COLOMBIA HELPFUL BUT COFFEE QUOTAS UNCERTAIN--U.S.
A U.S. government trade official
responsible for coffee policy said prospects for an accord on
coffee quotas are still uncertain despite recent Colombian
efforts to bridge differences between producers and consumers.
    Jon Rosenbaum, an assistant U.S. trade representative just
back from trade talks in Colombia, said most producing
countries now accept some sort of standardized criteria must be
agreed to reintroduce coffee quotas.
    "There is one country which evidently still does not,"
Rosenbaum said in an obvious reference to Brazil, which has
been negative recently on a reintroduction of quotas.
    Rosenbaum said because of the stance of Brazil the outlook
for an agreement to reintroduce coffee quotas at the September
International Coffee Organization meeting is hard to predict.
    He said that during the visit to Bogota he held technical
discussions with Colombian officials.
    While he did not meet with Jorge Cardenas, head of the
Colombian coffee producers federation, who was in Europe,
Cardenas left a "positive letter," Rosenbaum said.
    The Cardenas letter responded to a U.S. letter last month
which praised Colombia for trying to find a compromise formula
for the reintroduction of quotas, but outlined several concerns
with the technical details of the Colombian plan.
    Rosenbaum could not be reached later in the day for comment
on a new formula for calculating ICO quotas agreed to by
European coffee roasters and traders.
    Dutch coffee trade association chairman Frits van Horick
said in Amsterdam the new formula is based on six year moving
averages and would give Brazil an unchanged export quota for
the remaining to years of the current coffee agreement.
    The U.S. has said it will not agree to any coffee quotas
unless "objective criteria" which reflect recent changes in the
coffee market are used to set export limits.
 Reuter
