
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 7, 1993                   TAG: 9311070101
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NAFTA DEBATE DEBATED

Setting up a battle of "facts against fear," President Clinton said Tuesday's debate between Vice President Al Gore and Ross Perot would show a free-trade pact with Mexico is good for working Americans.

Opponents, meanwhile, insisted the North American Free Trade Agreement was a bad deal for U.S. workers and said they were within striking distance of locking up enough votes to defeat it in the House.

Rep. Bill Richardson, a New Mexico Democrat marshalling pro-NAFTA forces, acknowledged they were more than 30 votes short, but insisted "we have the momentum."

The White House decision to put Gore up against Perot is part of an effort to overcome that vote deficit.

"When you're behind, you roll the dice," Richardson said. "It's a gamble, but I think a good one."

But another NAFTA supporter, Senate Republican Leader Robert Dole of Kansas, questioned the wisdom of debating Perot.

"I think it elevates Perot. When he's going down, we shouldn't be lifting him back up," Dole said at a business conference in Richmond. "But that's a decision they made."

Clinton is hoping that wavering legislators can be swayed his way if the American people mobilize behind the trade pact, and he hopes to energize the public through Tuesday's debate.

Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., said she was afraid the debate was "becoming a great big circus and a public spectacle."

"It is trench warfare, vote by vote," presidential counselor David Gergen said in Richmond.

Added Dole: "It's a little late for this big public push. You need to focus on about 40 House members, and I hope they all watch."

Clinton, in his Saturday radio address, directed his remarks at Americans worried that their jobs would be jeopardized by the trade pact.

"For them, the debate is simple," Clinton said. "It's about paychecks, not politics."

Looking ahead to Tuesday's debate, Clinton said it was time to cut through the fog surrounding the issue and "shed some light."

"The debate will be facts against fear - the fear that low wages and lower costs of production in Mexico will lead to a massive flight of jobs down there," Clinton said.

"NAFTA means more exports, and more exports means more jobs for Americans," he said.

by CNB