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Sutherland on mission to end talks deadlock Business Telegraph reporter

World trade negotiator Peter Sutherland is in Paris today in a bid to stop the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement of Tariff and Trade talks slipping backwards to the deadlock of a year ago.

The Irish diplomat must win new concessions from the hardline French government if he is to meet a deadline for a deal in December.

The fate of Northern Ireland's two most important industries, textiles and agriculture, depend on the outcome of the talks, now almost two years behind schedule.

The textile and clothing industry, which employs 28,000 here, is under renewed pressure from exporters in the developing world and is seeking a new set of rules to be agreed at the GATT table.

The province's £ 1.5bn agriculture and food industry will be offered new markets if the French will agree to endorse last year's Blair House agreement cutting subsidies to EC farmers.

France, Europe's largest exporter of food, is under pressure from a powerful farm lobby but remains the only obstacle to an agreement on agriculture and GATT progress.

The Northern Ireland Textiles Association has repeatedly called for a swift conclusion to the talks process to safeguard jobs and businesses here. Uncertainty has thrown a questionmark over investment in both textiles and food processing.

Said GATT chairman Peter Sutherland: "If we don't have a Uruguay Round you can forget talk of a new world order in the post-Iron Curtain Age."
