COURT HEARS APPEAL ON NAFTA

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE TO ASSESS, U.S. ARGUES

The Clinton administration told a federal appeals court yesterday that it might not be able to assess the environmental impact of a free-trade pact with Mexico and Canada, even if ordered to by the courts, because the agreement's consequences are so complex and unpredictable.

A lawyer for activist groups opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement responded that the pact is just the kind of major federal action that requires a detailed environmental study.

"There are serious environmental consequences" to NAFTA, said Patti Goldman, lawyer for the groups. "We would like to see an objective assessment of what they are."

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District heard arguments on the challenge by Public Citizen, Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club to the NAFTA pact signed last year by President George Bush.

The three groups won an initial victory in June when U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey said the administration was required to prepare an environmental impact statement on NAFTA.

Solicitor General Drew S. Days III, arguing the administration's appeal, said Richey's order requires the government to evaluate "the world with NAFTA and the world without NAFTA. We seriously do not believe that could be done."

Days argued that the National Environmental Protection Act, which requires assessments of major federal agency decisions affecting the environment, does not apply to trade agreements because they are presidential actions.

The case bears directly on a president's ability to negotiate complex trade agreements such as NAFTA, Days said. While a president's trade representatives work out a pact, the president determines whether to send it to Congress, and Clinton has held up the NAFTA agreement while seeking additional environmental and labor safeguards, said Days. Clinton and his trade officials have worked "hand in glove" on NAFTA.

"It is clear that the president of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, is in the dock, so to speak," Days said.

There was no indication when the appeals court will act. Negotiators for Mexico, Canada and the United States recently completed side agreements to ensure enforcement of environmental and worker safety laws, and Clinton is preparing to send NAFTA to Congress this fall.

Following the hearing, Goldman said the judges' questions suggested to her that they may conclude that the courts lack the authority to require an environmental study in this case -- a key argument in the government's case.

That outcome wouldn't prevent NAFTA from going to Congress but could affect the decision there, she indicated. "The political processes will dictate what's going to happen," she said.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.