Clinton Sends NAFTA to Congress After Reaching Deals : Trade: The Administration’s last-minute side accords with Mexico are considered crucial to passage of the pact.

WASHINGTON —  The Clinton Administration on Wednesday sent Congress legislation to implement the North American Free Trade Agreement after negotiating last-minute side deals with Mexico that supporters said should significantly enhance the pact’s chances of congressional approval.

While President Clinton conceded that he still lacks the votes to assure passage of the three-nation trade agreement, congressional allies predicted new support after the late-night agreement with Mexico on side deals to protect American sugar, citrus and vegetable producers. “We are very much within reach of being able to win it,” Leon E. Panetta, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told reporters. “It will be decided by the undecideds on the Republican and Democratic sides . . . and the undecideds are beginning to break our way.”

Agreed upon in a 4 a.m. phone call Wednesday to Mexico City, the side agreements are considered particularly crucial to the trade accord’s fate--with the votes of as many as 10 undecided lawmakers hanging in the balance. Congress is scheduled to vote Nov. 17 on the pact which would create the largest tariff-free zone in the world by eliminating trade barriers between Mexico, the United States and Canada over the next 15 years.

The side agreements were aimed chiefly at mollifying Florida representatives, whose agricultural constituents compete more directly than Californians do with Mexican agriculture. But both steps were seen as positive for California agriculture.

Although details of the agreement were relayed to Capitol Hill too late in the day to generate much reaction, U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor told a news conference that the side pacts will give U.S. producers the guarantees they had sought to protect domestic sugar, citrus and vegetables from unregulated and cheaper Mexican competition.

The Mexicans “have agreed with us to put price-based safeguard mechanisms in NAFTA . . . to ensure there is no disruption of those industries in the United States,” Kantor said.

“The sugar and citrus agreement was a very important step in the right direction,” Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a supporter of the trade agreement, added as he emerged from a meeting at the White House where Clinton unveiled the legislation earlier in the day.

“This will pick up a lot of votes,” said California Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), a leader of forces that support the agreement in the House.

Although details of the sugar agreement were not included in the legislation sent to Congress Wednesday, Administration officials said that they involve assurances that Mexico will not substitute high fructose corn syrup sweeteners imported from the United States for the domestic sugar it now uses in its soft drink industry.

U.S. sugar producers had feared that Mexican soft drink manufacturers would switch to American corn syrups once tariff barriers were lowered, allowing Mexican sugar producers in turn to export their sugar to the United States, undercutting American producers with lower prices.

The citrus agreement covers processed or “juice” products, which account for about one-fourth of California’s citrus production compared with 90% of Florida’s, said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, trade group for 850 growers.

While California’s orange growers don’t think Mexico can produce competitive fresh oranges or lemons, it could quickly produce enough lower-quality citrus to flood the U.S. juice market and send prices tumbling, according to Nelsen.

While such citrus marketers as Sunkist, the big California cooperative, support NAFTA because it promises to open up new markets, the growers represented by Nelsen’s organization have opposed the trade agreement.

“We saw an immediate flood, hurting revenues in the short term and outweighing any benefits of long-term growth that NAFTA might offer,” said Nelsen.

Moreover, California’s growers feared that Florida’s huge citrus industry would refocus its efforts on the fresh-orange market--now dominated by California--rather than try to compete with Mexican juice products.

The original NAFTA agreement called for an immediate 50% cut in U.S. tariffs on imported citrus with the balance phased out over 15 years. The side deal allows a reimposition of tariffs if the futures market for processed citrus falls below a designated level, Nelsen said.

“This certainly places NAFTA in a more positive light,” said Nelsen, adding that his group will re-evaluate its opposition.

There was no immediate reaction from California’s vegetable growers, who are holding their annual meeting in San Diego. However, most of the state’s vegetables are produced in summer and don’t compete directly with Mexico’s production, which goes head to head with Florida vegetables.

Other provisions inserted by the White House included a $90 million “bridge” program to help retrain American workers who may be displaced by job losses to Mexico, help for businesses likely to be adversely affected by the pact and a $10-million authorization to build a trade study center in Texas.

Times Staff Writers James Gerstenzang and Robert L. Jackson in Washington and Donald Woutat in Sacramento contributed to this story.