European Union member states will decide today whether to call an emergency Council of trade ministers in Geneva next week on the eve of the deadline for tying up a global telecoms deal. Brussels sources said the Committee of Permanent Representratives would take the decision at their regular weekly meeting with the emergency session probably taking place on Monday afternoon, just short of the April 30 deadline for tying up the deal to open up world telecommunications networks. The European Union and the US are trying to cajole their more reluctant world partners to open up their national phone networks to more foreign competition and participation. A meeting of the so-called Quad Group Japan, the US, Europe and Canada, in Kobe, Japan at the weekend (CI No 2,987) made some unspecified progress. The emergency Council meeting would have to judge whether the other liberalization offers had made the grade and warranted an improvement.
