Reagan Renews Threat to Veto House Trade Bill

WASHINGTON — President Reagan on Friday renewed his threat to veto a trade bill calling for mandatory retaliation against nations that use unfair practices to gain the upper hand against the United States.

At the outset of a Cabinet Room meeting with Republican members of Congress, Reagan read a statement saying the bill passed recently by a narrow margin in the House would “move us exactly in the wrong direction.”

Reagan has frequently spoken out against a provision in the House-passed bill known as the Gephardt amendment, named for Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination next year.

Reagan made no direct reference to the Gephardt amendment Friday, although he said: “I would have no choice but to veto that bill in its present form.”

The amendment would establish a system through which the President, under certain circumstances, would have to impose sanctions against a nation using unfair practices to build trade surpluses. Reagan has said it would tie a President’s hands in efforts to negotiate settlements of trade disputes.

In describing the White House meeting, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that “one of the main points that we were making . . . was that the foreign trade situation seems to be turning around as a result of currency exchange rate changes” and that the Gephardt amendment would be unnecessarily restrictive.

Reagan said that bill would result in “high tariffs and trade barriers, trade-distorting subsidies and slow growth.”