World Notes

President F.W. de Klerk's policy of dismantling apartheid has reaped its biggest foreign policy reward to date. Meeting in Luxembourg last week, the 12-nation European Community voted unanimously to lift the group's remaining economic sanctions against Pretoria. As soon as it is formalized, the move will end a five-year-old ban on the importation of South African iron, steel and gold coins that had accounted for $700 million in annual trade before the embargo went into effect.

The action was a stinging defeat for the African National Congress, which had lobbied hard to keep sanctions intact. Said Congress spokesperson Gill Marcus: "We still have a long way to go before apartheid is scrapped." Government-sponsored laws tearing down most racial restrictions, however, are expected to be approved by Parliament this June, and their passage will probably spur the U.S. to reconsider its own sanctions against South Africa.