DEMOCRATIC presidential front-runner John Kerry yesterday proposed to discourage American companies from shipping US jobs overseas by requiring them to give advance notice to the government and affected workers.

In a speech prepared at the University of Toledo in hard-hit Ohio, a key state among 10 that hold nominating contests on Tuesday, Kerry said he could not promise that ?all the rivers of steel will flow again? but offered a slate of ideas for stemming the tide of job losses.

?I won?t come here and tell you that if I?m president all of Ohio?s factories will spring back to life ? that all the rivers of steel will flow again,? Kerry said. ?You wouldn?t believe me if I did ? and you?d be right.?

Review trade pacts

North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Kerry?s major rival in the race to see who will challenge President George W. Bush on November 2, has wagered his campaign on the issue of outsourcing and the loss of jobs under trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Both have lavished attention on Ohio and other ?Super Tuesday? states such as Georgia, Minnesota and upstate New York ? that have suffered big manufacturing job losses.

Kerry is a four-term Massachusetts senator who voted for NAFTA in 1993. He has since said he would order a 120-day review of all trade pacts and laid out specific guidelines for companies wanting to send jobs overseas, including at least three months? advance notice for affected employees as well as notification of the Labor Department, state agencies and local government officials.

In addition, he would require the federal government to compile statistics on off-shored jobs and report to Congress annually and disclosure of how many jobs were going where and why. Also, he would ensure that federal contracts were not being outsourced overseas.

A decorated Vietnam war veteran who has campaigned on his combat record, Kerry said it was time ?to put patriotism back in the driver?s seat.? ?We need to encourage a corporate culture where companies provide a fair break for workers and a fair return for shareholders instead of a fast buck and a false bottom line,? he said. ?Where corporations make profits the old-fashioned way ? by building our economy, not bilking our people.?

Kerry has won 18 of 20 Democratic primaries and caucuses so far, including Utah, Idaho and Hawaii on Tuesday.

Populist trade bashing

He is the clear leader in money and momentum and has a chance next week of closing in on the 2,162 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

But Edwards has mounted an all-out effort to cut into Kerry?s lead after his close second-place finish in Wisconsin on Feb. 17, and analysts believe his populist trade-bashing message could take hold in some of the states that vote on Tuesday.

In his prepared remarks, Kerry blasted Bush?s economic policies, calling the president ?a walking contradiction? who promised his massive tax cuts would create four million jobs and had, instead, lost three million.

?I think when you?re 7 million jobs in the hole, step number one is pretty simple: stop digging,? he said.

In an accompanying fact sheet, the Kerry campaign predicted that as many as 3.3 million American jobs could be sent overseas in the next 15 years, resulting in a $136 billion wage loss and that the information technology sector, once one of the fastest growing segments of the US economy, would move 500 000 positions abroad in the near future.

Kerry also has proposed rolling back Bush?s tax cuts for Americans who make more than $200,000 a year, raising the minimum wage, cutting the cost of health care, closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to move jobs overseas and cracking down on trade violations.

Patricia Wilson