August 13, 1984

The United States Government's most important cocaine eradication program, in a valley between the Andes and the Peruvian jungles, has been suspended because of a wave of guerrilla raids in the area, United States officials say. The guerrillas are members of the Shining Path movement, who say they are fighting to impose a Chinese-style political system in Peru. In recent weeks, they have killed local policemen, attacked the installations of United States and Peruvian Government employees and routed the United States-trained narcotics strike force in Peru's cocaine-growing region and its center, Tingo Maria, a town 340 miles northeast of the Peruvian capital. Many Workers Withdrawn Many workers in the $30 million program in the area around Tingo Maria were withdrawn late last month, United States officials said in interviews last week, and efforts to destroy coca fields and the program to create alternative crops have been halted.

The debate in the United States over foreign steel subsidies is beginning to center on one theme: that existing trade laws have failed to bring order to the steel market. Neither recent United States legislation or the 1980 GATT Code of Conduct on subsidies have been able to bring about a lessening of tensions, steel experts say. ''It is ironic that world steel trade today is probably more encumbered by nontariff barriers than ever and more restraints are on the way,'' noted Charles O. Verril Jr., a trade lawyer with the Washington law firm of Patton, Bloggs & Blow, in a study presented to a recent meeting at this lakeside resort. Worldwide Conspiracy Charged At the meeting United States representatives presented themselves as innocent victims of a worldwide conspiracy by foreign governments and their steel companies to flood the American market with exports of cheap, subsidized steel. More protection was what they wanted.

An article in the Arts and Leisure section on Aug. 5 about Jazzmobile Inc. incorrectly described the Harlem Cultural Council. The council, founded in 1964, is still active; it provides assistance to minorities in arts programs.

As much as corporate treasurers wish to avoid risk, they have little choice these days but to finance their operations with floating-rate debt. And until recently, the only way they could hedge against a rate rise was by immersing themselves in the complexities of financial futures, a step that many refused to take. There is an easier way now to take some of the worry out of corporate financing, according to an increasing number of commercial banks and Wall Street investment banking firms. For a one-time fee, they will guarantee a company with floating- rate debt that it need not be concerned if rates rise above a certain level. The rate-protection programs are not for small corporations. Merrill Lynch, for instance, will guarantee protection only for a debt of more than $25 million. Currently it is protecting about $1.2 billion for corporations, savings and loan associations, real estate companies and the like. The smallest customer in Citibank's program is covering about $10 million in debt.

Only hours after an agreement was near in New York's hospital and nursing-home strike, the accord was jeopardized yesterday in a bitter disagreement over economic issues, representatives of both sides said. Saturday evening, amid mounting pressure to end the month-old walkout, hospital negotiators and union leaders said they were on the verge of agreeing to a package designed to give the striking union a 5 percent wage increase in each year of a two-year contract. But yesterday afternoon, William Abelow, the chief hospital negotiator, said in a brief statement, ''We are not anywhere near an agreement, and negotiations seem to be deteriorating.'' 'Back to Work' Bonus The disagreement centers on the hospitals' insistence on delaying the wage increase and the unions' counterdemand for a ''back to work'' bonus.