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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 30, 1994                   TAG: 9409300016
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NONSENSE

SHAME ON Sen. Ernest Hollings, the South Carolina Democrat. In a despicable show of political cowardice, he says he will try to block a vote this year on a 123-nation accord that would lower trade barriers and tariffs worldwide and extend fair-trade rules to areas of commerce, such as services and software, that formerly weren't covered.

It took more than seven years of excruciating bargaining to complete this global agreement, the largest of its kind in history. It's far from perfect, but it would create hundreds of thousands of jobs for American workers in the coming decade.

So why is Hollings balking? Why, of course: in defense of the worst kind of protectionism. The textile industry in his state stands to suffer without all the barriers to competition that the government has set up in its behalf.

In a telling commentary on the state of party discipline, Hollings can hold up a vote on the pact because he's chairman of a key committee, Commerce. "I want to support President Clinton in every way I possibly can," he had the nerve to say Wednesday. "And, in my way of thinking, I am doing that. I think this administration will really succeed if we cut out this nonsense about free trade."

Give us a break. The real nonsense about free trade is the fact that so many in Congress oppose it, in willful ignorance or neglect of the national interest. Cutting tariffs reduces artificially high prices on goods. So, aside from boosting jobs in America's thriving, high-wage export industries, the updated General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade would offer immediate cost savings to American consumers.

A few special interests and protected industries, such as textiles, would be hurt. But the nation as a whole - the world's No. 1 exporter - stands to gain mightily. Those who would put off a vote on GATT, including Minority Leader Robert Dole and now Hollings, are acting downright irresponsibly.

President Clinton and Majority Leader George Mitchell are insisting that Congress approve the pact this year, before it is supposed to go into worldwide effect Jan. 1. If accomplishing that requires a lame duck session after the November elections, to override Hollings' sullen and dangerous obstruction, so be it.

by CNB