July 22, 1992

New economic studies indicate that Canada has become more competitive as a result of its trade agreement with the United States and, some analysts believe, is about to outpace all major industrial nations in economic growth. Yet Prime Minister Brian Mulroney faces a herculean task over the next six months in getting the House of Commons to ratify an expansion of the treaty to include Mexico. The Prime Minister's Government is expected reach agreement on the treaty with Mexico and the United States in coming weeks.

AMERICANS are getting bigger and heavier, the Government says, but you would never know it from what they eat: food is getting smaller and smaller. Every aisle of the supermarket now holds miniature versions of familiar brands: shrunken Oreos, tiny Dove Bars, and Ritz crackers the size of a thumbnail.

Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, gave an only faintly upbeat forecast today, saying the economy would gain momentum soon. But he failed to say how soon and added that the jobless rate -- the most politically sensitive economic indicator in an election year -- would remain above 7 percent for the rest of 1992. Mr. Greenspan's testimony before Congress is likely to give the White House little encouragement that the economy will bolster President Bush's faltering re-election campaign. The Fed chairman characterized current economic activity as dull and gave no firm indication that it would pick up before Election Day.

He is an executive in a company in New York, lives in a condo on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, drives an expensive car, plays tennis in the Hamptons and vacations with his wife in Europe and the Caribbean. But unknown to office colleagues, friends and most of his family, the man is also a longtime heroin user. He says he finds heroin relaxing and pleasurable and has seen no reason to stop using it until the woman he recently married insisted that he do so.

A BUSINESSMAN AND HIS DRUG HABIT He is a 44-year-old executive in a company in New York, lives in a condo on the Upper East Side, drives an expensive car, plays tennis in the Hamptons and vacations with his wife in Europe and the Caribbean. He is also a longtime heroin user. Drug experts say that perhaps as many as a third of the estimated 750,000 heroin addicts in America are juggling habitual use of what has long been thought of as the most debilitating and enslaving of drugs, managing jobs and even families with few if any outward signs of addiction. A1. NEW YORK CITY WEST SIDE PLAN GETS BEVY OF BOOS Reacting in staunch opposition to the proposal of Donald Trump to develop 76.4 acres along the Hudson River, Community Board 7 on the Upper West Side issued a draft resolution that came up with 69 reasons that the project should not go forward. B3. CONCERNS OVER GANG WARFARE After months of relative peace in the violent and murky world of Asian-American gangs, the fatal shooting of a high-ranking Chinatown gang leader Monday has sparked renewed concerns about warfare among rival groups. B3. STRAINS IN WILLIAMSBURG The beating of a 13-year-old Hispanic boy by a Hasidic Jewish man who accused him of shoplifting ignited a spontaneous demonstration in Williamsburg, a Brooklyn neighborhood which has long been racked by tensions between its Hispanic and Hasidic residents. B3. REGION POLITICS: REALITY . . . If there were any doubts about the political perils of absolute power, the Republican majority in Trenton drove the lesson home unequivocally Monday by reneging on a promise that has been an article of faith for more than a decade. In a single evening, the Republicans managed to bury two constitutional amendments that would have allowed New Jerseyans to propose and pass legislation through initiative and referendum. News analysis, B5. . . . AND UNCERTAINTY As President Bush campaigned in Bergen County, N.J., uncertainty was in the air. His campaign operation weren't sure what James A. Baker 3d would be doing to galvanize Mr. Bush's re-election bid. And many in the crowds who came out to see the President weren't sure they would vote for him. A16. HELP WANTED: IN MEXICO The Smith Corona Corporation, the last American maker of consumer typewriters, will move its manufacturing operations to Mexico from Cortland, N.Y. The decision fanned concerns in Congress and organized labor about the loss of jobs to foreign competition. Business Day, D11. ON ABORTION, BEFORE ROE v. WADE The New Jersey Supreme Court said that a woman who has birth defects cannot sue for damages since she was born before 1973, when Roe v. Wade made legal abortions more available. B5. LOOK, UP IN THE SKY Brown pelicans are appearing on the South Shore of Long Island, far north of their normal range. "It's like U.F.O. sightings," said one Montauk resident. "It's all over the place." B5. About New York by Douglas Martin B2 Chronicle B4