Reagan Shifting on Acid Rain Stand, Mulroney Says

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, claiming the United States may be bending on his demand for a treaty to control acid rain, said Thursday that President Reagan has instructed Administration officials to take up the issue “as a matter of priority” in talks with Canada.

But U.S. officials said the President has not moved away from his past refusal to sign such a treaty and is only trying to ease Mulroney’s disappointment and allow the prime minister to claim some progress when he faces criticism at home.

The conflicting assessments, coming at the end of two days of meetings between Mulroney and U.S. officials here, suggest that no breakthrough is likely soon on one of the chief points of friction between the two nations.

Mulroney said at a press conference that Reagan told him he was instructing Secretary of State George P. Shultz to discuss Canada’s acid rain proposals with Canadian External Relations Minister Joe Clark. That “may well be the start of the process,” he said, toward solving the cross-border environmental and economic problems created by acid rain--airborne pollution caused by sulfur and nitrogen dioxide emissions.

The prime minister Wednesday gave Reagan an eight-point summary of a draft treaty setting out a timetable for reducing emissions in specific stages until acid rain production in both nations had been cut at least 50% by 1994.

As he has throughout his Administration, Reagan turned down Mulroney on grounds that the enormous cost of meeting the Canadian proposals is not justified by scientific evidence on the causes of acid rain and its resulting damage.

Administration officials said that Reagan’s statement to Mulroney during a luncheon at the White House does not represent any change of the President’s position.

One official said the President takes the Mulroney proposals seriously, and that is why he instructed Shultz to discuss the matter with Clark, but he added that until more studies are carried out, he will not accept the Canadian position.

“But he wanted the meeting to end with a positive tone, and he knows Mulroney will be criticized at home for not bringing back any progress, so he made the statement at lunch so he could at least say there was some movement.”

A State Department official said that the President’s instructions to Shultz actually added nothing new to the diplomatic process that began in January with the presentation of the Canadian draft proposal.

“Maybe this will move things to the top a bit faster,” the official said, “but it doesn’t change anything. The Administration still doesn’t accept the Canadian proposal either in concept or approach.”

Mulroney, noting that “we were nowhere” on resolving the dispute over damage caused by U.S. pollution in Canada, said the President’s action provides “modest hope” of a process that will meet the Canadian demands.

Although there are no pledges of U.S. concessions, Mulroney said: “What do you do, declare war, cut relations or actively pursue the Canadian position?”

In other matters, Mulroney told Reagan that he would respond “positively” to a U.S. request that Canadian troops participate in a U.N. force to monitor Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.

And he told reporters that Reagan’s decision to permit Britain to sell Canada nuclear submarines using American technology was one of the fruits of the special relationship represented by the annual U.S.-Canadian summit.

Reagan informed Mulroney on Wednesday that he would seek congressional approval of the technology transfer if Canada should choose to buy nuclear-powered submarines from Britain. Canada intends to buy 10 to 12 nuclear-powered submarines from either France or Britain as part of an upgrading of its fleet.