[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[July 14, 1992]
[Pages 1117-1118]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Statement on Meeting With President Carlos Salinas of Mexico

July 14, 1992
    President Salinas and I had an extremely constructive discussion of 
the status of negotiations among our two countries and Canada to create 
a North American free

[[Page 1118]]

trade area (NAFTA). We reaffirmed our commitment to reaching a sound 
NAFTA agreement as soon as possible. Let me just say a word about the 
importance of this historic undertaking.
    We live in a global economy. The fastest growing sector of the 
American economy today is our export sector, and Mexico is the fastest 
growing market for U.S. exports in the world. U.S. merchandise exports 
to Mexico have increased 22 percent per year for each of the last 5 
years, twice as fast as U.S. exports worldwide. Having added over 
300,000 new jobs to our economy since 1986, we now have over 600,000 
total U.S. jobs built on our exports to Mexico. California alone 
exported $5.5 billion in goods and services to Mexico last year. 
Virtually every State has shared in that growth, not just States on the 
border. Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania are among 
the top 10 exporters to Mexico along with California, Texas, and 
Arizona.
    By building together the largest free trading region in the world, 
Mexico, the United States, and Canada are working to ensure that the 
future will bring increased prosperity, trade, and new jobs for the 
citizens of each of our countries. Because our trade ministers and their 
teams have made impressive progress in recent weeks, we agreed that our 
meeting today marks the beginning of the final stage of negotiations. In 
the spirit of this evening's All-Star Game, we are entering the top of 
the ninth inning of negotiations. President Salinas and I have 
instructed our trade ministers to meet on July 25 to bring this final 
stage of negotiations to an early and successful conclusion. We have 
consulted with Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney, and he has similarly 
instructed his trade minister.
    We also agreed on the importance of pressing ahead with parallel 
efforts to assure that the NAFTA enhances environmental quality and that 
labor issues are addressed effectively.