NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, December 8, 1993
7
South African council commences in effort to give Blacks government
The Associated Press
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Blacks took seats in government for the first time Tuesday to help steer the country toward democracy and end 341 years of white domination.
Right-wing whites staged a theatrical bid to stress their opposition to reforms, but their seizure of an abandoned fort hundreds of miles away was dwarfed by the significance of the Transitional Executive Council's first meeting.
"To be part of the TEC means the struggle we have engaged in over the years is bearing fruit," said the African National Congress' secretary-general, Cyril Ramaphosa.
The council, composed of representatives from the ANC, government
and other Black and white groups, will serve as a government watchdog before the country's first multiracial elections April 27.
The election of a new Parliament in April will give Blacks their first vote in national affairs since Dutch settlers arrived in 1652.
It is the first time the Black majority has had the power to affect the future from within the halls of government.
"Certainly the TEC is the final step in the process to bring about true democracy in South Africa," said the government's constitutional affairs minister, Roelf Meyer, one of seven whites among the 32 politicians who met at the old President's Council chamber.
Each of 16 parties sent two representatives. Three other parties
planned to join the meetings later in the week.
The Conservatives have joined other right-wing white groups and the mainly Black Inkatha Freedom Party in a boycott of the council, saying it evolved from negotiations hijacked by the ANC and President F.W. de Klerk's government.
The Conservatives, the Zulu-dominated Inkatha and smaller right-wing groups say the ANC will destroy their followers' cultures and languages. They have demanded guarantees of sovereignty for ethnic groups, something the ANC says would amount to another version of apartheid.
Last-minute efforts late Monday to bring the holdouts into the Executive Council failed, but they were urged to join if they changed their minds.
While it does not have the power to introduce laws, the council can veto government decisions on security, intelligence-gathering and finances. The required votes for a council veto vary according to the issue.
Ramaphosa said the council must not be a "toothless" advisory body, but de Klerk stressed that the council "isn't the new government of South Africa."
In its first work of substance, the council approved South Africa's request to the International Monetary Fund for a $850 million drought-relief loan.
The council began at 10:20 a.m. with a moment of prayer, followed by brief comments from delegates.
The council then adjourned until tomorrow.
United States, France in talks standoff
By Martin Crutsinger The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - With 116 nations engaged in a historic effort to draw up trade rules for the 21st century, why does it appear to be a battle to the death between just two players, the Americans and the French?
Just a year ago, the United States threatened to triple the price of imported white wines because French officials would not relent on subsidies that were costing U.S. soybean farmers $1 billion annually in lost sales.
That dispute was eventually resolved by something called the Blair House accord, which dealt with the much broader issue of all farm subsidies.
The reduction of trade-distorting farm subsidies has been a key goal since the inception of the
ANALYSIS
Uruguay Round of global trade talks.
However, French officials, confronted by 1 million angry French farmers, said they would never accept the Blair House agreement.
All of a sudden last week, with the Dec. 15 deadline for Uruguay Round fast approaching, the Clinton administration switched positions and said it would consider changes in Blair House to meet French concerns as long as the EC was willing to make similar concessions to meet U.S. concerns.
The U.S. demands involve films and Airbus, the European consortium that is now the world's second-biggest manufacturer of civilian airplanes behind Boeing Co., with a government-run French company holding 37.9 percent ownership.
A deal has been struck that will allow both U.S. and European farmers to sell more government-subsidized grain into world markets over the next six years — while still hitting a target of cutting the volume of such subsidies by 21 percent at the end of
Commercial aircraft are America's No.1 manufacturing export. U.S. negotiators are seeking a cap on government subsidies to Airbus, which holds about 28 percent of the world market for jetliners.
six years.
The American film, television and home video industry had worldwide sales of $8 billion last year with 55 percent of those sales coming in Western Europe.
That occurred despite the fact that many European countries, led by France, put quotas on the number of American entertainment shows that can be broadcast.
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