barriers objected to by the United States are
not removed within a certain time-scale," said Denman in an
apparent reference to some of the measures in the congressional
trade bill.
    "If we turn to the path of unilateral action, retaliation
and counter-retaliation, the one-world (GATT) trading system
will very quickly unravel," he said.
    Denman said the 170 billion dlr U.S. trade deficit was not
purely the result of unfair trade practices by foreign nations.
    "The trade deficit results from a combination of
macroeconomic factors (the U.S. budget deficit), the exchange
rate and the competitiveness of (U.S.) domestic industry,"
Denman said.
    He also said that Washington employed what he termed unfair
trade prctices.
    He said the European Community had recently updated a list
of some 30 U.S. trade barriers that impede EC exports.
    "We did not circulate this list with any hostile or
aggressive intent. We did so to set the record straight," Denman
said.
 Reuter
