European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 11, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday october 11, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 17 Money matters today s tip by the Washington Post Washington engineers scientists medical personnel and clerical employees who Are paid special above scale rates Are almost certain to get the same 4.2 percent raise in january As regular White Collar civil servants. Nationwide there Are 180,000 special raters. They Are paid from 3 percent to 30 percent More than other workers in the same grades. They get the differentials because they Are in hard to fill jobs. About 50,000 of this areas 366,000 Federal workers Are special raters. Most of them Are clerical employees in grades 2 through 7. The 4.2 percent january Federal pay raise will be the first under a new system. That system is designed to gradually close the pay Gap with Industry through a series of general raises and starting in a few years additional local pay increases. The 1992 Federal raise is based on the employment Cost Index which measures private sector pay changes rather than the consumer Price Index which measures the Cost of living. That is Why Federal workers next year will get a bigger raise than retirees. With one month left to go in the inflation tracking Chi countdown Federal and military retirees and persons getting social Security Are due a minimum 3.5 percent january adjustment. Conversion rates London up thursday s rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at $359.25 an ounce Silver at $4.13. Oct. 9 oct. 10 British pound.1.7155 1.7155 German mark.1.6910 1.6950 French franc.5.8010 5.7360 dutch guilder.1 9238 1.9065 belgian franc.35.0700 34.7075 italian lira.1,272.80 1,259.90 Swiss franc.1.4880 1.4800 greek drachma.189.78 188.01 turkish lira.4,814.20 4,803.70 saudi arabian riyal.3.7502 3.7500 Spanish peseta ,.107.72 106.66 portuguese escudo.146.93 145.25 Canadian dollar.1.1287 1.1304 austrian schilling.12.0150 11.8770 norwegian krone.6.6790 6.6080 danish krone.6.5800 6.5075 these Are commercial rates and can be related Only to the use of foreign currency by . Forces for official business. The Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.64 through Friday based on thursdays noontime  joins up with polish firm Warsaw Poland a Gerber products co., making inroads into Eastern european markets has signed a $25 million Deal to acquire a majority stake in the state owned Alima baby food company. Under the contract Michigan based Gerber will receive 60 percent of Alima shares and invest More than $14 million in the company Over the next five years. According to Poland a privatization policies the remaining 40 percent of shares will be sold to 1,000 Alima employees and some 4,500 suppliers of farm produce a network Alima developed to match baby food standards. . Moves to penalize China if Trade barriers not dropped Washington a the Bush administration on thursday invoked a . Law that provides for stiff penalties against China unless it commits itself within a year to Stop blocking entry of american goods. Carla a. Hills president Bush a Trade representative rejected As inadequate a sept. 30 proposal by China outlining Steps it would take to remove Trade barriers. A China has made Progress in certain areas and we would Hope that they would improve on that Progress a Hills said in a statement. A but China s proposal. When taken As a whole does not measure up to the standards that we expect and insist upon in our Trade relations with All of our trading  the Law invoked Section 301 of the Trade act of 1974, imposes a one year deadline on China to commit itself to removing Trade barriers or face retaliation such As Steep duties levied on chinese goods coming into the United states. A senior official in Hills office who spoke on condition of anonymity said the sanctions could be imposed even earlier if . Officials determine that China is not negotiating in Good Faith. However the official noted that the assistant . Trade representative Joseph a. Massey has been invited by China to a fresh round of talks in Beijing later this month. A we expect to have. An ultimately productive consultation a the official said. Meanwhile in Beijing China a foreign ministry spokesman we Jianmin said that a to bring pressure to Bear does not help the two countries resolve their Trade dispute. Bush has been under pressure from lawmakers to retaliate unless China stops protecting its own markets with High tariffs and Complex import licenses. Congress has also been angered by China a reported use of prison labor to make goods for Export. Bush a action originally reported in thursdays Washington Post comes after China failed to comply with earlier . Demands to lower its Trade barriers. Earlier in the year. Bush waged a spirited Battle with Congress to win renewal of China a most favored nation Trade stat us without conditions. That status allows China to sell its goods Here with the lowest possible tariffs. With Bush threatening to veto any attempt to impose conditions the Senate came up with Only 55 votes for its attempt to restrict the renewal of China s most favored nation status. The House voted by More than a two thirds majority to impose conditions but the separate Hills have never been reconciled and sent to Bush. In a july 19 letter to congressional leaders. Bush had promised to invoke Section 301 unless China dramatically improved Access to its Market for . Goods and services. Hills had Given China until monday this week to come up with a plan to lower Trade barriers blocking entry of . Goods. In its sept. 30 response China said it would consider a number of Steps such As reducing tariffs and trimming the list of goods subject to import licenses but did not offer enough specifics to satisfy the . Administration. A we seek not consideration but commitment Quot the official in Hills office said. Boeing imposes hiring freeze Early Seattle apr Boeing co. Said wednesday that it is freezing its hiring a month earlier than usual this year because of defense program cutbacks. Boeing normally halts hiring near the end of each year and had planned to Start this years freeze nov. 1, said Larry Mckean vice president for human resources. Instead Boeing decided to Stop hiring oct. 2 and to keep the freeze in place indefinitely. Mckean said the freeze would affect Only about 100 new hires this year. He said he did no to know whether Boeing had Ever before expanded the hiring freeze which is normally lifted at the Start of a new year. Boeing said last week that military spending cuts by the Bush administration will Force the reassignment or Layoff of 2,500 employees in its defense amp space group 1,500 More than previously anticipated. Mckean said Boeing moved up the freeze so its employment stabilization Board can try to reassign More of those employees within the company. The Board made up of senior executives was formed in March to try to avoid laying off employees who could be absorbed into the company s other divisions. Boeing employs 158,700 people worldwide including 44,000 workers in its defense amp space group. The government said last week that it was halting Boeing a contract to develop a new Short Range attack missile spam ii to be carried by a i and b-2 bombers. The unemployment blues Menko d. Christoph 47, finds that Hunting for work can be a full time Job. The jobless White Collar worker surrounded by want ads and Home computer equipment is sifting through a huge pile of rejections in his St. Peters mo., Home. Christoph joined millions of unemployed americans hit hard by the recession when he was Laid off by Mcdonnell Douglas in St. Louis