U.S. and Canada Agree on Action to Battle Acid Rain

President Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney agreed today on action to combat acid rain, official sources said--meaning there will be a U.S. undertaking to begin reducing the pollutants that cause acid rain.

However, a Canadian official said use of the word “agreement” was “ambitious. . . . There is still some crunching to be done.”

A formal announcement is scheduled Wednesday, said a U.S. official who refused to provide further details. All official American and Canadian sources demanded anonymity.

One Canadian official said Reagan will release a statement on acid rain, followed by a statement from Mulroney. Asked if he knew what the President plans to say, this official declined to answer but said, “I think what’s more important is the Canadian position with respect to the American position, and that is still being looked at.”

Mulroney and Reagan met privately for 15 to 20 minutes in the Oval Office, then moved to the Cabinet Room to join advisers for more than an hour’s discussion that the U.S. official described as “mostly about trade.”

Out of that discussion also came agreement that a five-year renewal of the North American air defense agreement would be signed on Wednesday, the official said.

Also, Canada has accepted Reagan’s invitation to participate in the building and operating of a manned space station that the United States wants to put into orbit in the mid 1990s. Canada will spend about $800 million over 15 years on the project.

Before going to the White House, Mulroney told U.S. citizens today their environment is dying along with Canada’s.

“Your environment is dying just as surely as summer follows spring, as is ours,” Mulroney said.

Making clear the acid rain issue would overshadow all others in talks with Reagan at the White House, Mulroney told a breakfast meeting with American reporters that environmental problems will remain on the agenda “long after it is no longer trendy in Washington to talk about Nicaragua.”

Reagan’s top priority in recent weeks has been his request for $100 million in aid for contra rebels fighting the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Canada provides $19 million a year in foreign aid to the Sandinista government. Answering reporters’ questions at a photo session, Reagan said the issue is “a matter for the sovereign state of Canada.”