[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[September 20, 1992]
[Pages 1596-1598]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the G-7 Finance Ministers and Bank Governors
September 20, 1992

    Please be seated, and welcome to the White House. May I thank you 
all for coming. Secretary Brady and Chairman Greenspan were most 
interested in having this little get-together, and so am I and everybody 
at the White House. May I salute Minister Solchaga and Mr. Camdessus and 
just say welcome to the White House.
    First, I know it's a difficult time, extremely difficult, and I 
salute the spirit of this meeting, the meetings that you've been having. 
Given the important events in Europe this week, in particular the 
turmoil in the financial markets and the vote in France on the European 
Community's Maastricht Treaty, I believe it is important for me to share 
with you my views. Together, we must establish an international economic 
system that meets the demands of the post-cold-war era. While the topics 
may be complex, they affect the day-to-day life of all of our citizens, 
the interest rates they pay on mortgages, inflation that can eat away at 
pensions, trade, and then growth

[[Page 1597]]

that creates jobs.
    First and foremost, I want to assure you of the United States 
commitment to be strongly engaged in a positive, steady fashion to help 
build global prosperity. I am working to strengthen America to compete 
with you, not retreat from you.
    Next, I want to affirm our country's support for a European 
integration that opens markets and, in the process, enhances Europe's 
capability to be our partner in the great challenges we face in this new 
era. The exact form of integration is, of course, for our partners to 
determine, and we will stand with them as they do so.
    Over recent years, we've been largely successful in returning to a 
regime of price stability. This stability will enable our entrepreneurs, 
our businesses, our workers to concentrate on building new technologies, 
real productive assets, savings, and jobs. We must combine this price 
stability with more vigorous economic growth. And therefore, we must 
examine ways to strengthen our international economic and monetary 
systems further, not only in Europe, which is experiencing exchange rate 
instability at the moment, but in the global economy.
    In this context, I believe it is important in the months ahead for 
the G-7 nations, the U.S., our European partners, Canada, and Japan, to 
enhance the efforts we made in the past to review our economic policies 
and strengthen our economic coordination process. The aim of the 
coordination process in this new era should be to promote a healthy and 
progressive world economy and a stable monetary system. I believe the 
political leadership of our nations will need to play an increasingly 
active role in this work by reviewing our different economic 
perspectives and reinforcing possible agreements.
    In seeking to strengthen the coordination process over the longer 
term, the United States will advocate to our economic partners that we 
explore the development of an independent reference point for our 
multilateral surveillance process.
    We believe it could be useful in strengthening the coordination 
process to more intensely utilize an economic indicator that compares 
the relationship among our currencies and a basket of commodities, 
including gold. This commodity price indicator should be used in 
conjunction with other measures of economic performance such as growth, 
exchange rates, external imbalances as we work to coordinate our 
economic policies.
    Finally, the United States also pledges its full commitment to 
policies that will strengthen the fundamentals for sustainable long-term 
growth. That includes a successful Uruguay round to expand world trade 
for all market economies, old and new. No politics of this country, let 
me just assure you, will interfere with our efforts for the United 
States side to conclude a successful--the successful conclusion of the 
GATT round. It also includes limits on the growth of our mandatory 
spending programs here in this country so that we can reduce our 
deficits. It includes an effort to dismantle internal rigidities that 
obstruct the creative process of building new businesses, helping people 
develop new skills, and shifting capital to investments where it will 
contribute to greater growth.
    Over the past few years we have succeeded beyond our greatest 
expectations in offering hundreds of millions of free people the 
opportunity to build a secure economic future. But the very scope of the 
change has left all our publics uncertain, anxious about the future. It 
is our duty to build a global economic, financial, and trading structure 
for this new era, one that will help people translate hope into peace 
and prosperity for generations to come.
    I know that together we can create an exciting future if we proceed 
cooperatively and confidently. I just wanted to get everybody together 
to tell you that I pledge the United States to the fulfillment of that 
task. We will work with you. Once again, congratulations on the way 
you're approaching the situation that faces us all now, the situation of 
cooperation and determination that I think really is capturing the 
imagination of people all around the world. The United States will stay 
with you. We will stay in here as partners, doing our level-best to be a 
part of the solution.
    So thank you very much for coming. It is a Sunday afternoon, and 
what we wanted to do is simply to--Barbara and I--to invite

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you all through a rather informal receiving line down here, and then 
welcome you to a little hospitality at the White House.
    Thank you very much for coming.

                    Note: The President spoke at 6 p.m. in the East Room 
                        at the White House. In his remarks, he referred 
                        to Carlos Solchaga, Spain's Minister of Economy, 
                        Finance and Commerce, and Michel Camdessus, 
                        managing director, International Monetary Fund.