The last major obstacle to a far-reaching global accord on lowering trade barriers fell Tuesday when the United States and European Community put aside a bitter fight over films and TV shows.
The decision to leave movies out of the trade-liberalization package was seen as a victory for the French and a defeat for Hollywood, but it also meant the world's two largest traders had cleared up all disagreements.U.S.-EC disputes had been blocking the overall talks among 116 nations to complete a seven-year struggle to rewrite the rules of world trade by cutting tariffs and lowering other barriers.
The United States is "on the verge of a historic victory in our efforts to open foreign markets to American products," President Clinton said in Washington.
Earlier in the day, Japan's government made the politically risky decision of opening its market to imported rice.
Toshihiko Tsuruoka, director general of the Food Agency, said rice imported from 1995 following a partial lifting of the decades-old ban may be mainly used for processed products.
Japan imports over 100,000 tons of cooked rice annually, while demand for processed rice stands at 1.4 million tons.
While it failed to resolve the film fight, the United States won a concession from the European Community to cut subsidies to the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industrie.
U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said he and the EC's trade chief, Sir Leon Brittan, had "agreed to disagree" on the contentious issue of barriers to American entertainment programs and subsidies paid to European filmmakers.
They predicted there was enough momentum to ensure that the worldwide trade talks, being conducted under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, would be able to conclude by the midnight Wednesday deadline.
"I believe that today has been a milestone in the history of world trade," said Brittan.
Economists predict a GATT accord eventually will expand the world economy by more than $200 billion a year.
The Wednesday deadline was set in U.S. legislation that grants Clinton the power to send Congress a trade package that can only be approved on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. Otherwise, amendments and revisions by lawmakers could delay or even block passage.
With a deal in hand, Kantor told reporters American and EC negotiators would work "shoulder to shoulder" in an attempt to sell their package to the rest of the world.