Tax Hikes Eyed for Funds Lost Under GATT : Revenue: Administration examines options for multibillion-dollar loss of tariffs that must be replaced.

WASHINGTON —  Higher taxes and spending cuts that would hit broadcasters, retailers, farmers and chemical companies are being considered to make up revenue that would be lost under a new world trade agreement, Administration officials said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, President Clinton kicked off a lobbying campaign for the accord.

“We have got to adopt the (agreement) this year,” Clinton told a coalition of industry, labor and elected officials. “This is about exports and jobs. It’s also about our leadership in the world.”

While predicting that opposition can be overcome and the world trade agreement approved this year, the President acknowledged that the Administration has not yet found a way to address the thorniest problem: how to make up between $12.5 billion and $14 billion in federal revenue that would be lost when tariffs are reduced. Under congressional budget rules, any lost revenue must be offset by spending cuts or tax increases.

Clinton said his economic team is still trying to resolve that question. Administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a package of spending cuts and tax increases has been put together and is being shown to congressional leaders in an effort to win support.

The officials said the options include raising $4.8 billion by taxing radio and television stations for their use of the public air waves and making $3.1 billion in additional cuts in farm subsidy programs.

Other proposals under active review, these officials said, are raising $1.5 billion from reauthorizing a hazardous-waste cleanup tax on chemical companies, $1.3 billion in higher taxes primarily on retailers by changing tax rules covering business inventories, $600 million from a new tax on gambling earnings, $500 million by taxing free parking provided by companies to their employees, and another $500 million from collecting certain corporate taxes quarterly instead of annually.

U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor refused to discuss details of the package Tuesday but told reporters that the Administration is counting on broad, bipartisan support for whatever proposal is reached in negotiations with congressional leaders.

However, strong opposition has already surfaced among affected interest groups to the point that other Administration officials concede that the agreement, negotiated under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, is facing growing opposition.

Sixty members of the House sent a letter to Clinton on Friday complaining that farmers are being unfairly singled out to pay for 40% of the lost revenue.

A separate letter signed by 55 House members has urged Clinton to delay a vote on the trade pact until next year, citing the difficulties in making up the lost revenue.

And Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), an important ally in last fall’s struggle to win approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, said he will probably oppose the GATT accord because of concerns that actions of the more powerful World Trade Organization will result in a loss of U.S. sovereignty.

The GATT accord, which lowers tariffs and other trade barriers among more than 100 countries, will be considered under the same fast-track procedures that governed last fall’s debate on NAFTA, which the Administration won in a close vote in the House after a furious lobbying effort.

Clinton, speaking to the Administration’s trade advisory panel, said he is willing to consider a waiver of the congressional budget rules requiring that lost revenue be replaced, but only if there is “clear, deep and bipartisan consensus” in favor of it.

Kantor said the Administration is not actively seeking such a waiver, and he indicated that it plans to put forward a revenue replacement package.

The President did confirm that the Administration will try to replace only the $12.5 billion to $14 billion that will be lost in the first five years of the agreement--not the larger $40 billion that will be lost over 10 years.