Misery Has Company -- And Very Little Else

George Bush had a delightful visit to Munich and Helsinki -- sumptuous three- wine dinners, an evening at the ballet, VIP tours of castles. But like other tourists, he also had his pocket picked. Bush had repeatedly vowed that at the Group of Seven summit of leading industrial democracies he would fight to batter down barriers to U.S. exports and thus create more jobs for Americans. Instead, the other six (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan) shifted the focus away from trade and toward the civil war in what used to be Yugoslavia.

Following the lead of French President Francois Mitterrand, Bush pledged to send "whatever it takes," including U.S. fighter bombers and helicopter gunships, to protect food shipments to besieged civilians in secessionist Bosnia-Herzegovina. At a dinner of foreign ministers in Munich, Secretary of State James Baker told France's Roland Dumas that the U.S. was ready to make other major concessions to win a trade agreement if France would make deep and rapid cuts in farm subsidies. Would Paris reciprocate? "No," Dumas replied. But what, Baker asked, if France got all the concessions it wanted? Dumas repeated, coldly, "No." The G-7 did vow to try for a trade agreement by year's end -- but that was the same pledge the leaders made in 1990 and 1991.

The only intriguing proposal at the G-7 summit came from Mr. 7 1/2. Though Russia is not a G-7 member, President Boris Yeltsin joined his fellow heads of government, by invitation, in Munich and tossed out a novel idea for paring down his country's crushing $70 billion foreign debt. He would trade property -- land, factories, warehouses, oil and mining concessions -- to Western investors, government and private, that would in turn cancel Moscow's debts to them. The seven offered what German Chancellor Helmut Kohl called an extended breathing space. No details, but probably Russia can wangle a two-year moratorium during which it pays only interest on its loans.

Otherwise, the meeting primarily illustrated that American miseries can find sympathetic but not very helpful international company. Nearly all of the other six are suffering from economic troubles or weak leadership or both. The seven deplored rising unemployment, lagging or declining production and financial turmoil. What might they do about it? The final communique said nothing specific about any coordinated action.