Luminaries for Trade Pact Join With Clinton : Commerce: A White House extravaganza is staged to dramatize bipartisan support. Despite profuse praise, the agreement faces problems.

With the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement hanging in the balance, President Clinton invited a parade of Establishment luminaries Tuesday to help him make his case for the embattled pact.

In a White House East Room extravaganza staged to dramatize bipartisan support for the agreement, Clinton was joined by six former secretaries of state, six former Treasury chiefs, eight Nobel laureates in economics and a host of Establishment icons from former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara to ex-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker.

If the pact, which would end trade barriers between the United States, Canada and Mexico, were to be decided on the basis of the political weight of those endorsing it, it would be no contest.

But despite profuse praise for the agreement from former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretaries of State Henry A. Kissinger, James A. Baker III and Edmund Muskie, half of the American public has yet to be persuaded that the trade deal will help them, according to recent polls.

And with a House vote exactly two weeks away, Administration officials acknowledged that they lack the votes to pass it, although they noted that opponents of the agreement also cannot command a majority to defeat it.

Behind the scenes, Clinton and senior aides were working feverishly to secure the support of about a dozen lawmakers who are withholding their votes because they fear that a flood of Mexican agricultural imports will harm American producers of sugar, vegetables and citrus fruits. The congressmen--mainly from California, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida--are pressing the Administration to negotiate side deals with Mexico to retain at least temporary protection for domestic agricultural products.

However, some of Clinton’s top advisers, who are involved in the negotiations, were pessimistic about the likelihood of reaching such side agreements and conceded that failure to do so could doom the trade pact.

In Los Angeles, Secretary of State Warren Christopher stressed the benefits California would reap from approval of the pact. He said that 90,000 state jobs are directly related to exports to Mexico and that many more would be created by the three-way agreement.

“For example, California’s high-tech firms will see their sales rise dramatically under NAFTA. Our vast agricultural industry also stands to gain substantially from NAFTA,” Christopher told the Los Angeles World Affairs Council at a luncheon at the Biltmore Hotel on Tuesday. “For California, increased trade offers a logical avenue to economic recovery and renewed prosperity.”

Christopher also said that the trade agreement would help stem the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico by providing increased economic opportunities in that country. He also said that it would benefit Mexico’s environment and foster greater cooperation on fighting narcotics traffic.

During a question-and-answer period after his prepared remarks, Christopher downplayed the effect that recent remarks of leaders of Canada and Mexico might have on NAFTA.

Canadian Prime Minister-designate Jean Chretien has said that he would challenge the agreement unless it is modified further.

Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, meanwhile, was unenthusiastic about the significance of the accord in a speech to Mexican legislators Monday, arguing that “benefits will not be forthcoming in the short term, nor will they produce spectacular results.”

But Christopher said the statements would affect the congressional vote “not at all.”

“With respect to Canada, President Clinton has said he sees no need for renegotiation of the NAFTA agreement,” Christopher said. “I think the vote will go ahead on Nov. 17 without interruption or being thrown off course by this.”

With regard to Salinas, he added: “He has been a stalwart supporter of NAFTA from the very beginning, (and) I have great confidence in his leadership in Mexico.”

Clinton said that defeat of the treaty would mark a “profound setback” for the United States and touch off a worldwide wave of damaging protectionism.

The President said that the trade agreement is not merely a trade deal between the United States, Canada and Mexico, but a window into the soul of the nation.

“This is a decision which will demonstrate whether in this difficult moment we still have confidence in ourselves and our potential,” Clinton said.

Former President Carter alluded to the political difficulties Clinton faces in trying to win approval for the agreement. He said that he had visited with 12 members of Congress before going to the White House and each one told him that he recognized the merits of the pact but was being inundated by heartfelt and well-organized opposition from constituents.

Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson contributed to this story.