[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[April 7, 1991]
[Pages 342-345]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 342]]


The President's News Conference With President Carlos Salinas de Gortari 
of Mexico in Houston, Texas
April 7, 1991

    President Bush. Well, as always, it is a great pleasure to meet with 
my good friend President Carlos Salinas. He's en route to Canada for a 
state visit. But this refueling stop has given us a chance to discuss 
very important issues of mutual concern and interest.
    The United States has embarked on an historic task with Mexico and 
Canada: the creation of a trilateral free-trade agreement which would 
establish the largest free-trade area in the world. It would involve 
some 360 million people and a total of $6 trillion in combined annual 
output. President Salinas and I are certain that this FTA, this trade 
agreement, will create jobs and provide opportunities for the citizens 
of both our countries.
    To move forward, we need the United States Congress to extend the 
Fast Track authority. That authority allows the President to assure our 
negotiating partners that the free-trade agreement which we conclude at 
the negotiating table will be the one that will be voted on by the 
Congress. The Congress has a say. They can vote yes, or they can vote 
no. But we need to negotiate in a way so that the people with whom we're 
negotiating know that that is not going to be amended and changed.
    I told President Salinas that I am absolutely committed personally, 
that our administration is committed totally to the free-trade agreement 
with Mexico and Canada. And I also told him that I am going to work 
tirelessly to assure favorable action by Congress on Fast Track 
authority.
    The credibility of the United States as a trading partner is on the 
line here. And I am doing this because I believe it firmly that it is in 
the best interest of the United States of America. I also believe it's 
in Mexico's interest. But I am convinced that it is best for America.
    President Salinas and I have agreed to take a few questions, but I'd 
now turn the floor over to him.
    Once again, sir, welcome.
    President Salinas. Thank you very much for the hospitality extended 
to us, Mr. President. I would like to say that the bilateral agenda is 
quite wide, and we took up diverse topics.
    One of these issues, no doubt, was a free-trade agreement. We 
ratified our firm decision to forge ahead and come afloat with a treaty. 
The area that would then be created would be the major mover in order to 
promote the economies of the whole continent, and at the same time, it 
would be an extraordinary means in order to increase and raise our 
competitiveness to reach levels of the Pacific Basin and Europe.
    But this will not be easy. It is a battle between visionary men and 
women living in sovereign nations with protectionist interests or 
visionary views.
    We reach the conclusion that studies tend to confirm that the 
benefits that will be derived and that will stem from the free-trade 
agreement broadly go beyond the disadvantages that one could have. For 
example, in the United States, thanks to freer trade activities with 
Mexico, in the last 3 years exports have increased to my country, to 
Mexico. In the United States, additional jobs have been created of over 
one-fourth of a million jobs.
    Mexico is already growing and developing with stability, and that 
will now lead to having to export goods from Mexico, not people. That 
will prevent thousands and millions of Mexicans from having to come to 
the United States looking for a job. Our objective is to have economic 
recovery with employment that will not harm the environment and with an 
increase, a raise, in real salaries.
    And I would simply like to conclude by saying that the good climate 
that we found in Houston 2\1/2\ years ago has now been confirmed here 
today.
    President Bush. Thank you, sir.
    Marlin, now what is the time schedule? Because I know we want to 
take some questions.

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    Mr. Fitzwater. Just time for a few questions, and they do have to--
rather quickly.
    President Bush. And what we thought we'd do is alternate, one for 
me, one for President Salinas. And then we'll try to be fair in the 
distribution between the visitors from Mexico whom I welcome and the 
U.S. press corps.
    Yes, sir, in the back.

Latin America-U.S. Relations

[At this point, a question was asked in Spanish, and a translation was 
not provided.]

    President Bush. No, that is not so. We are not distracted by Eastern 
Europe and the Gulf. We had a mission in the Gulf. We have completed 
that mission. I'm going to bring our troops home. But I hope we have not 
given the impression that we've lost interest in our own hemisphere.
    Indeed, the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, the Brady plan, 
the commitment that I am reaffirming here today for this trade agreement 
with Mexico, my own visit to Monterrey--all of these things, I think, I 
hope, sent the message to our friends south of the Rio Grande, and not 
just Mexico but on south, that we are committed to being a good 
neighbor. And so, I hope I'll have more chance to demonstrate that now 
that the war is over.

Mexican Environmental Concerns

    Q. President Salinas, the head of Sierra Club told a congressional 
committee last month that in the area where free-trade zones were 
established, generally, the new development is in an environmental 
disaster area. There was great concern that a free-trade agreement will 
worsen the environment and perhaps dilute the gains made by the Clean 
Air Act in this country. What is your response?
    President Salinas. We are committed with a clean environment. We 
don't want our children to paint the sky gray without any stars because 
they cannot see the stars. That is why any new jobs, any new employment 
that has been created in Mexico will have to abide by very stringent 
laws for the protection of the environment. Not only firm and stringent 
laws but firm and stringent enforcement of these laws. We have much to 
do still, very little time for having started with this, but that is our 
commitment.
    President Bush. We'll take one for me--let's see--for President 
Salinas on the Mexican journalist side. Then I'll go for one for me on 
the American side. Oops, wrong guy. Well, you're going to miss my 
instructions. Go ahead, though. [Laughter]

Free-Trade Agreement

[At this point, a question was asked in Spanish, and a translation was 
not provided.]

    President Bush. I've heard people say that the arguments are not 
convincing. I disagree with them. So, it is my mission now to lead our 
whole administration and those in the Congress who are now strongly in 
support of the free-trade agreement--and that includes, I might add, 
some of the key Democrat leaders in the Congress who are supporting us--
it is now our mission, collective mission, to make this clear to the 
rest of the country and thus to the United States Congress that it is in 
our interest. The arguments are good. We are going to increase jobs in 
this country. We are going to have fewer border difficulties, which we 
all know exist, once we get this agreement through.
    But we have some tough opponents in this country. Some elements in 
organized labor are fighting it, and they are wrong. And I'm going to 
take them on head-on-head because I know that this is in the best 
interest of our country.
    So, we've got a big selling job to do, but we're not alone in this 
fight. We've got the facts on our side and we also have some of the key 
Democratic leaders in the United States Congress who are highly 
respected and who will join in this because they know that expanded 
trade is good for both sides.
    But I want to use this answer here just to once again reiterate my 
strong personal commitment. And I hope that will help. And we will be 
enlisting all the help we can get in the Congress because we're in for a 
battle. We're not under any allusion about that.
    Now, for President Salinas. Do you want one from the American side 
for me?

[[Page 344]]

Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, yesterday you seemed hopeful that Iraq's tentative 
acceptance of the U.N. conditions for a cease-fire would finally mean an 
end to the war for U.S. troops. But there don't appear to be any 
guarantees that's going to be the case for the Iraqi people. Is there 
any effort by the United States to use the U.N. mandate to restore order 
in Iraq, or are you, in a sense, being forced to tolerate a declared 
peace in the midst of chaos and even civil war there?
    President Bush. Well, I think you've seen the U.N. be very effective 
by having its rather stern but proper resolutions adopted. And I think 
the main thing is to get them put into effect, and I hope that that then 
will have a calming effect inside of Iraq itself. But I've made clear my 
position. I stated it from the very beginning. We have not expanded our 
objectives. We are not going to expand the use of U.S. forces; indeed, I 
want them to come out, and they will be coming out as soon as possible.
    But the U.N. can very well have the kind of additional role that 
your question asks about. And we will be in consultation with others at 
the United Nations to see whether the U.N. can again, once again, 
enhance its peacekeeping function, a function that only recently has 
come to be affecting events in a beneficial way. Only recently has the 
peacekeeping function come forward as something that has some teeth in 
it. And we saw that through the Gulf.
    Now, I would like to see that peacekeeping function activated again 
to help on this matter. You have some interesting debate at the U.N., 
however, in terms of the internal affairs of a country. But when you 
have a refugee problem of this enormous consequence, then that comes 
under the heading of United Nations business. So, through that, perhaps, 
we can try to enhance the peace, bring peace back to this troubled land.
    But I want to make clear one more time: There was never any 
indication on the part of this administration or this President that we 
were going to expand our objectives to put troops or use force in Iraq. 
We've fulfilled our objectives, and now what we've got to do is fulfill 
our concerns about the innocents that are suffering--the Kurds and the 
Shiites in the south and those in Baghdad themselves--by doing what the 
United States has always done, trying to be a catalyst for healing the 
wounds. And there are a lot of wounds, a lot of people hurting.
    Our airlifts started. I was just telling the President I was very 
pleased, we've already dropped 72,000 pounds of MRE's, this food and 
water, to stranded refugees. So, I think world opinion also, Norm 
[Norman Sandler, United Press International], on this one can help. I 
think people are so outraged that there may be ways we can bring 
pressure through the U.N. or elsewhere on this regime inside Iraq.
    Q. When you talk about an additional role, is that a role for the 
U.N. as policemen, essentially, internally in Iraq?
    President Bush. No, I don't think you're going to see that. I don't 
think the United Nations will take such action. But I think there's a 
way that we can be helpful in the ways I've talked about. But I don't 
think you're going to see a police role in downtown Baghdad. I am 
pleased that the international force, the Blue Helmet, the United 
Nations international force, will be in place soon.
    And I will use this opportunity to say to the American people, those 
young men and women of ours that are in southern Iraq are coming out 
just as soon as possible. And we're talking about days, not weeks or 
months, in terms of my fulfilling that commitment to the American 
people.

Free-Trade Agreement

    Q. This is a question on trade for President Salinas. Perhaps Mexico 
now is one of the most open economies, much more so than the U.S. 
economy. You, President Salinas, have asked in various fora for 
reciprocity, reciprocal actions for this opening that Mexico is 
undertaking. Irrespective of it, or while we wait for the negotiation to 
take place, is there any commitment on the part of the U.S. in order to 
pay back or to match that opening that Mexico is undertaking?
    President Salinas. This is more a question for President Bush than 
for me. [Laughter]
    President Bush. He asked you. [Laughter] Thank heavens!
    President Salinas. But I would say that

[[Page 345]]

the objective in negotiating this free-trade agreement is reciprocity to 
a unilateral attitude. And more than having an addition or a subtraction 
of arithmetic operations, it is more a matter of taking up a vision, a 
view, in the medium term and in the long term. What is truly at stake is 
that a decision is being made as to what will happen with North America 
by the end of this century or beginning of the coming century.
    We have to be competitive, vis-a-vis Europe and the Pacific Basin. 
And the only way of being it is by being together. And otherwise, it is 
not a matter of losing jobs for Mexico but spending the rest of your 
life buying Japanese or European products. So, as you can see, this is 
an exceptional, historic opportunity, and it will be very difficult for 
it to be repeated.
    President Bush. Marlin, did you say one more?
    One more. Charles [Charles Bierbauer, Cable News Network]?

Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, you've repeatedly said that you have not 
encouraged the Kurds and the Shiites to rise up with the expectation 
that the U.S. would be in there fighting with them. And yet the Kurdish 
representatives this morning on one of the talk shows are saying that 
that's clearly the impression they got from listening to the Voice of 
Free Iraq, which they understood to be supported by the U.S. Would you 
clarify just what the role the U.S. played in running that radio 
station?
    President Bush. No, I don't have the details on it. But I will 
reassert, I never in any way implied that the United States was going to 
use force beyond the mandate of the United Nations.
    Thank you all very----
    Q. Well, is that because that station could be an embarrassment to 
you, sir?
    President Bush. No, I just don't know the details of it. I just 
don't know the details of it. And if it had anything----
    Q. Were they naive?
    President Bush. Well, I mean, you call it whatever you want. They 
were not misled by the United States of America. And that is now I think 
very, very clear. I went back and reviewed every statement I made about 
this, every single one. And there was never any implication that the 
United States would use force to go beyond the objectives which we so 
beautifully have achieved. None. And I hope that helps clarify it.
    Thank you all very much.

                    Note: President Bush's 79th news conference began at 
                        11:51 a.m. in the Briefing Room at Ellington 
                        Field. President Salinas spoke in Spanish, and 
                        his remarks were translated by an interpreter. 
                        Marlin Fitzwater was Press Secretary to 
                        President Bush.