Brussels, 30/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - As announced on page 3, Europeans and Americans are to gather on Wednesday in Queluz (Portugal) for a summit devoted to the "New Economy: Innovation, Information and Growth", and to political and economic current issues. The agenda of the 14th Transatlantic Summit - the last for President Clinton - is particularly full and will be covered in four sessions:
1. At 8h30, the foreign affairs officials - European Commissioner Chris Patten, Portuguese Minister Jaime Gama, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Mr CFSP for the EU, Javier Solana - will review the "hot points" of current world political affairs: Africa (famine, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe); Middle East (Lebanon, Palestinians); Cyprus and Turkey, Russia (destruction of chemical weapons); Ukraine (closure of Chernobyl power station); UN reform; Israel, the International Criminal Tribunal, Enlargement, and the trial of Iranian Jews. At the same time, trade officials - European Commissioner Pascal Lamy, Portuguese Minister Joaquim Pina Moura and US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky - will make an overview of questions relating to the World Trade Organisation (accession by China, hope and possibility for launching future multilateral cycle) and to the "worksite" of trans-atlantic economic partnership (technical obstacles to trade, services). On the agenda of this trade session there will also be transatlantic friction over subsidies - in the aeronautics sector, that Washington has recently threatened with submitting to WTO arbitration, and the most bitter trade disputes of the time: the export subsidies regime called "Foreign Sales Corporations" (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.9), the European embargo on hormoned meat, the Community banana import regime, the "Carrousel" legislation (recently adopted by the United states in order to make US sanctions weigh on the different sectors of European industry), etc.
2. At 9h45 the ministerial plenary session will meet in order to prepare the session of leaders and the different common statements foreseen: stability in the Balkans, joint initiative on transmissible diseases in Africa, data protection, peace in the Middle East (possibly), the future WTO trade round. It will provide the opportunity also for partners to make a rapid overview of the situation in Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, Romania and Bulgaria, before taking stock of their cooperation on scientific and technological research and the fight against drugs trafficking. The Europeans will take advantage of this to recall - as is now becoming a tradition in transatlantic summits - that the ball is still in the American court for finalising the Helms-Burton/D'Amato affairs.
3. Towards 13h00, the Summit was to meet on the theme of the "new economy, innovation, information and growth", or how to harmoniously combine these targets and create jobs. It will also be a question of security and trade, taking up the main questions treated at ministerial level. The White House hopes to highlight the problem of infectious diseases which afflict the African Continent, in this context and in the prospect of a broader G8 initiative. An advisory forum on biotechnologies should come out of this meeting to attempt to de-fuse the conflict which is potentially harmful for trade relations, establishing a dialogue followed up between representatives of trade circles, the academic world and European and American governments.
At 13h30 to 13h40, a meeting will be held with representatives of the round table of industrialists (the Transatlantic Business Dialogue), which will close the Summit.