U.S./SOVIET GRAIN MEETING UNLIKELY THIS SUMMER
  Prospects appear slim for a summer
  meeting between U.S. and Soviet officials before the two
  countries enter the final year of their bilateral grains
  agreement, Agriculture Department officials said.
      The two sides usually try to meet as each new year of the
  agreeement approaches although the last meeting was delayed up
  to last February. However, any delay this year should not
  endanger the fifth year of the grains agreement that extends
  through September, 1988, USDA officials said.
      "It will be difficult to pull together the people for the
  meeting during July," an aide to USDA undersecretary Daniel
  Amstutz said.
      Since the last meeting was only around four months ago, the
  next talks could still be a "couple more months," he said.
     
      There has been grain industry speculation that the USDA
  will offer Moscow another wheat subsidy during the next
  marketing year. But USDA officials said even if consultations
  were held soon a subsidy offer would probably not be made.
      "I doubt that there would be any subsidy offer this summer
  or before the next agreement year begins," a USDA source said.
      Citing limited subsidy funds and uncertainties about next
  year's crops, he said, "There are too many variables now. It
  would be uncharacteristic of us to make an offer now."
      Under the nonbinding pact, Moscow has agreed to purchase a
  minimum of nine mln tonnes of U.S. grain per year. Soviet and
  U.S. officials normally meet in the summer before the start of
  a new agreement year to discuss grain quality, shipping
  logistics and production outlooks.
  

