    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [September 24, 1993]
    [Pages 1592-1594]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on NAFTA and an Exchange With Reporters
    September 24, 1993

        The President. I was asked on the way out of Florida this morning to
    make a comment on the Court of Appeals decision involving NAFTA, where
    the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and said, in effect, that
    NAFTA does not have to have an environmental impact statement. First, I
    applaud the decision. And second, I want to emphasize that if this
    agreement goes through, it will lead to improvements in the environment
    and increased investment on the Mexican side of the border in
    environmental cleanup.
        I also would like to say, based on the cause and conversations that
    I have been having with Members of Congress, I'm beginning to feel a
    little bit better about this agreement. I think that more and more
    Members of Congress who actually listen to the arguments, pro and con,
    understand that the overwhelming majority of the arguments against NAFTA
    are complaints about things that have already happened under the
    existing law, all of which NAFTA will make

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    better.
        NAFTA will raise wages more quickly in Mexico than if we don't adopt
    it. It will raise environmental spending more in Mexico than if we don't
    adopt it. It will reduce illegal immigration more in Mexico than if we
    don't adopt it. And it will plainly lead to more high-tech jobs, high-
    wage jobs in this country. And also I think more of our Members of
    Congress understand that NAFTA stands for, in the minds of the rest of
    the market-oriented countries of Latin America a desire on the part of
    the United States to have a hemispheric trading bloc, which everyone
    believes will lead to more jobs and higher incomes in America; that is,
    NAFTA is the beginning, after which you can look at Chile, at Venezuela,
    at Argentina, at other of the market-oriented economies in Latin
    America. These things, I think, are beginning to sink in, and I'm very
    hopeful that we're going to be making some more progress. I think we
    are.

    South Africa

        Q. Mr. President, on another subject, Nelson Mandela today called
    for an end to the sanctions on South Africa. I know you've followed this
    issue closely for many, many years. Is the United States now prepared,
    are you prepared to lift the sanctions?
        The President. When Mr. Mandela was here with President de Klerk, we
    talked about this. And then I've talked with him on the phone since he
    was here. And I'm looking forward to doing it again. Obviously the
    United States is going to be heavily influenced by the remarkable turn
    of events in South Africa, by the continued commitment on the part of
    the people of South Africa to move to a multiracial democracy. And so I
    will be very influenced, obviously, by what Mr. Mandela says. But I'll
    have a statement about that----

    Bosnia

        Q. Mr. President, when you go to the United Nations on Monday, can
    you tell us what you'll tell them about your feelings concerning Bosnia?
        The President. Tune in Monday. I don't want to give the speech
    today.

    Russia

        Q. Mr. President, regarding the situation in Moscow, President
    Yeltsin now is clearly threatening to use force, if necessary, to disarm
    his opponents in the Parliament. Does that affect your attitude towards
    the situation in there, your support for Yeltsin?
        The President. My support has not been affected by anything that has
    happened thus far. It is a difficult situation. I don't think we should
    attempt to quarterback every move from the United States. And I don't
    think I have anything else to say about it yet.

    Anticrime Legislation

        Q. Mr. President, there are a lot of people who are asking, after
    your comments this morning on the nexus between violence and medical
    costs, what your crime policies are really doing to make a change in
    this other than just support for gun control?
        The President. Well, I've got a crime bill up there that goes far
    beyond support for the Brady bill and for a restriction on automatic
    weapons--I mean, assault weapons, although I favor both those very
    strongly. We also, through the crime bill and several other initiatives,
    are attempting to put more police officers on the street, to support
    boot camps and other alternative forms of punishment for young people to
    try to steer them away from a life of crime, and to support improvements
    in the criminal justice system itself to make punishment more swift and
    more sure.
        But if you look at the crime bill, if you look at the effort to put
    more police officers on the street and to support community policing,
    and if you look at the effort to provide boot camps and alternative
    forms of punishment and pass the Brady bill and pass some limits on
    these semi-automatic assault weapons, that's a pretty broad-based
    anticrime strategy. I hope that the Congress will act on it and act on
    it this year.

    NAFTA

        Q. Mr. President, some people have expressed the view that NAFTA
    constitutes a kind of an unfortunate obstacle to you in political terms
    with all the focus that will be needed to pass the health care reform.
    How do you see the politics of the two issues fitting or not fitting
    together?
        The President. I disagree with that, because, first of all, let's
    look at what has to happen now on health care reform. We're going to do
    one more round of intensive consultations, then we'll have some
    legislation to send to the Hill that embodies the principles I discussed
    with the American people. There will be other bills.

    [[Page 1594]]

    They will go to the committees, and then we will begin the careful and
    exhaustive process of reviewing this.
        Meanwhile, NAFTA is on a much faster time track. The trade agreement
    has to be turned into legislation within a limited period of time by the
    Congress. And then there's a limited period of time for debate. So I
    will be spending a significant amount of time everyday calling Members
    of Congress in both parties trying to line up support and working on
    other people like Mr. Iacocca, to try to get them to speak out for us
    and working on bringing people into this debate who are selling things
    to Mexico and people whose jobs depend on it to show that it's a job
    winner as well as trying to illustrate to the Congress that the great
    benefits of NAFTA may well lie in its ability to be expanded to the rest
    of Latin America.
        So I've got a big agenda. And the NAFTA issue will be over before
    too long. That is, under the fast track legislation on trade agreements,
    there is a fixed amount of time we have to do it. We're either going to
    do it or not. It'll be over--the health care debate is on a different
    timetable. So I don't see them conflicting now. We just had to get the
    health care debate started, or we never would have finished it.

    Health Care Reform

        Q. Mr. President, on health care reform, if you end up
    underestimating the cost of your plan, are you calling for a formal
    annual review mechanism that would allow for tax increases or benefit
    cuts, if necessary, in order to meet your target?
        The President. What I think we should do is we should have an annual
    review process which would permit us, if we don't realize the savings
    through management we intend to realize, to make a decision to phase in
    some of the newer benefits over a longer period of time. That would
    control what we do--or to present them as options that can be paid for
    separately at the decision of the consumer until the savings enable us
    to phase them in completely.
        I do not believe--I will say again--I do not believe you can justify
    taking the world's most expensive and bureaucratic system in which most
    Americans who have insurance pay more than they should, under any
    conceivable model that they'd be in, anyone besides this one, and ask
    them to pay taxes on top of that to pay for the uninsured. We have got
    to manage this system to make it simpler, to achieve the savings without
    sacrificing choice and quality. We can plainly do it. We know it's been
    done in Germany, just to take one other example. We know it's been done
    several places in the United States. And the administration is happy to
    carry the burden into these congressional hearings of demonstrating the
    evidence that it can be done. But if it doesn't happen just as it
    should, then what should happen is we should phase the benefits in more
    slowly or present them as options that can be paid for. We shouldn't
    raise general taxes on people who are already paying too much for their
    own health care to pay for somebody else's health care who's not paying
    anything for it. I just don't think that's right.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:35 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House, upon his return from St. Petersburg, FL. In his remarks, he
    referred to former Chrysler Corp. chairman Lee Iacocca.