Kantor Hits Perot’s Critical Book on Trade Pact

Firing back at perhaps the single most influential critic of the trade agreement negotiated by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the Clinton Administration said Thursday that Ross Perot’s sharply critical book about the pact is rife with inaccuracies and misstatements.

“We found 193 misleading statements,” U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said of Perot’s 110-page text, “Save Your Job, Save Our Country. Why NAFTA Must Be Stopped--Now!”

The Texas businessman has made opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement his political focus this autumn, and the White House recognizes him as one of the most difficult obstacles that must be overcome to win popular support and congressional approval for the pact.

In another step aimed at addressing the concerns of opponents--mostly among House Democrats--and weakening their resolve, a senior official in Kantor’s office emphasized that legislation to implement the agreement would provide funds for cleaning up the polluted environment along the U.S.-Mexican border and for retraining workers who lose their jobs because of the pact.

Administration officials hope that such provisions will soften opposition from House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), whose position as one of the most respected trade experts in Congress is likely to sway some crucial votes in the House.

Reflecting the importance the Administration attaches to its effort to counter Perot, a dozen aides stood by as Kantor sounded the theme of a campaign designed to address American concerns that the pact would encourage U.S. businesses to move to Mexico:

“What the NAFTA does is export products into Mexico, not jobs,” he said. The remark served to reiterate his oft-repeated contention that the agreement’s tariff-reducing provisions would enhance the ability of U.S. companies to sell goods in Mexico.

In response to Perot’s book, written with trade specialist Pat Choate, the U.S. trade representative’s office distributed a 74-page rebuttal, along with a separate five-page statement from Kantor.

Among the “inaccuracies, errors and misleading statements” by Perot and Choate, the most serious, Kantor said, included:

* That the trade accord would put 5.9 million jobs “at risk,” including positions in such “high wage, high skill” areas as aerospace and the production of medical equipment and sonar equipment. Kantor argued that employment in such sectors of the economy would increase as a result of the agreement.

* A statement, attributed to former Labor Secretary Lynn Martin, that the pact would cost 150,000 U.S. jobs. Actually, the trade representative’s rebuttal said, in her full statement during testimony before Congress, Martin said that the pact actually would increase U.S. employment by 100,000 to 180,000 jobs beyond the positions that would be lost.

* The allegation that “NAFTA jeopardizes the safety of American travelers . . . by opening U.S. roads to trucks and drivers who do not meet U.S. minimum safety standards.” The trade representative’s office maintained that “no provision of the (agreement) exempts Mexican or Canadian vehicles or drivers from U.S. environmental or safety standards.”

As September unfolds, the Administration is likely to try to produce a high-profile campaign, described by one aide as “a veritable whirlwind,” on behalf of the trade pact.