Clinton Says GOP May Scuttle NAFTA : Trade: Republicans are rebelling at prospect of raising taxes on travelers, cargo shipments. Levies are seen as needed to meet costs of accord.

President Clinton said Tuesday that the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement may be endangered because Republicans--counted on by the White House for support--are rebelling at the idea of increasing taxes on travelers and cargo shipments to help meet costs of the accord.

As Clinton spoke at the White House, the House Ways and Means Committee informally endorsed the three-way trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. But, when the panel formally considers the plan Nov. 1, it is expected to examine it more carefully and several negative votes are likely.

An estimated $1.7 billion to $2.5 billion in revenue would be lost over five years when tariffs on imports from Mexico are removed as the agreement goes into effect.

To make up that revenue loss, Clinton had settled on a plan that would increase fees charged to passengers entering the United States from Mexico by air and sea and, possibly, double the taxes on cargo carried across the border.

But on Tuesday White House officials and members of Congress indicated for the first time that the plan, which has met sharp criticism, is open to revision.

On Monday, 28 conservative Republicans, led by Rep. Thomas W. Ewing (R-Ill.) and joined by House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), wrote to Clinton objecting to raising taxes to pay for the agreement. Under the federal budget deficit-reduction law, any loss in revenue must be met with an equivalent increase in taxes or cuts in spending.

Whether such objections might derail the agreement is uncertain. The pact has drawn strenuous criticism from some Democrats and Republicans deeply concerned that it will lead to a loss of manufacturing jobs in this country and from others fearful that provisions protecting the environment and workers’ rights are not strong enough.

At the same time, Republicans objecting to the relatively low-cost financing plan could be using it as an excuse to avoid bailing Clinton out of a difficult political jam.

Under the plan advanced by the White House, the $5 fee now charged to passengers entering the United States from Mexico by rail or sea would be raised to $10. This would be sufficient, the White House maintains, to meet a five-year shortfall of $1.7 billion. Additional fee increases covering cargo are also under consideration to cover the higher shortfall estimate of $2.5 billion.

The plan, U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor told the Ways and Means Committee, is attractive because it would raise the money from those most likely to benefit directly from increased trade with Mexico.

But the White House has maintained that no such increases would be necessary if congressional budget experts would allow it to count an anticipated $10-billion increase in tax collections, that it believes would result from increased trading under the agreement.

Addressing the dilemma for the first time in public remarks, the President acknowledged that it must be resolved before he can expect the pact to be approved.

“We still have to work through the whole issue of how we deal with the fact that, if we pass NAFTA, we have to reduce tariffs. And that’s a $2.5-billion tax on American consumers today, the tariffs are, that we will reduce,” he said at a picture-taking session at the start of a meeting with a group of House members whose support he was courting.

The question of making up lost tariff revenue has become “a significant problem,” Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) said Tuesday.

Matsui, a senior member of Ways and Means and one of the leading supporters of the agreement in the House, said that the higher fees “are less likely to be part of the financing” arrangement because of the GOP objections.

White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, meanwhile, suggested that the Republicans’ objections would not interfere with approval of the pact.

“This is a relatively small piece of NAFTA and a problem that we think we can solve working with them,” she said.

Overall, the trade agreement would eliminate tariffs and other obstacles to free trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada over a 15-year period. If approved by simple majorities of the House and Senate, it would go into effect Jan. 1.

The House, where Clinton faces steeper opposition than in the Senate, may vote as early as Nov. 17. With large numbers of Democrats expressing opposition, Clinton needs support from the Republican minority.

With Administration officials admitting that the calendar is closing in on them, the White House is in the midst of an intense campaign this week to gain support in California, where only five of the 30 Democrats and roughly 17 of the 22 Republicans in the House delegation have said they will support the pact.

Leon E. Panetta, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, met with the California delegation Tuesday and business executives from the state are being brought to the White House for a series of meetings Thursday with Vice President Al Gore and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen.

In addition, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt will visit the state at the end of the week to speak about the trade agreement, all part of what Jay Ziegler, a White House spokesman, said is “a guerrilla information campaign on the ground.”

Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich plans to unveil details today of an 18-month program to help retrain workers who lose their jobs as a result of the trade agreement. Kantor told Ways and Means that the $90-million program would help pay for retraining and income support for those out of work as a result of plant relocations.