GORE SEES NO NAFTA APPROVAL DELAY

CLINTON PREDICTS VICTORY IN APPEAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT RULING

Vice President Gore said yesterday that approval of the pending North American Free Trade Agreement would not be delayed even if the administration is required to complete a detailed assessment of the pact's environmental impact.

"Almost all the work required for that kind of an EIS {environmental impact statement} has been done," Gore told a group of journalists over lunch at the White House.

Gore did not explain what material he was referring to, although the administration could draw on an environmental study on NAFTA prepared by the Bush administration as a substitute for an environmental impact statement.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey on Wednesday ordered the administration to prepare an impact statement on NAFTA, creating a new and potentially fatal challenge to approval of the pact.

Both supporters and foes of NAFTA assumed that it would take six months or more to complete an EIS, which easily could run thousands of pages.

President Clinton told the journalists that the administration has "an excellent chance of prevailing" in its appeal of Richey's decision.

Richey ruled that the free trade pact, like other major federal actions, had to be accompanied by an EIS.

However, the administration contends that the trade pact is a presidential action not subject to a congressionally mandated impact statement requirement.

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