President Warns of Delay Tactics on Trade Pact

President Reagan warned Saturday in his weekly radio address that “special interests” should not be allowed to delay confirmation of the new trade treaty between the United States and Canada.

Yet even as Reagan hailed the agreement as a blow to protectionism, three congressmen said they would try to amend it to protect the U.S. plywood industry from what they contended is favoritism to Canadian plywood producers.

Reagan acknowledged opposition to the recently signed agreement here and in Canada, but called on Congress to set aside private interests for larger national goals and ratify the treaty promptly.

“Whenever there is change, even for the better, there are segments of society that resist, small groups that have a special interest in keeping things the way they are even at the expense of keeping everybody else from moving forward,” he said in his radio talk, delivered from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.

” . . . I would hope that the national interest will overcome the pressure of the private interest on both sides of the border. I would hope that our peoples of Canada and the United States and their elected representatives are able to keep their eyes on the long-term growth and opportunity that will be forthcoming with this agreement,” he said.

Reps. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Robert Lindsay Thomas (D-Ga.) and Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.)--all from timber-producing states--complained Friday that the agreement would open American plywood markets to Canadians while Canadian building codes bar about 80% of U.S.-made plywood from being sold in Canada.

“The restrictions have been a restraint against our plywood industry for at least 10 years, the lawmakers said in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Clayton K. Yeutter. “The Canadian code and standards have been especially unfair to Western and Southern timber product manufacturers.”

The congressmen said they would propose amending the treaty to force revisions of Canadian plywood import rules.

The pact, which Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed on Jan. 2, is designed to expand what is already the world’s broadest trading partnership, with a volume of more than $150 billion a year. It would eliminate tariffs, some immediately and others within five or 10 years. It would eliminate export duties on agricultural products traded between the two countries and would end Canadian restrictions on the importing of auto parts.