[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.