Business Notes Trade

Tobacco, leather products, canned fruit, insurance and telephone equipment. That sounds like a bizarre shopping list, but those are the U.S. exports that the Reagan Administration has taken up as part of its month-old fight to put an end to unfair trade practices and open foreign markets for American companies. Last week the list grew longer, when the White House accused the Common Market and South Korea of more unfair trading procedures.

The President charged the Common Market with unfairly subsidizing European wheat exports during the past four years, thereby undercutting U.S. grain prices and robbing American farmers of export sales worth $2 billion annually. The Administration's complaint against South Korea was that its patent and copyright laws do not adequately protect U.S. products and authors from counterfeiters. The cost to the U.S.: more than $170 million a year. White House Spokesman Larry Speakes indicated that the action against the Common Market and South Korea is only the beginning. The President is now considering twelve other unfair trade complaints.