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

DATE: MONDAY, November 14, 1994                   TAG: 9411150031
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TRADE

ONE GOOD result of the GOP triumph in midterm elections last week could be the support it might offer to Clinton administration efforts to expand free trade. These efforts have been faulted by some Republicans as well as Democrats, but liberal Democrats in the Congress have been the leading opponents of agreements that would help liberalize international trade.

Of course, the fate of a revised General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade will be decided in a lame-duck session later this month, which is needed only because Congress failed to get down to business and approve the accord when it should have. Still, GOP momentum should improve odds of approval for this hugely important agreement, which would lower tariffs worldwide, extend fair-trade rules to more kinds of commerce, and boost international exports.

Meantime, President Clinton is busy on two other promising trade fronts. At the annual Asia-Pacific trade meeting today, he will continue laying the groundwork for liberalized trade with this region. At the Summit of the Americas, scheduled for December in Miami, he will try to expand on last year's trade success story, the North American Free Trade Agreement, by encouraging other nations in the Western Hemisphere to join in the agreement and pull down trade barriers.

President Clinton deserves considerable credit for pushing trade initiatives that unionists, environmentalists and liberals in his own party bitterly oppose. The timing of the lame-duck session on GATT may prove opportune, giving Republicans and the president a chance to show they can work together.

by CNB