E.C. OFFICIAL SAYS FATE OF VEG OIL TAX UNCERTAIN Whether the European Community's Council of Ministers will approve a proposed tax on vegetable oils that has sparked threats of U.S. retaliation is uncertain, an EC official said. "It is very far from certain that it will go through," Sir Roy Denman, Head of the EC Delegation in Washington, told reporters before he addressed the Foreign Trade Association. Denman noted Britain remains opposed to the plan and West Germany has opposed it in the past. U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter has threatened retaliation if the tax is approved, as it would limit U.S. soybean exports to the EC. Council action is expected soon. Denman said while the EC is willing to negotiate about agriculture in a new round of trade talks, it is unwilling to single out export subsidies on a negotiating agenda or put agricultural policy on a special fast track. "The key to a solution in this area seems to me not in the framing of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) wording...but in tackling government subsidies to farmers on both sides of the Atlantic," he said.