Reagan Reaffirms Plan to Veto ‘Sure Loser’ Trade Bill

President Reagan reaffirmed his plan to veto a massive election-year trade bill today, charging that its rules on advance notice of plant closings and layoffs in particular “are like playing Russian roulette with a machine gun: a sure loser.”

Speaking to the annual meeting of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Reagan won cheers by promising to make good, possibly next week, on repeated veto threats.

Reagan ripped into the plant-closing provision as one that would deter businesses from growing--and patterned after similar regulations that are responsible for what he called “poor job performance” in Europe.

Taking aim at the support organized labor has thrown behind the bill, Reagan asserted, “Anyone who would copy Europe in this way is no friend to American workers.”