WHY AN ASBESTOS DEAL MAY GO UP IN SMOKE

摘要

For more than a decade, Corporate America has lobbied Congress for help to clean up the asbestos litigation mess. Now business groups are meeting face-to-face with insurers and labor unions for the first serious global settlement talks ever. But as peace negotiations progress, this is proving to be a much harder deal to close than anyone imagined. The discouraging news from the bargaining table is deflating the once-high hopes of hundreds of companies mired in asbestos litigation. The political landscape to cap liability has never been better. President George W. Bush wants a deal, Republicans control Congress, and there is pressure to act before next year's election. "It has to happen this year," says Julie A. Rochman, senior vice-president of the American Insurance Assn. "A lot of com-panies involved in this won't be around if it doesn't."