	u s house panel approves  bill the 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 ten pct  surplus cut by those countries the  bill will be wrapped in with legislation from other committees dealing with relaxation of export controls incentives for research expanded worker training and education and other efforts to increase u s competitiveness the comprehensive  bill is to be considered by the full house in late april and then will be considered by senate committees it requires president reagan to retaliate against foreign unfair  practices but do not mandate quotas or tariffs and allow an exemption if u s economic security would be harmed by u s actions against other countries the bill would make it easier for u s industries to win relief from surges of imports of competitive products it extends until january the administration s authority to negotiate  agreements as part of the new round of multilateral talks under the general agreements on tariffs and  and it includes provisions to tighten  rules on copyrights patents and telecommunications goods reuter 
