Today was "agriculture day" at the Seattle trade talks, but there was little progress toward an agreement on how future agricultural negotiations should proceed. A much-awaited "chairman's text" on agriculture turned out to be only a summing-up of still-incompatible U.S., European and Cairns Group positions. The text was eagerly sought out by lobbyists and reporters at the periphery of the talks, but introduced no new concepts and did not bridge the multiple gaps that still divide negotiators.

Some observers said three words summed up the differences on the agricultural portions of the statement that will ultimately be issued by trade ministers to commence new trade talks. The words are "elimination" (the United States and the Cairns Group want to eliminate export subsidies and the EU refuses); "integration" (the Cairns Group wants agriculture to be integrated into the trade rules that apply to manufactured products); and "multifunctionality" (Europeans want to introduce this nebulous concept into international trade law).

Farm lobbyists seemed concerned that U.S. negotiators might agree to use the word "multifunctionality" in the ministerial statement. In their view, that would be seen as a European victory, even if U.S. negotiators do not think the word itself means much. U.S. farm groups also thought they detected a softening in the Clinton Administration's position to "eliminate" export subsidies. At a seminar Wednesday afternoon, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Richard Rominger said the coming negotiations would "eliminate or significantly reduce" export subsidies, a choice of words that some saw as a subtle change in rhetoric.

Work continued through the evening. Secretary Glickman had a negotiating session with other ministers that began at 9 p.m. Seattle time and included only the Secretary and one adviser. For the talks to stay on schedule, a breakthrough will be needed sometime on Thursday.

To judge from the composite draft text prepared today by Singapore official George Yeo, who is chairing the agriculture talks for the moment, issues of import restrictions are not settled either. The text shows that while the United States and the Cairns Group want to reduce import barriers with "no a priori exclusions," Europe does not want that phrase included. ("A priori" is a bit of Latin that means nothing would be excluded from discussion as a matter of principle.)