Reagan Sees Trade Curbs Risking Farm Catastrophe

President Reagan, calling protectionism the “farmer’s enemy No. 1,” warned Saturday that passage of legislation blocking imports with tariffs or quotas would “invite certain retaliation against our farm exports, heightening the risk of a farm catastrophe which would send shock waves throughout our economy.”

Reagan, in his weekly radio address, made an apparent bid for farm-state support for the trade program that he is soon expected to propose as an alternative to pending protectionist legislation. “We must meet our responsibility to America’s farmers and pass a farm bill that provides hope, not measured doses of despair,” he said from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.

Democrats Rebut Talk

In a broadcast rebuttal for congressional Democrats, West Virginia Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV said that those who heard Reagan’s talk would “get the idea that the only people in economic trouble these days are farmers” but that “they’re not the only ones. Millions of American jobs are at stake.”

Reagan, calling agriculture “one of the few industries with a strong positive trade balance,” said that he is “asking Congress to unite with me for intelligent policies that provide farmers with needed help, without doing harm to the budget limitations adopted by Congress.” Such a program, he said, should ensure “greater freedom for them (farmers) to grow and sell their crops in the marketplaces of the world.”

Reagan indicated support for a farm program that would stress reduction in the regulations and federal subsidies that have been the basis of farm legislation for half a century. He said that such an approach could “avoid budget-busting legislation which repeats the mistakes of the past; legislation I would not hesitate to veto.” Then, in an apparent reference to the shape of his coming trade proposals, the President called on the nation to join him in working “aggressively for freer and fairer markets.”

“Let us have the courage,” he added, “to urge that more countries start doing what America has begun doing so well--go for growth by adopting low-tax, free-market policies that will increase jobs, raise their peoples’ standard of living, thereby strengthening demand for our products.”

Trade Called ‘Real Test’

In his response to the President, Rockefeller declared that “the health of vital industries from steel to semiconductors is in deep jeopardy.” He called trade “the real test of how this country is doing economically and said that “we are failing that test badly.”

Rockefeller charged that neglect is Reagan’s alternative to the protectionism he consistently denounces. By contrast, the senator continued: “Democrats believe that temporary trade relief should be available to industries in trouble, but in exchange for commitments by management and workers to modernize and adjust to produce a more competitive industry.”