[House Document 105-130]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



105th Congress, 1st Session  - - - - - - - - - - House Document 105-130


 
    PROPOSED LEGISLATION: ``EXPORT EXPANSION AND RECIPROCAL TRADE 
                       AGREEMENTS ACT OF 1997''

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  FROM

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              TRANSMITTING

  A DRAFT OF PROPOSED LEGISLATION TO ESTABLISH PROCEDURES FOR NOTICE, 
    CONSULTATIONS, AND IMPLEMENTATION WITH REGARD TO CERTAIN TRADE 
                  AGREEMENTS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.


 


 September 16, 1997.--Message and accompanying papers referred to the 
   Committees on Ways and Means and Rules, and ordered to be printed


To the Congress of the United States:
    I am pleased to transmit a legislative proposal entitled 
the ``Export Expansion and Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 
1997.'' Also transmitted is a section-by-section analysis.
    This proposal would renew over 60 years of cooperation 
between the Congress and the executive branch in the 
negotiation and implementation of market-opening trade 
agreements for the benefit of American workers and companies.
    The sustained, robust performance of our economy over the 
past 5 years is powerful proof that congressional-executive 
cooperation works. We have made great strides together. We have 
invested in education and in health care for the American 
people. We have achieved an historic balanced budget agreement. 
At the same time, we have put in place trade agreements that 
have lowered barriers to American products and services around 
the world.
    Our companies, farms, and working people have responded. 
Our economy has produced more jobs, more growth, and greater 
economic stability than at any time in decades. It has also 
generated more exports than ever before. Indeed, America's 
remarkable economic performance over the past 5 years has been 
fueled in significant part by the strength of our dynamic 
export sector. Fully 96 percent of the world's consumers live 
outside the United States. Many of our greatest economic 
opportunities today lie beyond our borders. The future promises 
still greater opportunities.
    Many foreign markets, especially in the developing world, 
are growing at tremendous rates. Latin American and Asian 
economies, for example, are expected to expand at three times 
the rate of the U.S. economy over the coming years. Consumers 
and industries in these countries prize American goods, farm 
products, services, and the many expressions of American 
inventiveness and culture. While America is the world's 
greatest exporting nation, we need to do more if we want to 
continue to expand our own economy and produce good, high-wage 
jobs.
    We have made real progress in breaking down barriers to 
American products around the world. But many of the nations 
with the highest growth rates almost invariably impose far 
higher trade barriers than we do. We need to level the playing 
field with those countries. They are the nations whose markets 
hold the greatest potential for American workers, firms, and 
agricultural producers.
    Today, the United States is the world's strongest 
competitor. The strength of the U.S. economy over the past 
several years is testimony to the creativity, productivity, and 
ingenuity of American firms and workers. We cannot afford to 
squander our great advantages by retreating to the sidelines 
and watching other countries conclude preferential trade deals 
that shut out our goods and services. Over 20 such agreements 
have been concluded in Latin America and Asia alone since 1992. 
The United States must continue to shape and direct world 
trading rules that are in America's interest and that foster 
democracy and stability around the globe.
    I have pledged my Administration to this task, but I cannot 
fully succeed without the Congress at my side. We must work in 
partnership, together with the American people, in securing our 
country's future. The United States must be united when we sit 
down at the negotiating table. Our trading partners will only 
negotiate with one America--not first with an American 
President and next with an American Congress.
    The proposal I am sending you today ensures that the 
Congress will be a full partner in setting negotiating 
objectives, establishing trade priorities, and in gaining the 
greatest possible benefits through our grade agreements. The 
proposal expands upon previous fast-track legislation to ensure 
that the Congress is fully apprised and actively consulted 
throughout the negotiating process. I am convinced that this 
collaboration will strengthen both America's effectiveness and 
leverage at the bargaining table.
    Widening the scope of consultations will also help ensure 
that we will take all of America's vital interests into 
account. That is particularly important because today our trade 
agreements address a wider range of activities than they once 
did. As we move forward with our trade agenda, we must continue 
to honor and reinforce the other values that make America an 
example for the world. I count chief among these values 
America's longstanding concern for the rights of workers and 
for protection of the environment. The proposal I am 
transmitting to you recognizes the importance of those 
concerns. It makes clear that the agreements we conclude should 
complement and reinforce those values.
    Ever since President Franklin Roosevelt proposed and the 
Congress enacted America's first reciprocal trade act in the 
depths of the Great Depression, the Congress and the President 
have been united, on a bipartisan basis, in supporting a fair 
and open trading system. Our predecessors learned from direct 
experience the path of America's prosperity. We owe much of our 
own prosperity to their wisdom. I urge the Congress to renew 
our longstanding partnership by approving the proposal I have 
transmitted today.

                                                William J. Clinton.
    The White House, September 16, 1997.





                                
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