{OCDE REVUE DE PRESSE/OECD PRESS REVIEW} •••• February

{OCDE REVUE DE PRESSE/OECD PRESS REVIEW}
••••
February 5 Février 1991
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LE TEMPS - Région parisienne: Toujours
très froid, brumeux, nuageux. Vent
d’est faible. Il fera 0˚.
••••
SG/PRB/D(91)24
AFP: LE MONDE EN BREF
TEHERAN - Le président iranien Ali Akbar Hachémi-Rafsandjani a déclaré
que pour obtenir le rétablissement de la paix dans la région, il était
prêt à rencontrer son homologue irakien Saddam Hussein et il a envisagé
des pourparlers entre l’Iran et les Etats-Unis. A WASHINGTON, la
proposition iranienne a été froidement accueillie, le porte-parole de la
Maison-Blanche, M. Marlin Fitzwater, déclarant notamment que les
Etats-Unis voulaient obtenir un retrait irakien du Koweit et "ne
prévoyaient pas de porter leur attention" sur autre chose. A NEW YORK, le
secrétaire général de l’ONU, M. Javier Perez de Cuellar, a en revanche
estimé que l’Iran était "en bonne position pour proposer une formule afin
de metre un terme à la situation actuelle".
NORFOLK (Etats-Unis) - Six engins explosifs ont été découverts fixés à 2
réservoirs de produits chimiques dans la partie commerciale du port de
Norfolk (Virginie), à une quinzaine de kilomètres de la plus importante
base navale des Etats-Unis. Deux des bombes avaient été désamorcées à
21h30 GMT.
REUTER - WORLD NEWS SUMMARY
ROME - The new Italian party that hopes to inherit the votes of 10
million communists was left leaderless and deeply split only a day after
rising from the ashes of what was the West’s largest communist party.
WASHINGTON - Delegates from 130 nations began negotiations on a new
international agreement they hoped would limit greenhouse effect gas
emissions and avert a potentially disastrous warming of the earth’s
climate.
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PERSIAN GULF WAR
HERALD TRIBUNE: Japan’s aid at stake
TOKYO - "With his political survival at stake, Prime Minister Toshiki
Kaifu defended a plan Monday to give $9bn to allied forces in the Gulf war
but could not promise that the money would be used for nonmilitary
purposes. The budget committee of Japan’s lower house of parliament opened
a 6-day session to consider the bill that provides for the aid. If it
fails, Mr. Kaifu may have to resign... At the committee meeting Monday,
Takatoshi Fujita of the opposition Social Democratic Party grilled Mr.
Kaifu on whether the additional cash would be used as part of US war
expenditure."
LES ECHOS: CEE: Oui à l’aide, non à la politique
BRUXELLES - "Faute d’avoir pu parler d’une seule voix depuis le début de
la crise du Golfe, les Etats membres de la Communauté européenne cherchent
à faire preuve de solidarité financière. Réunis hier à Bruxelles, plusieurs ministres des Afaires étrangères ont, en effet, proposé de financer
partiellement les dépenses militaires engagées par le Royaume-Uni et la
France dans la guerre du Golfe... En dépit de ce constat rassurant, de
nombreuses divergences subsistent sur les moyens et les buts de cette
union, les Pays-Bas et le Royaume-Uni continuant notamment à refuser les
transferts de souveraineté importants, en faveur de la CEE. Des réticences
qui n’ont pas empêché la France et l’Allemagne de reprendre, hier,
l’initiative en présentant une nouvelle proposition ’pour mettre en oeuvre
une politique étrangère et de sécurité commune’."
MONETARY PROBLEMS
FINANCIAL TIMES: G7 stops dollar slide
LONDON - "Concerted intervention on foreign exchange markets by central
banks yesterday halted a steep fall in the dollar and provided a show of
unity by the Group of Seven leading industrial countries. The action in
buying dollars involved the central banks of all the G7 countries, with
the exception of Japan. The moves came after the dollar hit a new low
against the D-Mark in a slide prompted by the widening in the interest
rate differential between the US and Germany at the end of last week."
COMMUNAUTE EUROPEENNE
LES ECHOS: Pöhl pour l’élargissement
DAVOS (Suisse) - "... Le président de la Bundesbank, Karl Otto Pöhl, qui
préside également le Comité des gouverneurs des banques centrales dela
CEe, a jetéun véritable pavé dans la mare. Devant la réunion annuelle 1991
du World Economic forum..., M. Pöhl a estimé que la Communauté européenne
devait s’élargir non seulement à des pays comme l’Autriche, la Suède, la
Norvège ou la Suisse, mais aussi trouver des formes d’association avec les
pays de l’Est comme la Pologne, la Hongrie, la Tchécoslovaquie, et même,
comme l’a souhaité son président, Turgut Ozal, avec la Turquie."
FINANCIAL TIMES: Dialogue offered to USSR
BRUSSELS - "European Community foreign ministers yesterday decided to
invite their new Soviet counterpart, Mr Alexander Bessmertynkh, to a
meeting to engage the Soviet government in a dialogue over the handling of
its economic and political problems. Mr Jacques Poos, foreign minister of
Luxembourg, which holds the EC presidency, said the Community’s double
track approach of combining political dialogue with warnings about cutting
economic aid had ’a certain impact on the Soviet central government’. The
EC welcomed the decision to hold referendums in the Baltic as paving the
way for negotiation between Moscow and those republics. EC officials hoped
the Soviet minister might attend the next meeting of EC foreign ministers
in 2 weeks’ time."
COMPANIES AND MARKETS
WALL STREET JOURNAL: GM slashes dividends, workforce
DETROIT - "General Motors Corp. sent stockholders and employees a
distress signal, cutting its common stock dividend 47% and announcing a
sweeping cost-reduction program taht will hit new-product spending,
white-collar staffs and parts suppliers... In actions approved at a board
meeting in New York yesterday, the company ordered: - A $500 million cut a
year in capital spending to about $7bn a year for the 1991-94 period. Some 15,000 North American white-collar jobs slashed from the payrolls by
next year, starting with the elimination of •,000 salaried jobs this year.
- Payments to parts suppliers cut by a total of $2bn a year by 1993. This
would be accomplished by demanding ’substantial’ price rollbacks from
suppliers in each of the next 3 years."
FINANCIAL TIMES: Tin prices hit record low
LONDON - The sustained crisis in the international tin market, where
prices are at their lowest level for at least 30 years, yesterday claimed
its second important victim in a week. RTZ Corporation announced it is to
close Capper pass in North Humberside, Britain’s only tin smelter, in 6
months time because low prices had made it unviable. Some 489 jobs will be
lost.... Increasing output from Brazil, whose high-grade, low cost
deposits have moved it to the top of the league of tin producers, and
China, has kept prices severely depressed. Tin averaged $8,595,60 a tonne
on the LME in 1989 but last year the average was down to $6,193. Analysts
suggest the average will slip again in 1991."
OECD ECONOMIES
Sweden - Denmark
FINANCIAL TIMES: Scandinavia bridge accord
"Sweden and Denmark took a step towards fulfilling a century-old dream
by at last agreeing in principle to build a bridge between their 2
countries. Swedish Transport Minister Georg Andersson said after talks
with Danish counterpart Kaj Ikast that a combined road and rail bridge
should be built over the narrow Oresund sound between Copenhagen and the
southern Swedish town of Malmo... Construction, estimated to cost around
Skr12bn ($2bn), could begin by the end of 1993, Swedish transport ministry
spokesman Jonas Bjelfvenstam said. The bridge would be built and run by a
Swedish-Danish state consortium and financed by tolls."
United States
WALL STREET JOURNAL: War sets low-key tone of budget
WASHINGTON - "Faced with a war in the Persian Gulf, US President George
Bush has prepared a budget that eschews bold and controversial initiatives
at home. Many of the proposals in the new budget are leftovers from
previous years; others are innovative but minor. And as for plans to
combat the recession, to attack the record-high budget deficit or to pay
the costs of the fighting in the Mideast - they are nowhere to be found in
the 2,026-page document... The president’s budget - the first step in a
tax-and-spending fight with the Congress that will culminate this fall proposes record spending of $1.45 trillion and forecasts revenue of $1.17
trillion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1992. The president wants
more spending on scientific research, less on defense. He wants to squeeze
doctors and hospitals and spend more for highways."
END-OF-TEXT