Negotiators given Gatt deadline

WASHINGTON - In a fresh attempt to give new momentum to

a settlement in the world trade talks in Geneva, the United States and the European Community jointly issued a statement yesterday calling for negotiations to end by mid-January at the latest, writes David Usborne.

The statement was made at the end of an EC-US summit in Washington and was aimed at reversing encroaching gloom at the Geneva talks, which have shown signs of stalling in recent days in spite of a recent US-EC agreement on farm subsidies.

The message was directed specifically at Arthur Dunkel, the Secretary General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt), and demanded that negotiators from all 108 countries involved continue to work before and after Christmas to get a political agreement.