    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [February 22, 1993]
    [Pages 184-185]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 184]]

    Remarks Following a Meeting With Airline Industry Leaders and an
    Exchange With Reporters in Everett
    February 22, 1993

        The President. I would like to thank Frank Shrontz and the good
    people at Boeing for hosting representatives of the major airline
    companies in the United States, as well as manufacturers of airplanes
    and airplane engines, along with the Secretary of Transportation, the
    Speaker of the House, and the distinguished Members of the Washington
    congressional delegation along with the Governor of this State.
        We have had a very good meeting about the problems of the
    manufacturers of airlines and the airline companies themselves,
    airplanes and airline companies. We talked a lot about the proposal now
    in the Congress, which is soon to be passed, to create a national
    commission to ensure a strong, competitive airline industry. That
    commission will require five appointments from the House, five
    appointments from the Senate, and five appointments from the President.
    I assured the representatives here, as did the Speaker, that we had no
    desire other than to find the 15 best people in America immediately to
    work on this issue, without regard to party or region. We just want to
    work together to appoint people who will come back within 90 days and
    give us some concrete suggestions to revitalize this very important part
    of our economic future.
        I thought it was a terrific meeting. We went around the table.
    Everyone who was at the meeting made a very constructive set of comments
    about what they thought we ought to do. And I look forward to the
    legislation passing, to signing it, and to immediately making the
    appointments and to going to work.
        Q. What do you think, Mr. President, that will mean for the worker
    who is laid off here? What will be the direct----
        The President. Well, if we do a good job, we'll be able to find more
    business and bring some of them back to work. That's what we want to do.
        I'd like to ask the Speaker and the Secretary and Mr. Shrontz and
    anybody else who is here who wants to make a comment to make some
    comments, and then we'll answer a couple of more questions.

    [At this point, Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas S. Foley,
    Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, and Frank Shrontz, president
    and CEO, Boeing Co., made brief remarks.]

        Q. Mr. President--[inaudible]----
        The President. If you guys would talk, I wouldn't have to answer so
    many questions. [Laughter]

    Bosnia

        Q. Mr. President, are we going to airdrop supplies in to the
    besieged people in Bosnia?
        The President. It's a possibility. I want to wait a couple of more
    days before I announce a policy on it.

    Economic Program

        Q. Mr. President, you said in your speech that you wanted spending
    cuts first and then invest in programs you call investments. Given that
    your spokespeople had said you're going to pass an authorization for
    short-term stimulus spending and that the rest of the package has come
    down the line, and given that most of the spending comes in the early
    years and the taxes would come in the out-years, in what sense do you
    want the spending cuts first?
        The President. Well, I want an omnibus program passed which has all
    the spending cuts mandated along with the tax increases. I don't want to
    raise taxes and then sit around waiting to see whether the spending cuts
    are going to be enacted. I think that we ought to pass a package which
    includes the spending cuts at the same time we raise revenues.
        Q. Will you still be--to do your new spending first?

    European Airline Subsidies

        Q. [Inaudible]--the airbus?
        The President. Well, you may know that last year our Government
    signed an agreement, which had the support of the airline industry,
    which got a commitment out of Europe to dramatically reduce the
    subsidies to airbus. What I seek to do, number one, is to review it as
    to its adequacy and, number two, to make sure it's enforced. But I think
    we made a huge mis-

    [[Page 185]]

    take permitting it to happen with no response. And I hope that it's not
    too late to have an appropriate response to maintain our position in
    this global marketplace.

    U.S. Trade Policy

        Q. Do you think you need a tougher trade policy, in general, Mr.
    President?
        The President. No, not necessarily. I think we need a different
    trade policy. Let me say that the linchpin of our policy still must be
    to expand trade. A wealthy country cannot grow wealthier by hunkering
    down within its own borders. We have to be a great trading nation, and
    we have to help other nations to grow wealthier in order for them to buy
    more of our products. So our goal still has to be to expand trade.
        But we no longer have the luxury, with other nations having grown so
    much more rapidly than we for 20 years, other nations being about as
    wealthy as we are--we no longer have the luxury of being the only
    country in the world that can ignore certain problems in terms of trade
    fairness that other countries don't ignore. We have to make sure that we
    are treated in these market-opening measures with the requisite amount
    of fairness. And so I think we may have a firmer trade policy in some
    respects than we've had in the past, but our allies will be under no
    illusions. I do not want a protectionist trade policy; I want to expand
    trade. But I want to do it in ways that preserves America as a high-wage
    country. Otherwise, we won't be very good trading partners for a lot of
    these nations over the long run.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 3:57 p.m. in Hangar 40-22 at Boeing.