Vote Is Final on Textile Import Curb; Veto Seen

The House gave final congressional approval Tuesday to a bill to slash textile, shoe and copper imports, but the margin indicated that Congress will be unable to override an all-but-certain veto from President Reagan.

The final 255-161 vote in favor of the bill fell 23 votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be necessary to pass the bill over the veto that Clayton K. Yeutter, President Reagan’s special trade representative, warned was imminent.

The bill would reduce textile and apparel imports from Brazil and Taiwan by 30% next year and from Hong Kong by 14%. Textile and apparel imports from nine other countries would be frozen at this year’s levels. The bill also would impose quotas on imported shoes and copper.

Identical Senate Bill

The Senate last month passed an identical bill by 60 to 39, also a margin too narrow to override a veto.

Congressional pressure for textile quotas and other protectionist measures had mounted earlier in the year as the nation’s trade deficit soared toward a record $150 billion in 1985. But protectionist sentiment began waning as the Reagan Administration served notice that, although it continued to oppose tariffs and quotas aimed solely at preventing imports from competing with struggling domestic industries, it would retaliate against unfair trading practices abroad.

Support for the bill limiting textiles, shoes and copper was assembled along regional lines. For the most part, a blend of Democrats and Republicans from textile, apparel and shoe-producing states in the Southeast and Northeast and from mining states in the Rocky Mountains and Southwestern states supported it. A similar bipartisan mix from industrial and farm states in the Midwest and timbering states in the Northwest, fearing backlash against U.S. exports, opposed it.

House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.), supporting the bill, said: “The trade bill we consider today will provide relief to industries that have been absolutely slaughtered by Reagan policies. It will signal to the world that the U.S. Congress does not share the President’s soft line on trade.”

Rep. Ed Jenkins (D-Ga.), the chief sponsor of the textile quotas, warned that the United States would become “a second-rate nation” unless it protects its industries and workers from cheap imports. The textile mills of his state have been especially hard hit by international competition.

Reps. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Me.) and Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.) supported the bill because it would protect shoes and copper, important industries in their home districts.

On the other side of the issue, Rep. Sam Gibbons (D-Fla), chairman of the House trade subcommittee, opposed the bill and wound up the day’s two-hour debate with a strong appeal to “think big and vote no.’

Gibbons Sounds Warning

Gibbons pointed out that the textile industry “has been shepherded for 27 years” by protectionist quotas and warned against extending such favors to copper and shoes. “If you go down the road of protectionism,” he warned, “you encourage a hot-house type of industry that can’t earn its own way.”

Rep. Hal Daub (R-Neb.), speaking for the grain belt, warned of retaliation against U.S. farm exports and called the bill “a kick in the teeth to American consumers,” who would have to pay higher prices for domestic textiles.

Yeutter, Reagan’s trade representative, disclosed that one of the Administration’s get-tough “fair trade” initiatives has succeeded. A long-running dispute between the United States and the European Community over barriers to U.S. canned fruit exports to Europe was resolved a few days before the Monday deadline the Administration had imposed, Yeutter said.

He gave no details and cautioned that parallel negotiations with Japan on U.S. leather product exports, also facing a Monday deadline, had not yet succeeded.

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