[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 22 (Friday, February 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1166]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  DON'T LINK OUR SOVEREIGNTY TO MEXICO

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, is it in our best interest to link the 
economic security of this country to markets controlled by a nation 
with a record of bankruptcies and devaluations?
  In fact is it proper to do free trade with a country that has a 
history of these devaluations, repudiations of debts and a country that 
lacks real democratic reforms? Mr. Speaker, I am concerned about 
President Clinton's decision to bail out Mexico.
  Let us face the facts--Mexico's political system has not been 
reformed as rapidly as its economy, and therein lies the problem.
  Government corruption continues, particularly in the form of bribes 
and kickbacks for government projects and there is a large black 
market. There is no middle class and most of the wealth is controlled 
by a few families.
  Mexico's average inflation rate from 1980 to 1991 was 66.5 percent. 
There is a high level of regulation and there needs more privatization 
of government businesses.
  If we are to rely on back door bailouts for countries that have this 
economic history, then I question the New World Economic Order.
  Mr. Speaker, the President should not link our economic sovereignty 
to a nation that does not have sound economic and political policies.

                          ____________________