Bipartisan Support Begins to Emerge on Trade Policy

Key House leaders appear to be backing away from the overtly protectionist measures they included in trade legislation last year, signaling an emerging bipartisan consensus on trade policy in both houses of Congress.

In a very active day for trade politics on Capitol Hill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), flanked by 15 other members, went before television cameras Thursday to introduce a bill to beef up enforcement of existing trade laws.

Meanwhile, several lawmakers in the House, including Rep. Don Bonker of Washington, the chairman of the House Democratic trade task force, suggested that they might be willing to abandon the idea of imposing sanctions against Japan, Brazil and other nations for running large trade surpluses with the United States, a central sticking point on the issue.

“The (provision) has become so controversial,” Bonker said, “that I would prefer it not be in there.”

The day’s developments heightened prospects that Congress and the Administration, which is scheduled to introduce its own trade proposals later this month, will reach agreement this year on the hotly contested issue.

The Reagan Administration objects to imposing import tariffs or quotas against nations that run large trade surpluses with the United States, contending that such action would invite retaliation and set off a trade war that would depress the world economy. The President has threatened to veto any trade bill that includes such a feature.

However, Congress has been insistent on taking some action to increase the competitiveness of American industries and ease the trade deficit.

The Senate bill--to be co-sponsored by at least 54 members, including Sen. John C. Danforth of Missouri, the leading Senate Republican on trade issues--deliberately avoids targeting individual nations or legislating protection for specific industries, Bentsen said.

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), the sponsor of a pro-sanctions amendment, still want to push for reprisals against Japan and other nations that run up large trade surpluses because of unfair trade practices, aides said. A spokesman for Wright said that the House Democratic leader intends to “support whatever Gephardt wants.”

However, most other lawmakers emphasized the importance of developing a bipartisan trade bill that would require stricter White House enforcement of existing trade laws but would still pass muster with the Administration.

“We’ve got a different atmosphere in which we are working,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) said. “The Administration appears to be willing to work with Congress this year instead of against it.”

The Senate bill introduced Thursday would provide the Administration with extended authority to negotiate agreements to reduce trade barriers once the White House receives congressional approval of a detailed statement of its aims in such international bargaining.

It would also make a wide variety of trade law changes, designed to ensure that the U.S. government moves more aggressively to open foreign markets while offering greater assurances of protection to industries that have suffered from unfair foreign trade practices.

American industries harmed here by such practices as foreign government subsidies of competing products and the dumping of products at below market value could receive protection in the form of tariffs or quotas covering those products for a limited period of time. However, such industries would have to offer a plan for restoring their ability to compete in world markets.

Danforth, promising that “we will enact trade legislation in the 100th Congress,” said the bill “offers sensible, realistic responses to the problems of foreign barriers and other unfair trade practices” but also reflects lawmakers’ belief that the United States should not “crawl into the hole of protectionism and let the world pass us by.”

As the nation’s trade deficit mounted toward a record $170 billion last year, numerous trade bills were offered in Congress but none of them won approval while the Republicans controlled the Senate.

Despite the relatively moderate approach of the new Senate bill, most members went out of their way to emphasize its toughness.

“This bill will push the Administration to get tougher,” said Sen. Bob Kasten (R-Wis.). “It’s time we started showing our trading partners the hammer once in a while.”