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

{OCDE REVUE DE PRESSE/OECD PRESS REVIEW}
••••
October 23 Octobre 1991
••••
LE TEMPS - Région parisienne: Matinée
grise et brumeuse. Timides rayons de
soleil l’après-midi. Il fera 10 .
••••
SG/PRB/D(91)180
AFP: LE MONDE EN BREF
BELGRADE - La Serbie et ses alliés à la présidence fédérale yougoslave
ont décrété la mobilisation immédiate des troupes "dans la partie du pays
qui souhaite rester en Yougoslavie" et annoncé une "action décisive"
contre la Croatie, a indiqué un communiqué de la présidence cité par
l’agence TANJUG.
KINSHASA - Le Zaïre a été en proie à une nouvelle vague d’émeutes et de
pillages dans différentes villes de l’est du pays, notamment Lubumbashi,
capitale du shaba, à 2 000 km au sud-est de Kinshasa, totalement mise à
sac dans la nuit de lundi et la matinée de mardi.
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THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE CONFERENCE
FINANCIAL TIMES: Palestinians name delegates
"Palestinians from the occupied territories last night announced their
list of delegates to next week’s Middle East peace conference in Madrid,
selecting negotiators who appeared to meet conditions laid down by Israel
for its participation. The 21-person delegation includes 7 people,
including Mr Faisal Husseini, the leader, whom Israel has indicated it
would not agree to negotiate with. But the 7 are designated as advisers
who will not take a direct part in the conference or the bilateral talks.
Mr Yitzhak Shamir, the Israeli prime minister, yesterday said in
Strasbourg that Israel would simply ignore anyone claiming to speak for
the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Madrid. ’We will not speak to
them, and they will not ask us any questions’, he said. However, Mr Yassir
Arafat, the PLO leader, has sought to emphasise the organisation’s primary
role in the negotiations and closeness to the delegation. He said
yesterday in Paris that ’Everyone knows that the Palestinians will
represent the PLO. Every Palestinian is a member of the PLO inside and
outside the (Israeli-occupied) territories’."
IRAQ
HERALD TRIBUNE: Saddam plans long-term survival
BAGHDAD - "After pinning several pounds of medals, and hanging multiple
sashes and honorary swords from the ’mother of battles’ on his top
lieutenants and political cronies, President Saddam Hussein told a
nationwide television audience that Iraq was like the woman who chose to
be murdered rather than submit to rape. Iraq’s honor, Mr Saddam said, was
more important than surrendering to the dictates of the allied coalition,
which has forced Iraq to submit to one ultimatum after another since Iraqi
forces were driven from Kuwait last winter. The 90-minute program of
bravado and political bonding on Monday night between Mr Saddam and Arab
Ba’ath Socialist Party apparatchiks who continue to stand beside him,
because there are few other choices for them, was part of a forceful and
combative new campaign by Mr Saddam to pull the country together for a
long-term survival strategy against a United Nations trade embargo and
political pressure from the United States and its allies."
THE EC - EFTA TREATY
FINANCIAL TIMES: How the early morning deal was struck
"The European Economic Area treaty approved early yesterday by the 12 EC
members and the 7-nation European Free Trade Association is a juggernaut
of a text just over 1,000 pages with 12,000 pages of 1,500 Community laws
appended to it. This is the acquis communautaire, the sinews of the 4
freedoms - for the movement of people, goods, services and capital - to
which the EFTA nations are subscribing to create a market of 380m
consumers accounting for 43% of world trade... The negotiations had been
stuck all this year on EC demands for more EFTA fish, guaranteed road
transit rights for its heavy lorries through Swiss and Austrian Alpine
passes, and for ’cohesion’ money to help the EC’s poorer, southern members
catch up. On fish: Iceland, it was tacitly understood, had special claim
to reserve to itself most of the fishing rights which provide most of its
livelihood. Norway has had to concede, but not much... On transport:
Austria has agreed to issue 1.3m transit licences for EC heavy lorries.
This freezes the level of permits for all members except Greece, which
gets a 29% increase to 60,500 licences a year... On finance: the EFTA
nations agreed to supply Ecu2bn in soft loans (with a 3% interest subsidy
and 2-year grace period) and Ecu425m in grants as a contribution to the
EC’s structural funds, to help poorer nations like Greece and Portugal to
catch up with the rest of the EC."
EASTERN EUROPE
HERALD TRIBUNE: The Ukraine resolves to create army of 400,000
MOSCOW - "The parliament of the Ukraine took its drive for independence
a step further Tuesday and authorized the creation of a 400,000-man army
for the republic... The Kiev parliament stressed in its action that a
’principle neutrality’ would underlie an independent Ukrainian military
force. The lawmakers also declared that Ukrainian officials would pursue
the proclaimed policy of making the republic nuclear-free by somehow
safely removing and neutralizing existing Soviet nuclear weapons in the
republic."
OECD ECONOMIES
France
HERALD TRIBUNE: ’Enough’, Mitterrand tells farmers
PARIS - "President François Mitterrand vowed Tuesday to hold firm in the
face of a wave of labor unrest and to clamp down on violent demonstrations
by French farmers. Mr Mitterrand insisted he would not abandon his program
of economic discipline despite growing protests from labor unions and
groups including nurses, transport workers and dockers. Facing a 24-hour
general strike Thursday that threatens to bring public transport and other
essential services to a standstill, Mr Mitterrand sought to win back the
increasingly disenchanted French public in an hour-long radio interview...
’Enough is enough’, Mr Mitterrand said of roving bands of farmers who
have, in frequent incidents over the past few weeks, attacked trucks
carrying foreign products, broken windows, burned tires and forced
ministers to cancel speaking engagements in the provinces. The outbreak of
violence, ’in a certain way, puts the republic in peril’, he said... Mr
Mitterrand had conciliatory words for protesting nurses, who took to the
streets again Tuesday by the tens of thousands in an effort to win higher
pay and better working conditions. Health workers have ’immediate needs
which we must meet’, the French president said... And Mr Mitterrand warned
groups bearing grievances that the government was simply in no position to
respond to all complaints. ’If we gave in to everybody, we would have to
raise taxes’, he said. ’Should we sabotage our economic policy just when
it is beginning to bear fruit?’"
Danemark
LA TRIBUNE: Distribution des prix pour le Grand Belt
COPENHAGUE - "’Ce sera le pont suspendu le plus long du monde (6,8km),
soit 214 mètres de plus que Humberg Bridge en Grande-Bretagne, détenteur
du record actuel’. Les Danois ont annoncé fièrement mardi la signature du
’contrat du siècle’, celle de l’ouvrage du pont et de la liaison du Grand
Belt, d’un coût de 5,4 mrds de couronnes (4,9 mrds de FF) et qui constitue
le dernier jalon du lien fixe (ponts et tunnels ferroviaires) qui reliera
l’île de Copenhague au continent européen. Ce contrat est revenu à 2
consortiums étrangers: le 1er est un italo-américain (CMF sud, Italie, et
Steimann, Etats-Unis), qui sera chargé de la superstructure (suspente,
câbles porteurs, etc.) de ce pont autoroutier à 4 voies. le tablier du
pont et les pylônes seront construits par un second consortium germanonéerlandais (Great Belt-East Bridge Consortium)."
Canada
FINANCIAL TIMES: New Democrats win third Canadian province
TORONTO - "Canada’s left-leaning New Democratic party has won a
landslide election victory in the prairie province of Saskatchewan, giving
it control of 3 provinces with more than half the country’s population.
The NDP, which took office in Ontario a year ago and in British Columbia
last week, won 53 of 66 seats in the Saskatchewan legislature. The
Progressive Conservatives, which have ruled the province since 1982, won
12 seats. Saskatchewan is the world’s largest uranium producer. But,
despite the NDP’s general aversion to nuclear power, the new government is
unlikely to restrict the uranium industry. The Saskatchewan party’s
leader, Mr Roy Romanow, is one of Canada’s most respected politicians and
is likely to play a key role in talks to keep Quebec in the federation."
United Kingdom
THE TIMES: Fall in exports adds to gloom over economy
"A sharp drop in visible exports in September reinforced City fears that
exports have started to falter and will not provide the boost to recovery
that had been widely forecast. The disappointing export figures were
contained in the latest official data, which showed the deficit on visible
trade narrowing from 796 million pounds sterling in August to 729 million
pounds sterling last month... The trade figures came the day after
provisional retail sales figures that showed no rebound in September from
the 1.2% fall in August."
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