
 
                            THE WHITE HOUSE 

 
                     Office of the Press Secretary 
______________________________________________________________ 
For Immediate Release                         September 14, 1993 

 

 
                     REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON, 
           PRESIDENT BUSH, PRESIDENT CARTER, PRESIDENT FORD, 
                        AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE 
                  IN SIGNING OF NAFTA SIDE AGREEMENTS 

 
                           The East Room 

 

10:39 A.M. EDT 

 
 
     VICE PRESIDENT GORE:  Ladies and gentlemen, please be 
seated.  We'd like to welcome all of you.  President and Mrs. Ford, 
President and Mrs. Carter, President Bush, Mr. President, to the First 
Lady, to the Ambassador of Mexico, Mr. Montano, Ambassador Keegan of 
Canada, Ambassador Kantor.  To the distinguished leaders of Congress 
here -- the Speaker of the House Tom Foley -- I got you all a little 
out of order, I apologize -- and to the Majority Leader, Senator 
Mitchell; to the Republican Leader, Senator Dole; the Minority Leader 
of the House Bob Michel; to all of the distinguished members of the 
House and Senate who are here.  To the other members of our Cabinet -- 
of President Clinton's Cabinet who are here --Secretary Christopher, 
Secretary Bentsen, Secretary Espy, Secretary Reich, Secretary Riley, 
Secretary Browner, Secretary Babbitt, Attorney General Reno, OMB 
Director Panetta.  And to all of the distinguished guests who are 
present.  We deeply appreciate the demonstration of support for a 
treaty of such importance to the United States of America. 

 
     If you're anything like me and my family, you're still 
kind of rubbing your eyes a little bit after yesterday's event, where 
the Prime Minister of Israel and the Chairman of the PLO were on the 
White House lawn.  But that event has something in common with the 
event here this morning; something that was thought to be impossible, 
but good for our country and good for the world was made possible by a 
long series of commitments by presidents in both parties. 

 
     There are some issues that transcend ideology.  That is, 
the view is so uniform that it unites people in both parties.  This 
means our country can pursue a bipartisan policy with continuity over 
the decades.  That's how we won the Cold War.  That's how we have 
promoted peace and reconciliation in the Middle East.  And that's how 
the United States of America has promoted freer trade and bigger 
markets for our products and those of other nations throughout the 
world.  NAFTA is such an issue. 

 
     The presence of three former presidents, two Republicans 
and one Democrat, to join President Clinton here today on this stage, 
is evidence of our country's ability to support what is in our 
nation's best interest over the long term without respect to 
partisanship. 

 
     Arthur Vandenberg, the Senator most identified with 
bipartisanship during and after World War II once wrote: 
"Bipartisanship does not involve the remotest surrender of free debate 
in determining our position.  On the contrary, frank cooperation and 
free debate are indispensable to ultimate unity." 

 
     We will, indeed, have much room for free debate during 
this controversy.  That it is in our nation's best interest to ratify 
and pass this treaty cannot be left to doubt.  The person who is 
leading the fight and who has marshaled support in both parties is the 
person it is my pleasure to introduce now.  The President of the 
United States, Bill Clinton.  (Applause.) 

 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Mr. Vice President, 
President Bush, President Carter, President Ford, ladies and 
gentlemen.  I would like to acknowledge  just a couple of other people 
who are in the audience because I think they deserve to be seen by 
America since you'll be seeing a lot more of them:  my good friend, 
Bill Daley, from Chicago; and former Congressman Bill Frenzel from 
Minnesota, who have agreed to lead this fight for our administration 
on a bipartisan basis.  Would you please stand and be recognized. 
(Applause.) 

 
     It's an honor for me today to be joined by my 
predecessor, President Bush, who took the major steps in negotiating 
this North American Free Trade Agreement; President Jimmy Carter, 
whose vision of hemispherical development gives great energy to our 
efforts and has been a consistent theme of his for many, many years 
now; and President Ford who has argued as fiercely for expanded trade 
and for this agreement as any American citizen and whose counsel I 
continue to value. 

 
     These men, differing in party and outlook, join us today 
because we all recognize the important stakes for our nation in this 
issue.  Yesterday we saw the sight of an old world dying, a new one 
being born in hope and a spirit of peace.  Peoples who for a decade 
were caught in the cycle of war and frustration chose hope over fear 
and took a great risk to make the future better. 

 
     Today we turn to face the challenge of our own 
hemisphere, our own country, our own economic fortunes.  In a few 
moments, I will sign three agreements that will complete our 
negotiations with Mexico and Canada to create a North American Free 
Trade Agreement.  In the coming months I will submit this pack to 
Congress for approval.  It will be a hard fight, and I expect to be 
there with all of you every step of the way.  (Applause.) 

 
     We will make our case as hard and as well as we can. 
And, though the fight will be difficult, I deeply believe we will win. 
And I'd like to tell you why.  First of all, because NAFTA means jobs. 
American jobs, and good-paying American jobs.  If I didn't believe 
that, I wouldn't support this agreement. 

 
     As President, it is my duty to speak frankly to the 
American people about the world in which we now live.  Fifty years at 
the end of World War II, an unchallenged America was protected by the 
oceans and by our technological superiority; and, very frankly, by the 
economic devastation of the people who could otherwise have been our 
competitors.  We chose, then, to try to help rebuild our former 
enemies and to create a world of free trade supported by institutions 
which would facilitate it. 

 
     As a result of that effort, global trade grew from $200 
billion in 1950 to $800 billion in 1980.  As a result, jobs were 
created and opportunity thrived all across the world.  But make no 
mistake about it:  Our decision at the end of World War II to create a 
system of global, expanded, freer trade and the supporting 
institutions played a major role in creating the prosperity of the 
American middle class. 

 
     Ours is now an era in which commerce is global and in 
which money, management, technology are highly mobile.  For the last 
20 years in all the wealthy countries of the world, because of changes 
in the global environment, because of the growth of technology, 
because of increasing competition, the middle class that was created 
and enlarged by the wise policies of expanding trade at the end of 
World War II has been under severe stress.  Most Americans 
are working harder for less.  They are vulnerable to the fear tactics 
and the adverseness to change that is behind much of the opposition to 
NAFTA. 

 
     But I want to say to my fellow Americans, when you live 
in a time of change the only way to recover your security and to 
broaden your horizons is to adapt to the change, to embrace, to move 
forward.  Nothing we do -- nothing we do in this great capital can 
change the fact that factories or information can flash across the 
world; that people can move money around in the blink of an eye. 
Nothing can change the fact that technology can be adopted once 
created by people all across the world, and then rapidly adapted   in 
new and different ways by people who have a little different take on 
the way the technology works. 

 
     For two decades, the winds of global competition have 
made these things clear to any American with eyes to see.  The only 
way we can recover the fortunes of the middle class in this country so 
that people who work harder and smarter can at least prosper more, the 
only way we can pass on the American Dream of the last 40 years to our 
children and their children for the next 40 is to adapt to the changes 
which are occurring. 

 
     In a fundamental sense, this debate about NAFTA is a 
debate about whether we will embrace these changes and create the jobs 
of tomorrow, or try to resist these changes, hoping we can preserve 
the economic structures of yesterday. 

 
     I tell you, my fellow Americans, that if we learn 
anything from the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the 
governments in Eastern Europe, even a totally controlled society 
cannot resist the winds of change that economics and technology and 
information flow have imposed in this world of ours.  That is not an 
option.  Our only realistic option is to embrace these changes and 
create the jobs of tomorrow.  (Applause.) 

 
     I believe that NAFTA will create 200,000 American jobs in 
the first two years of its effect.  I believe if you look at the 
trends -- and President Bush and I were talking about it this morning 
-- starting about the time he was elected president, over one-third of 
our economic growth, and in some years over one-half of our net new 
jobs came directly from exports.  And on average, those export-related 
jobs paid much higher than jobs that had no connection to exports. 

 
     I believe that NAFTA will create a million jobs in the 
first five years of its impact.  And I believe that that is many more 
jobs than will be lost, as inevitably some will be as always happens 
when you open up the mix to a new range of competition. 

 
     NAFTA will generate these jobs by fostering an export 
boom to Mexico; by tearing down tariff walls which have been lowered 
quite a bit by the present administration of President Salinas, but 
are still higher than Americans. 

 
     Already Mexican consumers buy more per capita from the 
United States than other consumers in other nations.  Most Americans 
don't know this, but the average Mexican citizen -- even though wages 
are much lower in Mexico, the average Mexican citizen is now spending 
$450 per year per person to buy American goods.  That is more than the 
average Japanese, the average German, or the average Canadian buys; 
more than the average German, Swiss and Italian citizens put together. 

 
     So when people say that this trade agreement is just 
about how to move jobs to Mexico so nobody can make a living, how do 
they explain the fact that Mexicans keep buying more products made in 
America every year?  Go out and tell the American people that. 
Mexican citizens with lower incomes spend more money -- real dollars, 
not percentage of their income -- more money on American products than 
Germans, Japanese, Canadians.   That is a fact.  And there will be 
more if they have more money to spend.  That is what expanding trade 
is all about. 

 
     In 1987, Mexico exported $5.7 billion more of products to 
the United States than they purchased from us.  We had a trade 
deficit.  Because of the free market, tariff-lowering policies of the 
Salinas government in Mexico, and because our people are becoming more 
export-oriented, that $5.7-billion trade deficit has been turned into 
a $5.4-billion trade surplus for the United States.  It has created 
hundreds of thousands of jobs. 

 
     Even when you subtract the jobs that have moved into the 
Maquilladora areas, America is a net job winner in what has happened 
in trade in the last six years.  When Mexico boosts its consumption of 
petroleum products in Louisiana, where we're going tomorrow to talk 
about NAFTA, as it did by about 200 percent in that period, Louisiana 
refinery workers gained job security.  When Mexico purchased 
industrial machinery and computer equipment made in Illinois, that 
means more jobs.  And guess what?  In this same period, Mexico 
increased those purchases out of Illinois by 300 percent. 

 
     Forty-eight out of the 50 states have boosted exports to 
Mexico since 1987.  That's one reason why 41 of our nation's 50 
governors, some of them who are here today -- and I thank them for 
their presence -- support this trade pack.  I can tell you, if you're 
a governor, people won't leave you in office unless they think you get 
up every day trying to create more jobs.  They think that's what your 
jobs is if you're a governor.  And the people who have the job of 
creating jobs for their state and working with their business 
community, working with their labor community, 41 out of the 50 have 
already embraced the NAFTA pact. 

 
     Many Americans are still worried that this agreement will 
move jobs south of the border because they've seen jobs move south of 
the border and because they know that there are still great 
differences in the wage rates.  There have been 19 serious economic 
studies of NAFTA by liberals and conservatives alike; 18 of them have 
concluded that there will be no job loss. 

 
     Businesses do not choose to locate based solely on wages. 
If they did, Haiti and Bangladesh would have the largest number of 
manufacturing jobs in the world.  Businesses do choose to locate based 
on the skills and productivity of the work force, the attitude of the 
government, the roads and railroads to deliver products, the 
availability of a market close enough to make the transportation costs 
meaningful, the communications networks necessary to support the 
enterprise.  That is our strength, and it will continue to be our 
strength.  As it becomes Mexico's strength and they generate more 
jobs, they will have higher incomes and they will buy more American 
products. 

 
     We can win this.  This is not a time for defeatism.  It 
is a time to look at an opportunity that is enormous. 

 
     Moreover, there are specific provisions in this agreement 
that remove some of the current incentives for people to move their 
jobs just across our border.  For example, today Mexican law requires 
United States automakers who want to sell cars to Mexicans to build 
them in Mexico.  This year we will export only 1,000 cars to Mexico. 

 
     Under NAFTA, the Big Three automakers expect to ship 
60,000 cars to Mexico in the first year alone, and that is one reason 
why one of the automakers recently announced moving 1,000 jobs from 
Mexico back to Michigan. 

 
     In a few moments, I will sign side agreements to NAFTA 
that will make it harder than it is today for businesses to relocate 
solely because of very low wages or lax environmental rules.  These 
side agreements will make a difference.  The environmental agreement 
will, for the first time ever, apply trade sanctions against any of 
the countries that fails to enforce its own environmental laws.  I 
might say to those who say that's giving up of our sovereignty, for 
people who have been asking us to ask that of Mexico, how do we have 
the right to ask that of Mexico if we don't demand it of ourselves? 
It's nothing but fair. 

 
     This is the first time that there have ever been trade 
sanctions in the environmental law area.  This ground-breaking 
agreement is one of the reasons why major environmental groups, 
ranging from the Audubon Society to the Natural Resources Defense 
Council, are supporting NAFTA. 

 
     The second agreement ensures the Mexico enforces its laws 
in areas that include worker health and safety, child labor and the 
minimum wage.  And I might say, this is the first time in the history 
of world trade agreements when any nation has ever been willing to tie 
its minimum wage to the growth in its own economy. 

 
     What does that mean?  It means that there will be an even 
more rapid closing of the gap between our two wage rates.  And as the 
benefits of economic growth are spread in Mexico to working people, 
what will happen?  They'll have more disposable income to buy more 
American products and there will be less illegal immigration because 
more Mexicans will be able to support their children by staying home. 
This is a very important thing.  (Applause.) 

 
     The third agreement answers one of the primary attacks on 
NAFTA that I heard for a year, which is, well, you can say all this, 
but something might happen that you can't foresee.  Well, that's a 
good thing; otherwise we never would have had yesterday.  (Laughter 
and applause.)  I mean, I plead guilty to that.  Something might 
happen that Carla Hills didn't foresee, or George Bush didn't foresee, 
or Mickey Kantor, or Bill Clinton didn't foresee.  That's true. 

 
     Now, the third agreement protects our industries against 
unforseen surges in exports from either one of our trading partners. 
And the flip side is also true.  Economic change, as I said before, 
has often been cruel to the middle class, but we have to make change 
their friend.  NAFTA will help to do that. 

 
     This imposes also a new obligation on our government -- 
and I'm glad to see so many members of Congress from both parties here 
today.  We do have some obligations here.  We have to make sure that 
our workers are the best prepared, the best trained in the world. 

 
     Without regard to NAFTA, we know now that the average 18- 
year-old American will change jobs eight times in a lifetime.  The 
Secretary of Labor has told us, without regard to NAFTA, that over the 
last 10 years, for the first time, when people lose their jobs most of 
them do not go back to their old job, they go back to a different job; 
so that we no longer need an unemployment system, we need a 
reemployment system.  And we have to create that. 

 
     And that's our job.  We have to tell American workers who 
will be dislocated because of this agreement or because of things that 
will happen regardless of this agreement, that we are going to have a 
reemployment program for training in America, and we intend to do 
that. 
 
     Together, the efforts of two administrations now have 
created a trade agreement that moves beyond the traditional notions of 
free trade, seeking to ensure trade that pulls everybody up instead of 
dragging some down while others go up.  We have put the environment at 
the center of this in future agreements.  We have sought to avoid a 
debilitating contest for business where countries seek to lure them 
only by slashing wages or despoiling the environment. 

 
     This agreement will create jobs, thanks to trade with our 
neighbors.  That's reason enough to support it.  But I must close with 
a couple of other points.  NAFTA is essential to our long-term ability 
to compete with Asia and Europe.  Across the globe our competitors are 
consolidating, creating huge trading blocks.  This pact will create a 
free trade zone stretching from the Arctic to the tropics, the largest 
in the world -- a $6.5 billion market, with 370 million people.  It 
will help our businesses to be both more efficient and to better 
compete with our rivals in other parts of the world. 

 
     This is also essential to our leadership in this 
hemisphere and the world.  Having won the Cold War, we face the more 
subtle challenge of consolidating the victory of democracy and 
opportunity and freedom. 

 
     For decades, we have preached and preached and preached 
greater democracy, greater respect for human rights, and more open 
markets to Latin America.  NAFTA finally offers them the opportunity 
to reap the benefits of this.  Secretary Shalala represented me 
recently at the installation of the President of Paraguay.  And she 
talked to presidents from Colombia, from Chile, from Venezuela, from 
Uruguay, from Argentina, from Brazil.  They all wanted to know, tell 
me if NAFTA is going to pass so we can become part of this great new 
market. more, hundreds of millions more of American consumers for our 
products. 

 
     It's no secret that there is division within both the 
Democratic and Republican parties on this issue.  That often happens 
in a time of great change.  I just want to say something about this 
because it's very important.  Are you guys resting?  (Laughter and 
applause.)  I'm going to sit down when you talk, so I'm glad you got 
to do it.  (Laughter.)  I am very grateful to the presidents for 
coming here because there is division in the Democratic Party and 
there is division in the Republican Party.  That's because this fight 
is not a traditional fight between Democrats and Republicans, and 
liberals and conservatives.  It is right at the center of the effort 
that we're making in America to define what the future is going to be 
about. 

 
     And so there are differences.  But if you strip away the 
differences, it is clear that most of the people that oppose this pact 
are rooted in the fears and insecurities that are legitimately 
gripping the great American middle class.  It is no use to deny that 
these fears and insecurities exist.  It is no use denying that many of 
our people have lost in the battle for change.  But it is a great 
mistake to think that NAFTA will make it worse.  Every single solitary 
thing you hear people talk about that they're worried about can happen 
whether this trade agreement passes or not, and most of them will be 
made worse if it fails.  And I can tell you it will be better if it 
passes.  (Applause.) 

 
     So I say this to you:  Are we going to compete and win, 
or are we going to withdraw?  Are we going to face the future with 
confidence that we can create tomorrow's jobs, or are we going to try 
against all the evidence of the last 20 years to hold on to 
yesterday's?  Are we going to take the plain evidence of the good 
faith of Mexico in opening their own markets and buying more of our 
products and creating more of our jobs, or are we going to give in to 
the fears of the worst-case scenario?  Are we going to pretend that we 
don't have the first trade agreement in history dealing seriously with 
labor standards, environmental standards and cleverly and clearly 
taking account of unforeseen consequences, or are we going to say this 
is the best you can do and then some? 

 
     In an imperfect world, we have something which will 
enable us to go forward together and to create a future that is worthy 
of our children and grandchildren, worthy of the legacy of America, 
and consistent with what we did at the end of World War II.  We have 
to do that again.  We have to create a new world economy.  And if we 
don't do it, we cannot then point the finger at Europe and Japan or 
anybody else and say, why don't you pass the GATT agreement; why don't 
you help to create a world economy.  If we walk away from this, we 
have no right to say to other countries in the world, you're not 
fulfilling your world leadership, you're not being fair with us.  This 
is our opportunity to provide an impetus to freedom and democracy in 
Latin America and create new jobs for America as well.  It's a good 
deal and we ought to take it. 

 
     Thank you.  (Applause.) 

 
     (NAFTA side agreements are signed.)  (Applause.) 

 
     I'd like to ask now each of the presidents in their turn 
to come forward and make a statement, beginning with President Bush 
and going to President Carter and President Ford.  And I will play 
musical chairs with their seats.  (Laughter and applause.) 

 
     PRESIDENT BUSH:  Thank you very much.  I thought that was 
a very eloquent statement by President Clinton, and now I understand 
why he's inside looking out and I'm outside looking in.  (Laughter and 
applause.) 

 
     But this is an outstanding statement that really covered 
all the bases, and I'm just delighted to be here to speak for NAFTA. 
I salute, sir, all in your administration, particularly Mr. Kantor and 
his team who worked to bring these agreements to fruition; who are 
continuing now to try to get NAFTA through -- Bill Daley and Bill 
Frenzel -- outstanding co-workers in the best nonpartisan, bipartisan 
sense.  We're proud of them. 

 
     And, of course, I am very proud of those with whom I 
worked to sign a NAFTA agreement:  Jim Baker, Bob Mosbacher, certainly 
Brent Scowcroft, and particularly the toughest of them all, Carla 
Hills, whose over here with us today.  (Applause.) 

 
     And I certainly salute    former Presidents Carter and 
Ford for their speaking out so strongly.  My predecessor, Ronald 
Reagan had a beautiful piece, op-ed piece in the paper the other day 
spelling out why we must pass this.  So it is a bipartisan agreement. 
You heard an eloquent statement by the President about jobs, and let 
me just say a word on another facet of this, which he also touched on. 

 
     Under Carlos Salinas, a truly courageous young leader, 
Mexico has changed.  And they have moved on environmental matters and 
on labor matters.  And they're working closely with us in the 
narcotics fight.  They're good neighbors and they're good friends, and 
they're good partners.  And on a wide array of fronts, Mexico's 
courageous young President has tangled with his own bureaucracy, taken 
on his own special interests.  Moving to privatization, he's 
dramatically improved Mexico.  And now the whole world -- and 
President Clinton touched on this -- particularly those countries 
south of the Rio Grande are watching and they're wondering if we're 
going to go through with this excellent agreement. 

     Other countries in South America want in, as the 
President said.  And in my view, we should encourage similar deals 
with other countries because that just simply means more jobs for 
Americans. 

 
     Skeptics abound.  Many are taking the cheap and easy way 
out on this one, appealing to demagoguery and to interests that are 
very, very special.  There's been some longstanding feeling down below 
our border -- oh, well, the United States will make a free trade 
agreement with Canada, but when it comes to Latin America, when it 
comes to Hispanics, see if they'll do the same thing for Latin 
countries.  And if we fail, the losers will be those in South America, 
not just in Mexico who want better relations with us, and the biggest 
loser, of course, in my view, will be the good old USA. 

 
     Democracy is one the rise in this hemisphere, anti- 
Americanism is waning, and I honestly believe democracy will be given 
a setback in those countries if we fail to pass this outstanding 
agreement.  We must say to Mexico that we want you as equal trading 
partners, and that's good for both of us. 

 
     So let's not listen to those who are trying to scare the 
American people, those demagogues who appeal to the worst instincts 
that our special interest groups possess, let's do what is right and 
let's have enough confidence in ourselves, as the President just said, 
to pass this good agreement. 

 
     Thank you very much.  (Applause.) 

 
     PRESIDENT CARTER:  Well, this is as much excitement and 
as important an issue in this room as when Barishnikov danced, or 
Leontyne Price sang, or Horowitz and I were trying to arrange the 
carpet so his piano would sound the best, or Willy Nelson played a 
guitar, whichever you prefer.  (Laughter.)  But I don't think there's 
any more important issue that could have come up than this one in this 
year. 

 
     Since I left the White House, which is a long time ago, 
we've spent a lot of time in Latin America.  The Carter Center has 
special programs, one of which is to promote democracy.  With my good 
friend, Gerald Ford, we went to Panama to try to bring both peace and 
democracy to that country.  It finally came with the help of George 
Bush.  We went into Nicaragua to try to hold an honest election and to 
replace a communist regime.  We went to Haiti and to the Dominican 
Republic and, later on, to Guyana, and just recently to Paraguay.  And 
just this month they've inaugurated a democratically-elected civilian 
to be the President of Paraguay. 

 
     The point is that there is a wave of democracy brought 
about by the strong U.S. human rights policy that is indeed 
inspirational to us and is very beneficial to those of us who live in 
the United States. 

 
     We haven't made any progress on Cuba.  And Mexico has a 
long way to go to have a truly honest democratic election.  But I 
think the single most important factor that will democracy and honest 
elections to our next-door neighbor is to have NAFTA approved and 
implemented.  If this is done, then I believe that we will have rich 
dividends for our own country. 

 
     I'm not going to go into detail about how this will be 
done.  I think you can see it clearly.  And I'll get to that in just a 
few minutes.  The two most rapidly growing trade areas in the world 
are Asia and Latin America.  Asia is rapidly growing because their 
exports to us are increasing.  Latin America is rapidly growing 
because our exports to them are increasing.  It's obvious to everyone 
who looks at this rationally that it's much better to have democracy, 
freedom and eager markets for American products among our next-door 
neighbors, who have always looked to the United States with intense 
interest, far exceeding what I even realized when I was President -- 
sometimes with trepidation, sometimes with admiration, and sometimes 
with confidence. 

 
     We've seen what happens with the Contra war.  We've seen 
what's happened with the allegations about human rights violations in 
Guatemala and El Salvador.  But there's a pent-up desire to match 
their own commitments to peace, to freedom, to democracy, and to human 
rights with ours, if we demonstrate to them that we have proper 
respect for them as human beings and as neighbors. 

 
     This is not always clear.  Foreigners don't understand 
the lack of continuity in the administrations in Washington.  But in 
just my brief time in politics I've seen the importance of that. 
Under President Lyndon Johnson, there was a crisis created and 
diplomatic relations broken with Panama.  The operation of the Panama 
Canal was in danger.  After President Johnson came a series of 
Democratic and Republican presidents, each one committed to having an 
honest and decent Panama Canal treaty.  It was finally passed under my 
administration -- one of the most difficult and courageous acts that 
members of the Senate ever took. 

 
     I called on President Nixon, I called on President Ford 
to help me and we narrowly got the two-thirds majority necessary. 
It's only been because of that and other things that Latins see that 
we can have bipartisan support of common goals as it affects our 
neighbors. 

 
     Yesterday I was filled with emotion at the signing 
ceremony just a few yards from here, something that I knew would 
happen someday perhaps, but maybe not in my own lifetime.  And the 
handshake that has inspired the world took place because President 
Nixon and President Ford, and then I and then President Reagan and 
President Bush and Bill Clinton all were committed to a common 
purpose.  Democrats and Republicans working together to help bring 
peace to the Middle East. 

 
     We don't know what's going to happen in the future. 
There's a lot of uncertainty about it.  But nobody can doubt that this 
was brought about only because our two major parties in this country 
were able to put aside the differences that are narrow and self- 
serving and partisan, and say for a common purpose we will cooperate. 

 
     President Bush obviously started the NAFTA agreement, a 
very superb achievement for him.  There were some honest problems with 
it.  I called Bill Clinton only three times during his administration 
-- during his campaign.  I was for him from the beginning.  It's the 
first time I ever said this publicly, but I'm proud of it. 
(Laughter.)  Because I've tried to stay neutral, you know, within the 
Democratic Party, but Rosalynn and I were for Bill.  I called him 
three times.  One of those time was when I feared that he might make a 
public statement denouncing the North American Free Trade Agreement. 
And he said, okay, I will be for it, but with provisos.  We've got to 
do something about labor, to protect the working people of our 
country, and we've got to do something about the environment.  That 
has now been done.  The side agreements have alleviated the serious 
questions that did arise about NAFTA.  That's been done. 

 
     Finally, let me say that in a time like this with an 
earth-shaking change in international relations confronting us, there 
are those who doubt the ability, or even the integrity of government. 
That exists, I guess, in all countries and in ours as well.  And there 
are those who are uncertain about the future and doubtful about their 
own jobs. 

     NAFTA, as has been so eloquently described by our 
President and by President Bush, will alleviate those legitimate 
concerns.  But unfortunately, in our country now, we have a demagogue 
who has unlimited financial resources and who is extremely careless 
with the truth, who is preying on the fears and the uncertainties of 
the American public.  And this must be met, because this powerful 
voice can be pervasive, even within the Congress of the United States, 
unless it's met by people of courage who vote and act and persuade in 
the best interest of our country.  (Applause.) 

 
     I just want to make one other brief comment, and that is 
about the consequences of failure.  I cannot think of any other 
failure, even including a rejection of the Panama Canal Treaties, 
which may have brought a war, that will be more far-reaching than the 
rejection of our Mexican neighbors, who have put their faith in a 
Republican President and his allies, George Bush, and a Democratic 
administration that follows. 

 
     If we fail, I think it would be the end of any hope in 
the near future that we'll have honest democratic elections in Mexico. 
The illegal immigration will increase.  American jobs will be lost. 
The Japanese and others will move in and take over the markets that 
are basically and rightly ours. 

 
     So I'm not trying to be a foreseer of doom, but I do 
believe that we ought to think not only about the benefits to be 
derived from this agreement, but we ought to be deeply concerned about 
the well-being of our nation that will be in danger if we fail.  We 
cannot afford to fail.  (Applause.) 

 
     PRESIDENT FORD:  It's a very, very high honor and a very 
great privilege for me to have the opportunity to follow each of the 
former Presidents and President Clinton to indicate my very strong 
affirmative endorsement of the NAFTA Agreement.  I will not repeat 
what each one of them have said -- they've done it eloquently and 
convincingly -- but I'm old enough and have been around this town long 
enough to remember some things that ought to be put on the table. 

 
     Right after World War II, there was a tremendous effort 
by Democratic presidents, Republican presidents, Democratic congresses 
and Republican congresses to pass what we then called reciprocal trade 
legislation.  And the aim and objective, as Lloyd Bentsen well knows, 
was to undo the stupidity of what had been done in 1930 and '31 by the 
then-Congress of the United States to pass what they called the Smoot- 
Hawley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs all around the United States 
to prevent any imports.  And the net result was, we, the United 
States, could not sell abroad. 

 
     And in order to undo that very unwise decision back in 
'30 and '31, Republicans and Democrats, the White House and the 
Congress strongly supported the kind of legislation that has led to 
tremendous expansion of trade on a global basis. 

 
     I don't recall the statistical data, but the truth is 
that world trade has been the real engine that has given the free 
Western industrial nations the capacity to have prosperity and growth. 

 
     In my judgment, NAFTA is a follow-on to what was done in 
the post-World War II period to undertake a new global effort.  And 
the consequence of NAFTA, as has been pointed out by my predecessors, 
is vitally important not only for the United States, this hemisphere, 
and the globe, but it's important primarily for jobs that are going to 
be built here in the United States.  Our exports will expand 
tremendously, as the President has pointed out. 

 
     And then let's look at what has happened in our neighbor 
to the south.  A few of us can remember five, six years ago when we 
were deeply concerned with Mexico's $100-billion foreign debt, how 
was that going to be resolved.  We were worried about runaway 
inflation in Mexico, over 100 percent.  We were concerned about the 
instability of government in our good neighbor to the south. 

 
     In my judgment, President Salinas has done a fantastic 
job.  You no longer hear about their foreign debt.  They've privatized 
banks, airlines, et cetera.  They've reduced inflation from 100 
percent to less than 10 percent.  Mexico is a growing, thriving 
neighbor, and we should be happy. 

 
     I fear very strongly that if NAFTA is defeated it could 
have serious political and economic ramifications in Mexico.  Under 
Salinas, jobs are growing, wages are going up.  Mexicans want to stay 
in Mexico and work in Mexico. 

 
     I read the other day a prominent Mexican political leader 
said, pass NAFTA and we will have jobs for Mexicans in Mexico.  Defeat 
NAFTA and there will be a tremendous flow of Mexicans to the United 
States wanting jobs in the United States.  We don't want that. We want 
Mexicans to stay in Mexico so they can work in their home country.  We 
don't want a huge flow of illegal immigrants into the United States 
from Mexico. 

 
     And I say with all respect to my former members of the 
House and the Congress, don't gamble.  If you defeat NAFTA, if you 
defeat NAFTA, you have to share the responsibility for increased 
immigration to the United States, where they want jobs that are 
presently being held by Americans.  It's that cold-blooded and 
practical.  And members of the House and Senate ought to understand 
that. 

 
     I think it's a matter of tremendous importance for NAFTA 
to be approved so we can solidify 370 million people in all of Western 
society.  So we can have growth, prosperity, jobs from the Arctic to 
the Antarctic.  And I applaud those -- President Bush, Carla Hills and 
her associate, President Clinton, Mickey Kantor and his -- for 
bringing before this country an opportunity for future prosperity and 
good living for people in this entire hemisphere. 

 
     We can't afford to make the stupid, serious mistake that 
was made in the 1930s and 1931 with the passage of legislation that 
tried to put a protective ring around the United States with high 
tariffs and high tariff barriers.  So I hope and trust that the 
Congress, the House and Senate, will respond affirmatively.  It's good 
for the United States.  It's good for our people in the Western 
Hemisphere. 

 
     And I'm pleased to be here this morning to join President 
Clinton and his associates on this occasion.  Thank you very much. 
(Applause.) 

 
     PRESIDENT CLINTON:  I wanted you to welcome Mrs. Carter 
and we're going -- (applause.)  Let me again express my profound 
thanks on behalf of all of us to President Bush, President Carter and 
President Ford; and close the meeting by invoking a phrase made famous 
last year by Vice President Gore:  "It's time for us to go." 
(Laughter.)  Thank you very much.  (Applause.) 

 
                           END11:33 A.M. EDT 


