Friday, October 31,1986/The Battalion/Page 9
World and Nation
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The na-
jon’s merchandise trade deficit reg-
jtered a slight improvement in Sep
tember, shrinking to $12.6 billion
rom $13.3 billion in the previous
honth, the government reported
ihursday.
Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Jaldrige said the report was evi
dence “that we have turned the cor
ner on the trade deficit.”
I Private analysts agreed that the
[nprovement — due largely to lower
imports of manufactured goods, in-
duding automobiles from Japan -—
was welcome news. But some cau
tioned that it was not necessarily a
sign of the long-awaited turnaround
iji trade accounts.
I The Commerce Department said
imports fell by 2.7 percent to $30.1
billion in September, while exports
dipped by 0.5 percent to $17.5 bil
lion. It was the second month in a
row the trade deficit has decreased.
B In a separate but related report,
the Labor Department said prices of
goods imported into the United
Hates rose 0.7 percent from June to
September, following declines in the
previous two quarters.
■ In all, the report said, prices of
non-petroleum imports have ad
vanced 10.2 percent since Septem
ber 1985, a period during which the
value of the U.S. dollar against other
major currencies has declined by
more than 30 percent.
■-Economists claim a weaker dollar
eventually will help ease this nation’s
ffede balance by making imported
Industry group: U.S. could save
$5 billion by easing gas controls
WASHINGTON (AP) — At least
$5 billion could be shaved from the
U.S. trade deficit annually if the
government relaxed natural gas
price controls and opened access to
interstate pipelines, an industry
group said Thursday.
“The inability of natural gas pro
ducers to get their gas to markets
has been an important contribution
to the U.S. balance of payments
deficit since 1982,” said Nicholas J.
Bush, president of the Natural Gas
Supply Association.
Bush cited a NGSA study that
says government price controls on
natural gas cannot keep up with the
rapidly fluctuating prices of the
global oil market.
The Commerce Department re
leased figures Thursday showing
the trade deficit for September was
$12.6 billion, with oil imports ac
counting for $3.1 billion.
Price controls on domestic natu
ral gas apply only to fuel produced
before 1978, called “old gas,”
according to Robert Isaac, a spokes
man for the Federal Energy Regu
latory Commission.
The Department of Energy has
asked FERC to look into rule
changes that would ease those con
trols to give domestic gas producers
more freedom on the open market,
Isaac said.
Bush’s study also blames re
stricted access to interstate pipe
lines for choking off the sale of nat
ural gas equal to 1 million barrels of
imported oil per day.
“In 1985 alone, U.S. imports of
petroleum products cost the coun
try $52.4 billion, while over 2 tril
lion cubic feet of domestic gas,
which could have replaced im
ported oil was ‘shut in’ for lack of
access to markets,” Bush said.
Isaac said current federal law
asks that pipeline companies volun
tarily provide access to transport
natural gas, but doesn’t require
them to do so.
But Ray Courage, spokesman for
the Interstate Natural Gas Associa
tion, said pipelines are in the busi
ness of carrying gas and have been
carrying as much as they can han
dle.
Isaac said before deregulation of
the natural gas industry in 1978,
the pipeline companies tradition
ally served as both the purchaser
and transporter of gas, but that has
changed in recent years.
“Since deregulation in 1978
there has been a shift in the market.
Users have started going to the pro
ducers and buying, then going to
the pipelines for transportation,”
Isaac said.
goods more expensive at home and
U.S. goods less costly abroad.
In yet another economic report,
the Commerce Department said
sales of new homes rose 10.6 percent
in September to a seasonally ad
justed annual rate of 690,000 units.
The increase was the first im
provement in sales since March,
when they had soared 24.7 percent
on the strength of big declines in
mortgage interest rates.
For the first nine months of 1986,
the United States amassed a trade
deficit of $127.8 billion, compared
with a $106.6 billion shortfall for the
same period in 1985.
Americans have been importing
more than they have been exporting
since 1981, with last year’s record
deficit of $148.5 billion expected to
be easily outstripped this year. Bal-
drige said he is projecting a 1986
deficit of around $172 billion, but he
said that figure should drop by $30
billion to $40 billion in 1987.
Senate Democratic Leader Robert
C- Byrd, D-W.Va., said he was unim
pressed with the new trade figures
or, “the Reagan administration’s pol
icy of inaction.”
President Reagan, on a campaign
tour through Nevada Thursday,
said, “Just this morning we learned
the trade deficit in September de
clined from its peak for the second
month in a row and is now down 30
percent. This is particularly good
news for our manufacturing indus
tries. We also learned new home
sales were up in September over 10
percent. I believe the economy is on
a roll and I think it is a sure bet we’re
about to hit another jackpot. We
pulled the handle and it came up
jobs,jobs, jobs.”
As usual, the largest single deficit
was with Japan, $4.1 billion in Sep
tember, but that was down from the
$4.7 billion imbalance in August.
Helping to narrow the gap with
Japan was a reduction in automobile
imports from that country — $1.5
billion in September against $ 1.8 bil
lion in August.
Oil imports increased in Septem
ber to $3.1 billion from $2.6 billion
the previous month. An average of 8
million barrels of oil a day were im
ported in September, 1.7 million
more a day than in August.
ang members charged in terrorist conspiracy
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■CHICAGO (AP) — Four members of the El
Rbkn street gang were indicted Thursday on
federal weapons charges for allegedly offering
toi carry out terrorist attacks in the United
States in exchange for money from Libya.
■Charged in the conspiracy are El Rukn
leader Jeff Fort, imprisoned in a federal peni-
teptiary in Texas on a drug conviction; Melvin
Maves; Alan Knox; and Trammel Davis, all of
Chicago.
Ijlfi'ox and Davis were arrested Aug. 5 follow
ing a raid on the gang’s South Side headquar
ters that yielded more than 30 weapons, includ
ing an inoperative M-72 series light anti-tank
rocket that had been sold to the gang by an un
dercover FBI agent.
Knox, 35, and Davis, 34, are being held with
out bail on federal weapons charges stemming
from that raid. Mayes, 29, is being sought by
authorities.
Charles Lee Knox, 42, was arrested outside
his Chicago home later Thursday on a federal
warrant issued earlier in the day in San Antonio
said FBI spokesman Bob Long. Knox was
sought for making false statements to the gov
ernment in the case, said U.S. Attorney Anton
Valukas.
Long stressed that gang members sought out
representatives of the Libyan government, and
not vice versa.
“It appears the El Rukns were interested in
building a war chest,” he said.
“They offered to do whatever the bidding of
Libya might be, though nothing actually came
of the plot,” he said.
Valukas said El Rukn members made contact
with Libyan officials during travels to several
U.S. locations, apparently New York, Chicago
and Texas, to propose their plans. According to
the indictments, the contacts began in March.
Valukas declined comment on whether the
Libyan officials agreed to the El Rukn proposal.
A receptionist at Libya’s mission at the
United Nations who declined to identify herself
said Ambassador Ali Treiki was out of the mis
sion and would not be available Thursday for
comment.
The El Rukns offered to use the weapons
and explosives they had been gathering since
March — including several purchased from un
dercover FBI agents — to damage federal
properties and vehicles, Valukas said.
He declined to be more specific.
Authorities estimate the gang’s membership
at several hundred.
Gorbachev
plans to visit
Latin America
WASHINGTON (AP) — So
viet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev
is planning to visit Latin America,
apparently in an attempt to pen
etrate peacefully an area where
the United States has long been
the dominant influence, adminis
tration officials say.
The Soviet Communist Party
General Secretary plans to visit
Cuba, Moscow’s closest ally in the
hemisphere, and also is expected
to become the first Soviet leader
ever to travel to Mexico, Argen
tina and Brazil, the officials said.
The trip, tentatively set for
next spring, may include other
South American countries as well.
Soviet Foreign Minister Edu
ard Shevardnadze visited Mexico
City three weeks ago and laid the
groundwork for the Soviet-Mexi-
can summit, according to the offi
cials, who insisted on anonymity.
Some officials described the
prospective visit to Mexico as a
normal development in relations
between the two countries. They
said Mexico has long been inter
ested in expanding its diplomatic
horizons and that three previous
Mexican presidents have visited
Moscow.
The officials added that Shev-
rardnadze and his Mexican hosts
seemed intent on not saying any
thing that could be construed as
hostile to the United States.
Other officials, however, said
they were concerned that the
Shevardnadze talks and the pro
spective visit by Gorbachev raises
the possibility of an expanded
“Soviet foothold” in this hemi
sphere.
A long-term Soviet goal in
Mexico is the opening of consular
offices in northern Mexico, which
would enable the Soviets to widen
their intelligence-gathering capa
bilities in the southern United
States, the officials said.
Shortly after Shevardnadze’s
visit to Mexico, Argentine Presi
dent Raul Alfonsin became the
first leader of that country to visit
the Soviet Union.
You Are Invited To Hear
I Vice President George Bush
Governor Bill Clements
U.S. Senator Phil Gramm
U.S. Congressman Joe Barton
Texas A&M
Rudder Auditorium
Monday, November 3rd at 2:00 pm
(Day before Election)
he
Also attending: U.S. Senator John Tower, Congressman Tom Loeffler, Congressman Kent Hance
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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