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Show Fairer Trade Goal Sought l WASHINGTON The up- dating of existing trade i agreements to establish "rea-! "rea-! sonable constraints" on gov- ernments that interfere in the v foreign trade process should be - a major U.S. aim, the president 4 of the National Association of - Manufacturers says. e Heath Larry pointed out in a :; talk to the Council of Foreign C Relations here that while the U.S. has consistently favored , policies to expand world trade 5 and investment, it has done comparatively little to promote American exports directly. "On the other hand, foreign ; governments have generally been very active in supporting their export industries, often . through direct means of gov-ernment gov-ernment intervention to help establish es-tablish new industries, and to I bolster older industries through , direct government aid," said .. Larry. Export subsidies, easy credit, : intervention in foreign exchange markets and incentives for in- . creased research and develop- ment were examples of such aid, the NAM leader stated. , Geneva Talks Cited j Larry said that the Multilat- eral Trade Negotiations (MTN) . now under way in Geneva of-; of-; fered the best opportunity to achieve an updating of the General Gen-eral Agreements on Tariffs and i Trade (GATT) and to ac-, ac-, complish "reasonable con-' con-' straints on governmental intervention inter-vention in the foreign trade field." Unless such an effort is made, he continued, "we are likely to see in the 1980s an increasingly : high proportion of world trade determined solely by decisions ; of government rather than by decisions of the market. "1 do not believe that favor- - able results are assured, but progress is possible and de- ; serves our best efforts," the industry in-dustry leader added. "We do not have to wait for : untrammeled economic na-; na-; tionalism to play out its hand ; with grave dangers of world re-. re-. cession ... We owe it to our- selves and to our workers and r stockholders to give fairtrade its ; proper place along with free ' trade." |