Reagan, Mulroney at ‘Shamrock Summit’ : U.S., Canada Agree to Fight Acid Rain

President Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, two conservative politicians with ancestral roots in Ireland, met Sunday on St. Patrick’s Day for what they called “the shamrock summit” and agreed to take the politically sensitive issue of acid rain off the diplomatic back burner.

The two leaders agreed to appoint special ambassadors to fashion what White House spokesman Larry Speakes said will be “a joint course of action” to clean up acid rain.

Reagan named Drew Lewis, his former transportation secretary who now is board chairman of Warner Amex Cable Communication, to be the U.S. envoy. Mulroney chose a fellow conservative, William G. Davis, former premier of Ontario province. They will report back to their governments in a year.

Like his predecessor, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Mulroney has been under pressure from Canadians to do something about acid rain. Two weeks ago, he proposed a $1.5-billion plan to toughen the nation’s automobile-emission controls to match U.S. standards.

Half of Canada’s acid rain is produced in Canada itself--the rest in the industrial northern United States--and Mulroney acknowledged during his joint announcement with Reagan that “it’s important that we clean up our own act.”

Mulroney called Sunday’s step “significant” because it moves acid rain as an issue off “the back burner,” where he said it had languished for most of Reagan’s presidency. Now, he said, “both sides have acknowledged that our problem is common in nature and requires a joint solution.”

Reagan so far has adamantly resisted dipping into the U.S. Treasury for funds to clean up American producers of acid rain, largely factories and power plants around the Great Lakes. However, he pledged Sunday that “together, we will find an answer to this problem.”

Canadian officials had told American reporters before the start of the two-day summit, which continues today, that they did not expect Reagan to pledge any money for acid rain cleanup on this trip, but did hope for acknowledgment that the United States shares responsibility and visible progress.

Late Sunday, the Canadian government indicated that it is satisfied with the result.

Reagan and Mulroney each began the summit saluting a new spirit of cooperation and good will between their governments.

Reagan, arriving here in 19-degree weather after having left a spring-like day in Washington, told Mulroney at an airport welcoming ceremony that “for the United States, there is no more important relationship than our tie with Canada.”

“We share a responsibility for the protection of the continent we peacefully share,” Reagan continued.

Mulroney, saying he believed in “treating our friends fairly,” talked of “new problems, new dangers and new opportunities” facing the two nations “as economic partners . . . as allies in the defense of North America . . . as custodians of our environment.” He emphasized that he regards Reagan as a true and valued friend of Canada.

Not sharing that view were several hundred demonstrators who stood all afternoon in wind-swept cold outside the Chateau Frontenac Hotel where the President was staying. They chanted in French, “Go home, Yankee, go home!” and carried signs calling Reagan a “warmonger.”

However, there is no question that relations between the U.S. and Canadian governments are better than at any time since Reagan became President.

Nobody would mention on the record the primary reason for this improvement--the exit from power last year of the maverick Trudeau and his Liberal Party--but officials of both governments privately acknowledged that a major source of tension has been removed.

One high Canadian diplomatic officer, who has served in both the Trudeau and Mulroney governments, described to reporters “some basic differences” in the two leaders’ attitudes towards the Reagan Administration:

“When the United States is under attack and when it’s being criticized,” said the Canadian official, speaking only on condition he not be identified, “(Mulroney’s) basic view is we ought to be prepared to have an open mind and give the United States the benefit of the doubt. He doesn’t believe that Canadian foreign policy should be anchored in the view that the United States’ foreign policy is wrong. He doesn’t believe in strident criticism for its own sake.”

Further, the official said, “when it comes to East-West problems, Canada (under Mulroney) does not view this in terms of any moral equidistance between the two superpowers. His view is we are on the side of the United States.”