Untitled

{OCDE REVUE DE PRESSE/OECD PRESS REVIEW}
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October 13 Octobre 1992
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LE TEMPS - Région parisienne: Moins
mauvais qu’hier: variable. Vent faible.
Il fera 13 .
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SG/PRB/D(92)171
AFP: LE MONDE EN BREF
LE CAIRE - Le plus violent séisme qu’ait connu l’Egypte a frappé Le
Caire et sa région lundi à 15H10 locales (13H10 GMT), faisant au minimum
351 morts et près de 4 000 blessés. D’une durée de 60 secondes, la
secousse, d’une magnitude de 5,5 sur l’échelle de Richter a été
enregistrée dans un rayon de 100 à 150 km autour de la capitale.
TBILISSI - M. Edouard Chevardnadze a indiqué lundi à Tbilissi qu’il
avait recueilli près de 95% des suffrages lors des élections de dimanche
en Géorgie, tout en soulignant qu’il ne disposait pas encore des résultats
définitifs. M. Chervadnadze était l’unique candidat au poste de président
du parlement, équivalent à celui de chef de l’Etat.
BUCAREST - Le président sortant roumain Ion Iliescu a été réélu pour un
mandat de 4 ans, avec environ 60% des suffrages exprimés au 2ème tour de
scrutin dimanche, contre 39,5%, à son rival Emil Constantinescu, candidat
de la Convention Démocratique de Roumanie, selon des résultats quasidéfinitifs publiés lundi soir à Bucarest par le Bureau électoral central.
STOCKHOLM - Le Prix Nobel de médecine 1992 a été attribué lundi à
Stockholm à 2 biochimistes américains, Edmond H. Fischer et Edwin G.
Krebs, pour leurs découvertes concernant "la phosphorylation réversible
des protéines en tant que mécanisme de régulation biologique". Le Prix
récompense les 2 chercheurs pour leurs travaux fondamentaux sur l’un des
mécanismes-moteur de la vie, la mise en action, ou la mise en sommeil, des
enzymes.
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URUGUAY ROUND TRADE NEGOTIATIONS
WALL STREET JOURNAL: US, EC fail to break deadlock
BRUSSELS - "Top-level talks between the European Community and US ended
without an agreement to unblock the Uruguay Round of world-trade
negotiations, though both sides held open the possibility of future
meetings after lower-level negotiations... The EC spokesman said
discussions would now continue at a technical level. ’These results will
be reported to the political authorities and depending on the results of
the technical contacts, Mr. Madigan and Mr. MacSharry will meet again at a
date that has yet to be fixed’, he added. Mrs. Hills and Mr. Andriessen
are due in any case to see each other this weekend in Toronto at a regular
meeting of the EC, US, Canada and Japan to discuss trade issues, most
notably the Uruguay Round, held under the auspices of the GATT... The lack
of agreement in Brussels came amid increasingly strident warnings from the
French government that it would block any agreement that reduced subsidies
to its farmers, who are already up in arms about an accord earlier this
year to revamp the EC’s costly Common Agricultural Policy."
EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
FINANCIAL TIMES: Brussels drafts plan to end EC power struggle
BRUSSELS - "The European Commission wants a settlement between Brussels
and European Community member states to resolve the power struggle within
the EC, clarify the principle of subsidiarity and end the crisis over the
Maastricht treaty. A confidential draft of its proposed deal obtained by
the FINANCIAL TIMES shows that Brussels is aiming for a solution analogous
to the division of powers detailed in the 10th amendment to the US
constitution, which reserves for individual states power not vested in the
federal government... The draft proposes 3 main principles which will be
put forward to the EC summit in Birmingham on Friday... Brussels wants to:
- Move from intrusive and binding legislation towards framework laws which
member states would agree but implement according to national
circumstances. Devolve much responsibility for implementing EC law to
member states. - Decentralise management of ’a number of the Commission’s
more burdensome activities’ including agricultural market and regional
spending."
THE INDEPENDENT: EC ministers deny planning to thwart UK
LONDON/BRUSSELS - "Britain’s hopes of a smooth-running European
Community summit in Birmingham were further called into question last
night as the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Spain held secret
talks in Paris to discuss a joint summit strategy. The dinner meeting was
disclosed as Spain emerged increasingly as a member state that would exact
a high price for signing on to Britain’s much-vaunted notion of
subsidiarity at the summit... The flurry of last-minute European diplomacy
before Friday’s summit was also upset by report that the European
Commission had drawn up a ’secret treaty’ to allow some EC members to
leave and set up their own community. Rumours that France and Germany were
considering leading a small group of the members towards a swift monetary
union have been repeatedly denied in Paris and Bonn since last month’s
crisis in the European exchange-rate mechanism."
CHINA
HERALD TRIBUNE: Quicker shift to market economy
BEIJING - "In the first major meeting to be held since the collapse of
communism in the Soviet Union, China’s communist Party promised Monday to
speed up capitalist-style change as the only path for survival, but
insisted there could be no alternative to party rule. ’Practice in China
has proved that where market forces have been given full play, there the
economy has been vigorous and has developed in a sound way’, said the
Communist Party chairman, Jiang Zemin, speaking in Bejing’s Great Hall of
the People for 2 hours. ’We must continue to intensify the market
forces’.... Although he said China should allow market forces to regulate
the allocation of resources, and use pricing and competition to weed out
inefficient enterprises, Mr. Jiang also said China would keep the public
sector, which includes ailing state-owned enterprises, dominant."
OECD ECONOMIES
Germany
FINANCIAL TIMES: Siemens to shed 2,300 more jobs
FRANKFURT - "... Siemens, the electrical and electronics engineering
giant, said it had been forced to speed up rationalisation of its
loss-making semiconductor business. The division, which has already shed
almost 2,000 jobs this year, plans to reduce its international workforce
by a further 2,300 to 11,000 by the time restructuring is complete in
1995, Mr Jürgen Knorr, managing director, said yesterday."
FINANCIAL TIMES: Union leader offers 5-year deal on pay rises
LONDON/BONN - "The leader of Germany’s largest and most powerful trade
union has offered the government 5 years of pay peace during which he
would expect pay rises to do no more than preserve the purchasing power of
his 3.5m members. Mr Franz Steinkühler, who will today be re-elected as
leader of the IG Metall engineering union, made the offer as the union’s
opening shot in the renewed debate about a ’solidarity pact’ to place the
financing of German unification on a sounder footing."
United Kingdom
THE INDEPENDENT: British coal to axe 20,000
"In one of the most dramatic announcements since the recession began,
British Coal is today expected to reveal its plan to close most of the
mining industry. Amid calls from pitmen’s leaders for a national strike
and legal action, management will disclose its intention to shut 30 of the
remaining 50 pits before next March with the loss of 30,000 jobs. Twenty
collieries and 20,000 jobs are planned to go immediately."
THE INDEPENDENT: Lucas Industries sheds 2,750 jobs
"Lucas Industries, the automotive and aerospace group, is to make 2,750
employees redundant worldwide as part of an £88.4m restrucruting programme
involving the closure of 16 factory sites."
Italie
LE FIGARO: Les syndicats unis contre l’austérité
ROME - "A la veille de la grève générale lancée par les 3 grandes
centrales syndicales, CGIL, CISL et UIL, rien ne va plus depuis la sortie
de la lire du SME et le plan d’austérité proposé le 17 décembre dernier
par le gouvernement Amato... Bercées par le succès du miracle italien dans
les années quatre-vingt, les classes dirigeantes n’avaient pas voulu
s’attaquer de front aux plaies qui gangrènent l’économie: un déficit
bugétaire de 150 000 mrds de lires en 1992, soit 10,7% du PIB, une dette
publique abyssale (104% du PIB)... Mais il a fallu aller plus loin. En
décidant un plan d’économie drastique de 93 000 mrds de lires (330 mrds de
francs, 6% de la richesse annuelle), qui touche à la fois aux recettes et
aux dépenses budgétaires, le gouvernement a pris le risque de soulever
tous les mécontentements. Le plan Amato a provoqué un véritable tollé. Il
touche les points les plus sensibles de l’équilibre social: gel des
salaires de certains fonctionnaires, allongement progressif de la période
d’activité de tous les salariés avant la retraite, forte réduction des
remboursements de médicaments."
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