COLOMBIA HELPFUL BUT COFFEE QUOTAS UNCERTAIN--U.S.
  A U.S. government trade official
  responsible for coffee policy said prospects for an accord on
  coffee quotas are still uncertain despite recent Colombian
  efforts to bridge differences between producers and consumers.
      Jon Rosenbaum, an assistant U.S. trade representative just
  back from trade talks in Colombia, said most producing
  countries now accept some sort of standardized criteria must be
  agreed to reintroduce coffee quotas.
      "There is one country which evidently still does not,"
  Rosenbaum said in an obvious reference to Brazil, which has
  been negative recently on a reintroduction of quotas.
      Rosenbaum said because of the stance of Brazil the outlook
  for an agreement to reintroduce coffee quotas at the September
  International Coffee Organization meeting is hard to predict.
      He said that during the visit to Bogota he held technical
  discussions with Colombian officials.
      While he did not meet with Jorge Cardenas, head of the
  Colombian coffee producers federation, who was in Europe,
  Cardenas left a "positive letter," Rosenbaum said.
      The Cardenas letter responded to a U.S. letter last month
  which praised Colombia for trying to find a compromise formula
  for the reintroduction of quotas, but outlined several concerns
  with the technical details of the Colombian plan.
      Rosenbaum could not be reached later in the day for comment
  on a new formula for calculating ICO quotas agreed to by
  European coffee roasters and traders.
      Dutch coffee trade association chairman Frits van Horick
  said in Amsterdam the new formula is based on six year moving
  averages and would give Brazil an unchanged export quota for
  the remaining to years of the current coffee agreement.
      The U.S. has said it will not agree to any coffee quotas
  unless "objective criteria" which reflect recent changes in the
  coffee market are used to set export limits.
  

