House Democrats Disclose Plans for Salvaging Trade Measure

House Democrats announced Wednesday that they will attempt to salvage the comprehensive trade bill by removing a controversial plant-closing provision and presenting it as a separate measure.

The maneuver is expected to greatly improve chances for winning final approval of the sweeping trade reform measure, one of the chief issues of this congressional session. It was vetoed by President Reagan on the grounds that the portion addressing plant closings was an unwarranted interference with American business.

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) said that the House will vote first on the separate bill to require large firms to give 60 days advance notice of factory shutdowns and large-scale layoffs.

The House then will vote on the rest of the trade bill, minus another controversial provision--described as probably unconstitutional by Wright--that restrained shipments of crude oil from Alaska.

Votes on the tandem measures may occur as early as next week in the House, he indicated.

The main bill would overhaul the system for imposing import curbs on foreign goods to protect domestic industries and to retaliate against international trade violations by other governments. It also includes major new subsidies to promote farm exports.

Talks were under way Wednesday with Senate leaders to coordinate congressional action on the trade bill and the plant-closing legislation.

In the Senate, Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas said that the trade bill would not pass without taking out another provision that would allow duty-free imports of ethanol from the Caribbean, which is hotly opposed by Midwestern corn growers.

Bipartisan Backing

Dole had said previously, however, that there is strong bipartisan backing for the trade legislation, which was killed by Reagan’s veto. The bill was passed after three years of consideration by the House and Senate.

The original bill contained enticements for many groups and industries, including the repeal of the “windfall profits” tax in the oil industry, that made many members of Congress eager to revive it.

Democratic leaders in the Senate and House were reported to be consulting on strategy with representatives of the AFL-CIO, a strong supporter of the plant-closing notice.

It is possible, Wright said, that even though Congress was unable to override Reagan’s veto of the trade bill over the plant closings provision, it might be able to override his expected veto of a separate plant-closing measure. The override failed by only five votes in the Senate, and some members voting to sustain the veto may have objected to other provisions in the omnibus bill.

“We’re not giving up on the plant-closing bill,” Wright told reporters.

The Speaker predicted that both measures would become law before the election-year Congress ends its session in early October.

Under the Alaskan provisions that would be omitted from a new trade bill, out-of-state exports from that state’s newest refineries would have been limited to 70,000 barrels a day and 50% of production. The provision also required that Alaska oil bound for Canada be shipped first to ports in the lower 48 states, a provision added at the request of maritime unions.