Portsmouth Herald
10/13/95 Pg. A3

BUCHANAN SPEAKS OUT AGAINST NAFTA, GATT
BLAMES FREE TRADE FOR LOSS OF JOBS IN US     
By Liane Evans, Herald Staff

   EXETER - Against the backdrop of an empty manufacturing facility whose
operation relocated to Mexico in August, leaving 120 local workers
unemployed, U.S. presidential hopeful Patrick J. Buchanan lambasted his
Republican colleagues for supporting free trade and sending the American
dream overseas. 
   Although owners of Nashua Cartridge have indicated their move to Mexico
was not related to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),
Buchanan cited manufacturers from Iowa to New Hampshire relocating to
Third World countries due to cheaper labor costs with the resulting loss
of American jobs. 
   ``All over the U.S., this is happening,'' said the political
commentator, standing in front of the Industrial Drive building that once
housed Nashua Cartridge. 
   Buchanan said his rivals for the Republican nomination ``repeat the
mindless mantra of free trade while ignoring the consequence of loss of U.S.
jobs.'' Buchanan admitted he supported free trade for about 25 years until
``the grand theory collided with the facts.''
   ``(Phil) Gramm and (Bob) Dole have got to wake up,'' he said.
   Buchanan was in Exeter yesterday after participating in a GOP debate in
Manchester Wednesday evening. He planned to take part in Exeter's Amos
Tuck Day Celebration last night. 
   During a half-hour press conference Buchanan appealed to supporters of
Ross Perot and aligned himself with Perot's stance on campaign finance.
``We've got to bring Perot voters back,'' he said. ``If I am the
Republican nominee I will talk to Ross Perot and try to bring him home.''
   Buchanan, however, appeared to negate the possibility he would seek a
third-party candidacy himself if not nominated to the GOP ticket. ``Why
nominate a third-party candidate and bring us both down to defeat?''
   Buchanan said the United States is the ``greatest debtor nation,
running merchandise trade deficits like no other nation in history. There
are fewer Americans in manufacturing than in the United States government.
The median income in the U.S. is 20 percent lower than it was 20 years
ago.''
   Buchanan decried America's $200 billion annual merchandise trade
deficit and said if trade agreements like NAFTA and the Global Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) are kept, the United States must take a hard
look at every country with which it runs a deficit, particularly the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), China and Japan. 
   Buchanan said he would balance the trade deficit by taxing foreign
goods purchased in this country; requiring foreign countries to buy more
U.S. products; and encouraging foreign companies to build plants in the
United States and hire U.S. workers. 
   Buchanan said China and Japan are ``economic nationalists looking out
for themselves first,'' and America needs economic leaders if it is to
survive in the global economic struggle. 
   Buchanan is running second in several New Hampshire polls.