EC AGREES TRADE DEAL WITH ARGENTINA
  The European Community (EC) agreed a
  trade deal with Argentina designed to compensate the country
  following the entry of Spain and Portugal into the group, EC
  officials said.
      Under the deal agreed by EC foreign ministers, Argentina
  will gain additional trading rights on a series of products
  including meat, fish and cereals by-products.
      But ministers failed to agree on new trade deals with
  Canada and Japan and are due to study these again, the
  officials said.
      The deal with Argentina was agreed by a majority of EC
  states after West Germany withdrew objections to increased
  quotas for Argentina on high-quality beef.
      Ireland and France continued to oppose the deal on meat,
  saying that the main dispute was over sales of cereals
  substitutes, but they were outvoted by the other states, the
  officials said. Under the deal, Argentina will benefit from
  improved quotas on exports of beef to the EC. In particular the
  quota on high-quality Hilton beef will be raised by 4,500
  tonnes to 34,300 tonnes and quotas on frozen boneless beef will
  be increased by 3,000 tonnes to 53,000 tonnes.
      Argentina will also benefit from an additional quota of
  5,000 tonnes of frozen hake fillets at 10 pct duty and reduced
  levies on 550,000 tonnes of wheat bran, the officials said.
      The improved trade terms were offered after Argentina said
  that Spain and Portugal's entry into the EC affected their
  exports of cereals substitutes to these two countries. They
  have been negotiated under the rules of GATT (General Agreement
  on Tariffs and Trade).
      But officials said ministers had been unable to resolve
  Canadian claims that its sales of certain fish to Spain had
  been affected by the country's EC membership.
      Officials said the EC had asked GATT to arbitrate on the
  fish dispute with Canada.
      Ministers also decided to continue talks with Japan. The EC
  claims that Spain and Portugal's entry into the group has
  improved trade conditions for Japan but has been unsatisfied
  with Japanese offers of compensation.
      Japan's main offers were to improve inspection systems on
  citrus fruits to aid EC exports, to improve tariffs for some
  other farm produce, to increase tariffs for leather footwear
  and to offer better trade terms for Spain and Portugal.
      EC External Trade Commissioner Willy De Clercq told
  journalists: "We maintain our position that the (Japanese)
  concessions were not enough."
      "We hope that there will be an improvement," he said.
  

