Trade Mischief
President Reagan has done the right thing in vetoing the omnibus trade bill. Unfortunately, the benefits of his action may be less than they should have been, for he has placed the emphasis on two peripheral issues and invited the reconstruction of a new bill that could preserve much of the mischief in this very flawed piece of legislation.
Once again on Tuesday the White House talked primarily about the President’s dislike of the bill’s requirement for a 60-day notice on major plant closings, and on restrictions on the exporting of refined petroleum products from Alaska. The emphasis should have been on the protectionist tone of the legislation, on its restrictions on presidential discretion and on its special-interest provisions. The House override vote demonstrated the determination of many in Congress to stay with the bill for all its weaknesses.
We are now told that the President will accept a bill that includes a statement that it is the sense of Congress that employers give 60 days’ notice of plant closings, making notification voluntary. That is not likely to satisfy the vast majority of members of Congress who favor mandatory notification. It is a feeble recognition that this proposal is not as bad as the White House had sought to say. Indeed, the plant-closing proposal has real merit. The fatal flaws are found elsewhere in the 1,000-page bill, both in provisions dealing with trade and in provisions of no discernible relationship to trade.
The fact is that the nation does not need an omnibus trade bill. The President has adequate authority in existing law to resist unfair practices and to fight for freer trade. The improved trade-balance figures released last week, including the surge in exports of American-manufactured goods, demonstrate that the nation is resuming its world competitiveness. Any effort to mandate sanctions, limit negotiating authority, punish competitors and protect inefficient domestic enterprises certainly would do more harm than good.
We wish the President had said that, rejecting this measure for what it is--a flawed proposal, a Christmas tree elaborately adorned with all sorts of outrageous special-interest glitter.
In fact, all that is needed is renewed fast-track authority for the Chief Executive to engage in the promising new round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations now under way in Geneva. That would have given a clear signal to the world as to the determination of Reagan at the forthcoming Toronto economic summit to push ahead with freeing world agricultural trade, putting Congress on record with him in a firm assertion of American confidence in free markets and the ability of the United States to compete.
