Not Consulted on Embargo, Democrats Say

House Democrats accused the Reagan Administration on Tuesday of failing to adequately consult Congress, as required by law, before it imposed a trade embargo on Nicaragua last week.

At sometimes-acrimonious hearings before two House subcommittees, Assistant Secretary of State Langhorne A. Motley conceded that through an “administrative oversight” only aides of House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) and the chairman and ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee were formally told in advance of the presidential action.

However, Motley argued that economic sanctions had been openly discussed for two years and that no one in Congress should have been surprised.

Both Democrats and Republicans questioned the effectiveness of the embargo as a means of forcing Nicaragua’s Sandinista leaders to allow democracy, and Motley acknowledged, “Economic sanctions alone aren’t going to do the job.”

Asked after the hearing whether the Administration still believes military aid to Nicaraguan rebels--rejected by the House two weeks ago--is necessary to bring the Sandinistas to the peace table, Motley said, “That and diplomatic pressure--a combination of everything.”

Bonker Leads Attack

Rep. Don Bonker (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on economic policy, led the attack on the Administration. He stressed not only the International Emergency Economic Powers Act’s requirement of congressional consultation, but also its provision protecting the sanctity of contracts.

On the second point, John M. Walker Jr., assistant secretary of the Treasury in charge of enforcing the embargo, said exports already paid for by the Nicaraguans will be permitted to be shipped for the next six months.

Meanwhile, Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.) charged that the embargo cut off the opportunity that he said was created by the refusal of the House to vote for aid to the rebels, known as contras .

“This act of economic warfare once again tells the Sandinistas that we are not interested in reaching an agreement with them,” Barnes said. “It once again confirms the position of the hard-liners in Managua: that peace with the United States is not possible so long as the revolution survives, so they may as well complete the process of gaining control over their society and aligning themselves with the Soviet Union.”

The hard-liners, he said, “are laughing all the way to Moscow.”

Joseph F. Dennin, an assistant secretary of commerce, testified that “U.S.-Nicaraguan two-way trade has been small and declining over the past five years, as Nicaragua has increased its trade with Cuba and the Soviet Bloc.”