	u s house panel approves  bill the u s house ways and means  subcommittee unanimously approved a toned down version of legislation designed to toughen u s  laws and wedge open foreign markets to more u s goods the measure now goes to the full house ways and means committee next week but major changes are not expected congressional sources said this product could very well be toughening our  policy and doing it in a manner that opens markets without this frightening word protectionism ways and means chairman dan rostenkowski an illinois democrat said the  subcommittee backed away from mandating specific retaliation against foreign countries for unfair foreign  practices as the house had approved in a  bill last year but it held over for the full ways and means committee debate on a controversial plan by rep richard gephardt to mandate a reduction in  surpluses with the u s by countries such as japan south korea and taiwan gephardt a missouri democrat has not decided the exact form of his amendment an aide said last year the house approved his idea to force an annual pct  surplus cut by those countries reuter 
