BUSINESSES LOBBY FOR TRADE POWER.

Byline: Jim Drinkard Associated Press 

Late and against tough odds, 500 businesses from computer chip makers to pork producers are pressuring Congress to give President Clinton power to negotiate new international trade agreements.

``We're playing beat the clock - that's my concern,'' said Bruce Josten, a lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

With just a month left in this year's congressional session - much of it to be taken up with a 10-day recess and with must-pass spending bills - the business coalition hopes to persuade wary lawmakers and an indifferent public to support increased negotiating authority for Clinton.

So far, the political battleground has been dominated by organized labor, which began stirring up opposition last spring.

Using plant meetings, mass mailings and up to $2 million worth of radio and television ads, labor has cast the issue as one that would erode the job security of U.S. workers. The message has been reinforced by environmental groups, which say trade deals should carry safeguards against other countries cutting manufacturing costs by damaging the environment.

Manufacturers, financial services companies, farm groups and high-tech firms - more than 500 corporations and associations in all - have formed a alliance to restore the president's so-called fast-track authority, which lapsed in 1994. The group, America Leads on Trade, has deputized industries in each state to get lawmakers' attention. Farm groups are approaching Southerners, for example, while electronics companies are at work in high-tech states such as California and Massachusetts.

TRW, the company that makes auto air bags and other technology products, invited Rep. Glenn Poshard, D-Ill., to visit its electronics plant in Marshall, Ill., to hear how export growth has led to new jobs. Dozens of similar visits have been arranged by Procter & Gamble, Boeing, Caterpillar and General Motors.

CEOs from two dozen firms spread out across Capitol Hill last month to visit lawmakers, along with 150 Procter & Gamble plant managers.

Constituents of more than 100 House members have been hearing radio and television spots touting the virtues of free trade, part of a campaign that could cost $3 million or more.

And the group has hired inside-the-Beltway help such as Anne Wexler, the lobbyist who helped guide the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress in 1993. Republican lobbyist Nick Calio and Democrat Steve Champlin have been hired for their contacts in the congressional leadership; the firm of Democratic fund-raiser Dan Dutko is generating support among the nation's governors.

``We will be as competitive as we need to be,'' said Jim Christy, the TRW lobbyist who heads the coalition. ``We will not let our message be overwhelmed.''

Business faces several obstacles that complicate the current trade fight. It is overshadowed by the disappointing results of NAFTA, which business lobbyists now admit was oversold.

Lobbyists also say it is difficult to argue in favor of streamlined presidential negotiating authority in the absence of a specific trade agreement.

The bill would grant the president the right to a speedy congressional vote on trade agreements he negotiates, without amendments. But it leaves open the question of which countries and products might be involved in any future deals.

And in the House, where the crucial vote will come, many newer lawmakers have never had to cast a major trade vote and their views are unknown. Business lobbyists fear that even Republicans, normally friendly to trade deals, see little political benefit back home in the fast-track vote.

In addition, organized labor has waged the more emotional fight. That is conveyed in letters written by union members - as many as 1,600 to some congressional offices - and in the threat of financial reprisals against lawmakers who vote the wrong way.