The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 2, Ed. 1 Tuesday, July 10, 1990 Page: 1 of 8
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Kicelhresher
VOLUME 78, NO. 2
RICE'S INTERNATIONAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER
TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1990
Score of opening: Houston's heat 101, ceremonies 13 minutes
by Kirsten Danis
Columbia University
Sweltering temperatures short-
ened the opening ceremonies of the
16th annual Economic Summit of
Industrialized Nations, where Presi-
dent George Bush and first lady Bar-
bara Bush welcomed seven other
world leaders and officially opened
summit talks.
Heads of government from Can-
ada, France, Italy, Japan, the United
Kingdom, and West Germany, and
the President of the European Com-
munity joined Bush on an air-condi-
tioned platform in Rice University's
Academic Quadrangle for the cere-
mony, but even the temperature
control could not combat the Hous-
ton heat and humidity. A 101 heat
index (the combined effect of heat
and humidity) limited the ceremony
to a scant 13 minutes.
Arriving via motorcade which
blocked Houston traffic for almost
three hours, the leaders were
greeted by fanfare which included a
red carpet, a 21-gun salute, and
seven national anthems played by
United States Armed Forces bands.
The group walked shoulder-to-
shoulder as they approached the
president and his wife.
- Underneath the blistering after-
noon sun, Bush welcomed his com-
panions and thanked Houston for
hosting the summit
The president limited his com-
ments to a short formal greeting last-
ing less than a minute, and he re-
fused to answer any questions about
agricultural trade, saying, "Perhaps I
forgot to tell you, but I dont take
questions at photo opportunities. My
apologies."
Earlier in the day, Bush met pri-
vately with both French President
Francois Mitterand and West Ger-
man Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Bush
and Mitterand discussed the GAIT
Uruguay Round of global trade talks,
where the issue of farm subsidies is
causing much dissension between
the United States and European
countries.
In his remarks, Bush said, To-
getherwe're called upon as allies and
friends to work toward decisions
here in Houston that will bring a new
stability and prosperity to the world
by tapping the power and energy of
free wills and free markets."
Calling this time the "post-post-
war era," Bush spoke confidently
about the chance for substantive
results in the summit
The*-ecwiomic summits have
become a framework for frank and
constructive dialogue — a dialogue
for progress that I believe will be
advanced greatly in the next three
days," Bush said.
A banner, probably requested by
the French delegation, was hung
above the leaders to block the sun's
punishing rays.
"Generally, we don't like to leave
Mitterand more than 30 minutes un-
der the sun," said Hubert Vedrine, a
spokesman for the French delega-
tion.
Some of the leaders arrived in
Houston prior to the today's event,
but Italian President Giulio Andre-
otti, Mitterand and Kohl flew to
Texas at the last minute. Andreotti
and Kohl remained in Rome to walch
West Germany defeat Argentina in
the World Cup soccer championship
Sunday.
Kohl, who was reportedly wear-
ing a new suit for the occasion, re-
sponded to Bush's "Hail the champi-
ons of football!" with a wide smile.
Kurt Moeller contributed to this
report.
American summit priorities according to a statement
made Monday by John Sununu, President Bush's chief
of staff:
•GAIT and the Uruguay Round. The U.S. is committed
to eliminating the imbalances in agricultural trade.
•Aid to the Soviet Union. The U.S. will not support aid to
the Soviet Union until the Soviets make a commitment to
market reforms, including eliminating aid to Cuba and the
curtailing of defense spending.
•The environment. The President will continue to be
committed to the environment without endangering
"economic vitality."
•Drugs. The summit heads will discuss international
cooperation in the war against drugs, including an emphasis
on money laundering.
•International debt. The president will seek support for
his recently announced "Enterprise for Latin America
Initiative."
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Heads of government of the G-7 nations stand on the air-conditioned platform in Rice University's academtc quadrangle
during yesterday's opening ceremony.
U.S. takes new tack on Soviet aid:
it's not the most important summit issue
by Sam Hananel
Washington University
The American delegation Mon-
day tried to shift the focus away from
questions of aid to the Soviet Union,
instead emphasizing resolution of
trade disputes with the European
Economic Community.
Reporters covering the United
On the first day: boredom, insults
Note: International student jour-
nalists working at the Thresher this
week are filing daily articles for The
Summit Seven."
Germany
Surely this first day was not what
one might expect from an Economic
Summit On this day, bored journal-
ists were hanging around and killing
time. Only a few of them—the tough
type which never gets tired or per-
haps those that are paid by the
word—sat in front of their laptops
typing news. What news? Nobody
knows.
The peaks of today within the
German delegation office certainly
were the spontaneous gatherings
•%*
THE SUMMIT SEVEN
when an official appeared, as oc-
curred several times. But all the offi-
cials ever announced were things
like "nothing is decided now," "the
atmosphere is good" or "it seems to
be that there is no solution to that
now."
The hard news for today, and this
is disappointing from a German
point of view, is that most probably
there will be no decision on a G-7 aid
program within this summit
But it was announced that the
letter Mikhail Gorbachev wrote to
the summit will be answered by the
G-7. As it seems, this will not include
SEE SUMMIT, PAGE 7
States delegation were treated to
press briefings that provided little
more than succinct reiterations of
past U.S. positions on the major is-
sues. In four seperate press confer-
ences, officials said the United States
sees negotiations on the Uruguay
Round of talks on the General Agree-
mentonTradeandTariffs (GAIT) as
crucial.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Clayton Yeutter called GATT nego-
tiations "ten times as important" as
the question of aid to the Soviet
Union. Both he and U.S. Trade Rep-
resentative Carla Hills came out with
sharp attacks on European Eco-
nomic Community negotiators for
being stubborn in GAIT talks.
"We hope President Bush can use
the summit to motivate our Euro-
pean colleagues to move the Uru-
guay Round to a satisfactory conclu-
sion on time," Yeutter said.
Yeutter criticized the Europeans
for not putting forth enough effort in
talks so far. He said EEC negotiators
will need to be more engaged in
upcoming discussions if they want to
resolve disputes by the previously
agreed upon December deadline.
Negotiations on the Uruguay
Round have been ongoing for more
than three years. The EEC has stead-
fastly refused to eliminate agricul-
tural subsidies as demanded by the
United States.
Although the United States hopes
to increase momentum on conclud-
ing the Uruguay Round of talks,
White House Chief of Staff John
Sununu said it may remain an intrac-
table issue. "The President is willing
to take on intractable issues," he
added.
Typically, the first day of an eco-
nomic summit does not bring much
SEE AMERICAN, PAGE 6
I
nside this issue...
page 4* Opinion: National Professor of the Year on higher education
page 5* The opeGing ceremonies, a photo essay
page 7* The summit seven continues...
page 8* A review of The Trust
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Moeller, Kurt & Yates, Jay. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 2, Ed. 1 Tuesday, July 10, 1990, newspaper, July 10, 1990; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245755/m1/1/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.