Ministers from several European Community countries were...

Ministers from several European Community countries were fighting for an extension of a system that protects their steel industries from free market competition. The system of production quotas, which most states want to preserve while the industry eliminates thousands of jobs, will end Jan. 1 unless ministers can agree on plans for the industry’s future proposed by the EC executive commission. The commission has said it would continue the 7-year-old quota system for three major products only if ministers provide firm commitments from their industries to cut capacity.