GATT Members Cite U.S. Protectionism : * Trade: The organization questions ‘anti-dumping’ procedures and high tariffs on certain products.

The world trade organization accused the United States on Thursday of using protectionist measures to curb cheap imports.

The United States also faced a barrage of criticism from individual members of the 103-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade during a two-day review of Washington’s trade practices.

U.S. Ambassador Rufus H. Yerxa said the review, based on a new GATT study, helped clear the air. “We’re willing to take our lumps. We can dish it out, but we can take it.”

GATT member countries review each other periodically and get a chance to pressure for change, something the organization is unable to force. Review of the United States is given extra attention as the world’s largest economy.

The GATT study, the first on U.S. trade practices in three years, also questioned Washington’s high tariffs on a limited range of products, including 96% on tobacco imports.

Most U.S. tariffs are low, but imports paying higher rates also include sugar products, beverages, watches and clocks, footwear, textiles, glass, and medical and pharmaceutical products, the study said.

The report singled out Washington’s growing use of “anti-dumping” procedures, which place extra tariffs on foreign products if the United States decides they are priced too low.

“The United States has been one of the most frequent users of anti-dumping and countervailing duty actions,” the study said, but it praised Washington for avoiding major trade disputes, “where feasible,” in the last two years.

The study said other countries showed “growing concern over the frequent use of such measures” and noted that the U.S. government had considered 57 new anti-dumping cases in the first 10 months of fiscal 1991, more than double the 27 in the previous year.

Companies must pay high legal costs to defend against dumping allegations, and the Commerce Department has tended to rule against them--in 68 of 71 cases in 1988-90, the study said.

To avoid the procedures, some companies appear to hold back on exports to the United States or price goods higher, it said. In the end, it said, the American consumer pays more.

Yerxa told reporters that the increase merely reflected an open system that allows any company to complain. He said the number of U.S. rulings upholding dumping claims had actually declined since 1989.

The report said another practice that runs up prices for Americans is limits or quotas on agricultural imports, such as dairy products, peanuts and cotton.