Public Opinion Sought to Help Push GATT Accord : Trade: The organi- zation adopts a new tactic to pressure governments to wrap up stalled negotiations on the pact.

In a change of tactics, the main world trade organization has turned to the public to pressure governments to wrap up a long-delayed trade liberalizing pact.

In a new report, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade says government policies keep prices on products like food, clothing and cars artificially high and also increase taxes.

“It is high time that governments made clear to consumers just how much they pay for decisions to protect domestic industries from import competition,” GATT Director-General Peter Sutherland said.

“The effects of protection almost always fall most heavily on the poorest sections of society,” he said. “It is they who . . . have to spend the highest proportion of their household budget on necessities like clothing, footwear and basic food products. It is exactly in these areas that protection is most common and intense.”

GATT’s Uruguay Round of trade talks are aimed at cutting import duties by one-third, reducing protection for agriculture and textiles, and easing restrictions on global trade in services such as banking and insurance.

The Uruguay Round package would expand the world economy by an estimated $200 billion annually, but it would also sacrifice the interests of protected domestic industries, which usually have powerful political lobbies.

More than 100 governments taking part in the talks originally pledged to sign the agreement by the end of 1990. Despite numerous declarations of support, they have missed a string of deadlines. The next target is Dec. 15.

Until now, GATT has sought to convince governments and businesses of the benefits of the trade liberalizing deal. In the new report, it tries to cut through the jargon and explain those benefits directly to consumers.

Examples listed by GATT in the report, which is based on the organization’s own research and independent studies, include:

* Textiles and clothing. Import quotas and tariffs cost a four-person household in the United States up to $420 per year, in Canada $220 per year and in the United Kingdom about $130 per year.

* Electronics. Video recorders, televisions, compact disc players are often subject to high import barriers. These restrictions cost consumers in the European Community an estimated $1.3 billion per year.

* Cars. American and European restrictions against Japanese imports limit choices and raise prices. One study showed Japanese cars in Britain were 70% more expensive than in Japan.

* Rice. Japan has a ban on imports to protect domestic farmers. Rice costing $50 per 100 pounds in the United States sells for $175 to $250 in Japan.

* Sugar. Subsidies to protect the U.S. sugar industry have nearly doubled prices for American consumers.

The report estimates that government protection of agriculture cost individual consumers in the United States $360 per year, in Japan $600, in Switzerland $840 and in Finland $910.

GATT said that money spent on tariffs, quotas, subsidies and other measures to protect jobs in inefficient industries would be put to better use in retraining affected workers.

The protection cost per job is usually far greater than the wage the worker earns, it said.

In the United States, the cost of saving a single job in the garment sector was estimated at $36,000 to $82,000, the report said.