Senate Panel Approves Measure Aimed at Unfair Foreign Trade

The Senate Finance Committee overwhelmingly approved a trade bill Thursday aimed at opening world markets to American products and cracking down on unfair foreign trade practices.

Committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), said the bill, approved 19 to 1, “puts a positive spin on world trade based on the principle that any country that has free access to our markets, we are entitled to have access to theirs.”

But Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.), the lone dissenter, said, “I think we have overly limited the ability of our leader” by revoking some of the President’s current authority in trade-related matters.

Express Confidence

Although several senators said it was far from a perfect bill, they expressed confidence it could be improved on the Senate floor and ultimately signed by President Reagan.

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Alan Woods called the bill an improvement over the committee’s initial draft but said: “Unless substantial improvements are made, the President’s advisers cannot recommend that he approve the legislation.”

Seven other Senate committees with jurisdiction over parts of the massive trade measure still must act before the bill goes to the full Senate for debate next month. Differences between the House and Senate versions would have to be resolved in conference.

Earlier, the panel sidestepped an amendment designed to slash Japan’s huge trade surplus with the United States, heeding warnings that it would provoke a veto.

Amendment Withheld

Bentsen urged Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.) to withhold an amendment requiring countries that engage in unfair trade practices and have excessive trade surpluses with the United States to reduce those surpluses or face retaliation. The amendment is identical to the one offered by Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) and adopted by the House last week.

The committee adopted an amendment by Bentsen that would require the President to impose oil import restrictions or production incentives for domestic oil producers at any time that foreign oil exceeded 50% of the nation’s domestic oil consumption.

The remedies could include oil import fees, quotas, energy conservation rules, expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or tax and other incentives for oil and gas producers.

The panel also adopted an amendment by Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) that would force major trading partners to open their markets to U.S. telecommunications equipment and services or face retaliation.