U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, ending two days of talks with European Community officials, rejected suggestions Tuesday that the U.S. pursues protectionist trade policies.
Kantor edged away from threats to impose sanctions against the EC after Sir Leon Brittan, his European counterpart, offered concessions in a dispute that has brought the U.S. and Europe close to a trade war.
Kantor gave the 12-nation EC at least three more weeks to resolve the dispute. He and Brittan will meet again April 19 and 20 in Washington.
No details of their talks, the first Kantor has held in Brussels, home of the EC, since taking office, were announced, but Kantor said Brittan had moved toward meeting U.S. concerns.
Washington has threatened to bar U.S. government purchases of European products in telecommunications, water, energy and transportation because a new EC rule favors European contractors over foreign bidders.
The EC has threatened to retaliate, and this could touch off a trade war delaying world recession recovery.
After his talks, Kantor spoke to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce luncheon where several European businessmen complained that the U.S., while preaching free trade, pursues a protectionist course through the Buy American Act.
Kantor acknowledged that there is “no completely open market in the world” but added: “The Buy American Act has been around for 62 years and has hardly had a major impact on European or other international business.”
He said the U.S. believed this was the “time to open up, not close up” in trade. Concerns have been expressed in Europe that the U.S. could become more protectionist under President Clinton because such policies are associated among Europeans with the Democratic Party.
Kantor said polls have shown that most Americans believe past trade accords have been harmful to U.S. interests. He said the Clinton administration must educate the public that this is not true and that it is not in the American interest “to withdraw from the world.”
In his final talks, Kantor met with Jacques Delors, chief executive of the EC; Joao de Deus Pinheiro, the EC’s culture chief; and Agriculture Commissioner Rene Steichen.
