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DOCUMENT= 1 OF 98 PAGE = 1 OF 4 

 ACCESS # ASm 58731 



HEADLINE Bush Campaign Aide Wades Into Lobbying Battle Over Fish 

 Processing 



Byline: CHRISTOPHER CONNELL 

 DATE 01/09/92 



SOURCE The Associated Press (ASP) 

 Category: POLITICAL 

 Origin: WASHINGTON 



(Copyright 1992. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) 

 RE NME 



WASHINGTON (AP) - A campaign adviser to President Bush denied 

 Thursday any conflict in his lobbying for a Japanese-dominated group 

 seeking the right to process almost half the p>ollock caught in the 

 Bering Sea off Alaska. 



Pacific Seafood Processors Association, represented by Bush 

 adviser Charles R. Black Jr., would sharply increase its share of the 

 $800 million annual pollock catch under a proposed new rule. 



The allocation is being fought by the American Factory Trawler 

 Association, which now processes almost three-quarters of the fish at 

 sea. Pacific Seafood Processors have onshore processing plamts. 

 ' ' Jim Gilmore, the trawlers' Washington representative, called it 

 "ironic" that Bush was in Tokyo trying to boost American jobs while 

 one of his campaign advisers was lobbying for Japanese interests. 

 Black called that allegation "ridiculous." 

 "It's not American vs. Japanese at all," said Black, a principal 

 in the lobbying firm of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. "What's at 

 stake here is American jobs, mostly in Alaska ... If the other side 

 won, there'd be a net loss of American jobs." 



Black said foreigners hold interests in both the or^hore fish 

 processing industry and in the trawler industry. 



Coriservative columnist Patrick Buchanan, who is challenging Bush 

 for the presidential nomination, said it was "just astounding" that 

 Black was lobbying for Japanese interests. 



"We have really got to stop letting our policy in Washington be 

 made by hired lobbyists and registered foreign agents," said Buchanan 

 in Claremont, N.H. He said Bush should force Black to sever his 

 campaign ties or quit representing the fish processors. 

 * Two big Japanese companies, Nippon Suisan and Taiyo Fisheries, 

 control 70 percent of the onshore processing industry. The trawler 

 fleet, which operates primarily out of Seattle, is 20 to 30 percent 

 foreign owned. 



Gilmore said the pro]X)sed allocations would "cut our revenues by 

 30 percent. There would be bankruptcies ... and thousands of jobs 

 lost." 



"It would cost us higher-paying jobs to create lower-paying jobs" 



