	ec warns congress on new  bill the european community ec has warned the u s house of representatives that tough  legislation it is considering could prompt retaliation by u s trading partners the warning was sent in a letter from sir roy denman head of the ec delegation in washington to dan rostenkowski chairman of the house ways and means committee a copy of the letter was made available to reuters denman told rostenkowski an illinois democrat he backed aspects of the bill such as one backing new talks under the gatt and one excluding protection for the textile industry but denman disagreed with other provisions which would require president reagan to take retaliatory  action against nations with large  surpluses with the u s and would set new standards for judging unfair foreign  practices denman told rostenkowski that gatt regulations prohibit member nations from taking unilateral retaliatory action in  disputes unless the action is gatt approved he said if the congress makes retaliatory action mandatory then the united states would be in violation of its international legal obligations and on a collision course with its major trading partners denman added that a president should have flexibility in enforcing  laws saying in the last resort any administration must take its decision in light of the overall national interest otherwise he said the risk would be counter reaction by trading partners of the united states i e retaliation or enactment of mirror image legislation to be employed against imports from the united states denman also said congress could prompt retaliation if it reduced the threshhold of unfair  by making it easier for firms to file unfair  practice claims retaliation could also be prompted by relaxing standards for findings that imports were injuring u s firms changes in these standards must be agreed upon multilaterally they cannot be imposed by the united states alone on the world trading system he said house leaders have rejected a plan by textile state legislators to add to the  bill a provision to curb imports of cloth and clothing similar to a measure passed two years ago but vetoed by president reagan there was concern by the leaders that reagan would veto the entire  bill because of the textile amendment reuter 
