Trade Pact Wins Dole’s Support : Congress: Senate GOP leader’s backing gives GATT agreement a major boost. He is swayed by White House pledge to create a panel to monitor the accord.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) on Wednesday threw his support behind the proposed new international trade agreement, giving a major and perhaps decisive boost to the 124-nation pact as it heads for a congressional vote next week.

Appearing in the White House Rose Garden beside President Clinton, Dole said the Administration’s pledge to add safeguards to protect U.S. sovereignty had helped lay to rest his concerns about the landmark tariff-lowering agreement.

“I’ve agreed with the President that we’ve fixed this about as much as we can,” said Dole, who has been under tremendous pressure from opponents and supporters of the pact. He urged colleagues to give a “big, big vote” in support of the accord, which will create a World Trade Organization to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as the regime that governs world commerce.

After days of tense negotiations with Dole, the Administration agreed to support creation of a five-judge panel to review the way trade disputes are resolved under the pact. If the panel finds that decisions by the World Trade Organization exceed the pact’s authority, members of Congress may begin a process that could lead to U.S. withdrawal from the agreement.

Administration officials said they will push legislation to create the panel next year.

Critics, including former presidential candidates Ross Perot and Patrick J. Buchanan, have charged that the organization could rule arbitrarily that U.S. labor, safety or environmental laws represent trade barriers that should be dismantled or offset with sanctions against exports.

Seven years in the making, the agreement is the biggest trade treaty of all time. It would institute significant reductions in tariffs and would for the first time bring many parts of the economy under international regulation, including service industries such as financial firms and entertainment products. The White House has said the accord will increase U.S. economic output by $100 billion to $200 billion a year and that it would save the average American family $1,000 a year by cutting import costs.

Dole dropped his insistence that the Administration remove potential obstacles to a capital gains tax cut before he would support the trade accord, but he did win a promise from Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen to give a full hearing to that and other Republican proposals to increase investment.

“I did the best I could,” Dole said.

The pact’s supporters believe that they have the votes to win in the House, where a vote is scheduled for Tuesday. But the outcome in the Senate, which plans to vote Thursday, is more problematic, in part because 60 votes will be needed to waive deficit-reduction rules.

Because the reduction of tariffs would cut U.S. government revenues by $40 billion over 10 years and could cause the federal budget deficit to widen, Congress must either approve a waiver or offset the revenue shortfall with spending cuts or tax increases.

White House officials estimated that Dole’s backing could influence an additional six to 12 Senate votes. The additional “aye” votes could include Democrats who are nervous about voting with the weakened President and want the political cover offered by Dole’s support.

“This is a big, big plus,” said one Administration official. Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), went even further, predicting during the Rose Garden appearance that “this is going to pass overwhelmingly because of Bob Dole.”

As recently as Tuesday, Administration vote-counters said they believed that there might be two dozen senators still undecided.

Dole’s concern about Perot’s supporters was clear in his Rose Garden appearance. He noted that he was getting 2,000 phone calls a day on the trade issue and that Perot himself led a large rally against the agreement in Wichita, Kan., on Tuesday night.

The new plans for a five-judge panel “should satisfy the concerns, I think, of Perot and all the others out there,” said Dole, who is expected to become Senate majority leader in January and may run for President in 1996.

The trade accord was once expected to pass easily. But Clinton’s recent political weakness and the unexpected strength of the pact’s protectionist opponents has thrown the outcome into doubt.

In the negotiations, Dole was also trying to get the Administration to raise the federal regulatory fees on three companies that would benefit from the new trade regime. Those companies have been licensed by the United States to develop the next generation of telephone service, which has the potential for worldwide application and profits. But Dole did not succeed.

Administration officials have argued that the trade agreement will give full protections to U.S. sovereignty through provisions that allow any country to withdraw with six months’ notice. But U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said Wednesday that the judicial panel will be a valuable extra step.

Speaking in the Rose Garden, Clinton said the pact would benefit Americans disproportionately because U.S. trade barriers are already lower than those of most countries.

“This agreement requires all trading nations to play by the same rules and, since the United States already has the most productive and competitive economy, that is good news for our workers and our future,” he said.

He offered “deep thanks” to Dole for joining the effort.

Dole’s appearance with Clinton was also a notable political gesture.

Republican leaders have been firing partisan salvos at the White House since the Nov. 8 election. But they have also been under pressure to show bipartisanship, in part to blunt criticism that their foremost legislative goal is to stop the initiatives of the Administration.

Some analysts said they believe that creation of the judicial review panel could bring complaints from foreign nations that the United States is not fully willing to abide by the decisions of the new trade organization. But White House officials insisted that most foreign governments will understand that creation of the panel is necessary to build crucial domestic political support for the agreement.

Even with Dole’s support, the White House plans various events next week to press for its passage.

On Monday, the White House will bring together officials from past administrations.

More on GATT

* A special package of articles on the GATT treaty has been adapted for the TimesLink on-line service by the editors of the National Journal. Find out how members of the Southern California delegation plan to vote. Sign on and “jump” to keyword “National Journal.”

Details on Times electronic services, A12