Reagan Opens Drive to Seek Edge in Trade

President Reagan, moving to block protectionist trade legislation in the Democrat-controlled Congress, Tuesday kicked off his own “quest for excellence” campaign by urging Americans to “be all that they can be” to help improve the nation’s ability to compete in world markets.

In a White House address to about 200 business leaders, Reagan vowed to launch a “national tent meeting” that will bring him to schools, factories and laboratories nationwide to win support for his proposals to boost funds for worker retraining, expand federal research efforts and knock down foreign trade barriers to U.S. goods.

Reagan plans to “take the message to the American people that we don’t want to march down this road of protectionism that we’ve gone down before,” Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III said, emphasizing that the Administration has “a comprehensive package here to deal with the problems and issue of the competitiveness of America into the 21st Century.”

But the Administration, expected to unveil its “competitiveness” package later this week, disclosed nothing new beyond what officials already had discussed at the time of Reagan’s State of the Union address last month.

Vintage Reagan Rhetoric

The White House speech, laced with references to popular commercials such as Chrysler’s “pride is back” ads, relied on some vintage Reagan rhetoric. “In the year 2000, we want America still at the top of the charts, the front of the pack, the head of the class,” he said. “Yes, in the year 2000, we want America to be No. 1--and climbing still for the stars.”

Reagan devoted much of his speech to the importance of educational improvements, challenging schools and teachers to bring college-entry Scholastic Aptitude Test scores back to their record 1963 level and reduce the number of students who are reading below the appropriate level for their age.

As part of its budget proposals, however, the Administration has proposed nearly $3 billion in cuts in federal support for education, mostly by reducing loans to college students.

Baker, defending the spending cuts, said increases in state and local funding would compensate for the lost federal funds. However, congressional Democrats have vowed to resist cutbacks in student aid, focusing much of their own competitiveness plans on boosting educational spending.

Democrats Push Retaliation

Much of the dispute between Congress and the Administration revolves around trade legislation that would limit White House flexibility in dealing with nations that impose trade barriers against U.S. goods.

In addition, many Democrats are continuing to push legislation supported by labor unions that would come close to requiring retaliation against countries that run a large U.S. trade surplus by imposing a stiff 25% tariff on all their imports to the United States.

But Labor Secretary William E. Brock III, saying that Congress appears to be backing away from such an approach, warned that Reagan would veto any blatantly protectionist bill.

“I do not believe that many of the Democrats really want to go through that . . . very dangerous exercise of ramming highly protectionist legislation through and then trying to override a veto, because that’s just not the way you do business in this town.”

Meanwhile, the National Assn. of Manufacturers, joining many other interest groups offering their own “competitiveness” plans, announced its proposal for reducing the U.S. trade deficit. It calls for further reductions in the budget deficit, loosening federal regulations by requiring “competitive impact statements” similar to environmental impact statements before any significant government action, and even greater depreciation in the dollar.