    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [November 6, 1993]
    [Pages 1918-1920]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    November 6, 1993

        Good morning. This week I spoke with American workers and farmers
    who are succeeding in our competitive global economy. On Thursday, I
    went to Lexington, Kentucky, and visited the Lexmark factory, where they
    make computers, printers, and keyboards for sale all over the world.
    Anybody who thinks our American workers can't compete and win should
    have gone there with me. Yesterday I spoke with farmers from Illinois,
    Missouri, Montana, and North Carolina. They produce corn, soybeans,
    timber, and wheat, and they raise cattle. Just like the workers in
    Lexington, these farmers are eager to export more products all across
    the world, including to our neighbors in Mexico. The folks I spoke with
    on Thursday and Friday understand what's at stake in the debate about
    the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA for short. For them
    the debate is simple; it's about paychecks, not politics.
        In Lexington, I also met with workers from Monarch Tool and
    Manufacturing. Their sales in Mexico have grown dramatically over the
    last 3 years. Teddie Rae True, who works at Monarch, told me she
    supports NAFTA because, she said, ``Without it, I might not have a
    job.'' A lot of what we do depends on foreign trade. Roberta Canady has
    worked at Lexmark for 16 years. She said she still wants more facts
    about NAFTA, but she knows that, and I quote her, ``The bottom line is
    whether it will promote more jobs for the people of the United States.''
    Let me assure Roberta Canady and all of you: NAFTA means more exports,
    and more exports means more jobs for Americans.
        There's been so much fog surrounding this issue that it's time to
    shed some light. NAFTA is good for us because it will cut the tariffs on
    trade between the United States and Mexico. Tariffs are taxes that
    countries put on products

    [[Page 1919]]

    from other countries. NAFTA will eventually cut these taxes down to
    zero. It will also reduce Mexican laws which now require some products
    sold in Mexico to actually be made there.
        Now, that makes a much bigger difference for the United States than
    for Mexican products that would be sold here. Let me tell you why. Right
    now, Mexico's tariffs on our products are 2\1/2\ times higher than our
    tariffs on theirs. NAFTA will remove those barriers, opening up a
    growing market for our goods and services and creating hundreds of
    thousands of new jobs for our people.
        The fact is that today Mexican consumers are already buying over $40
    billion worth of American products. And if NAFTA passes, they'll buy
    even more. Seventy cents of every dollar that Mexico spends on foreign
    products are spent right here in the United States. And when Mexico
    takes down its tariff barriers, that means more sales and more jobs for
    our industries, from cars to computers.
        Right now, Mexico puts a 20 percent tariff on cars and virtually
    requires that cars sold in Mexico be made there. With NAFTA, those
    barriers will be lowered. That's why the big three auto companies
    predict that in just the first year after NAFTA, they could go from
    selling only 1,000 cars in Mexico to selling 60,000.
        It's the same with computers, which also face a 20 percent tariff.
    Three years ago, by one estimate, Mexico bought 120,000 computers from
    us. Last year they bought 390,000. This year it's estimated they'll buy
    600,000. And that's with a 20 percent tariff. When NAFTA lowers the
    tariff barrier, the United States will gain a 20 percent advantage over
    our competitors from Europe and Japan. And Mexico, with a population of
    nearly 90 million, could buy millions more of our computers, creating
    tens of thousands of new jobs here in our country.
        For our country, for every wealthy country, the only way to create
    new jobs and to raise incomes is to export more products. For the past 5
    years about half the growth in our economy has come from exports. And
    jobs related to exports pay 17 percent more than other jobs in the
    American economy. That's why NAFTA is part of my overall strategy to
    sell our products all over the world at a time when our leading rivals
    are also expanding their own markets in their own backyard. Western
    Europe is becoming a giant trading bloc. Japan is expanding its
    investment and trade in much of Asia. And now with NAFTA we can create
    the biggest trading bloc in the world, starting with Canada and Mexico
    and then expanding to the rest of Latin America. Many of the Latin
    American countries really want to buy more American products, to be a
    part of our trading bloc. They're just waiting to be asked, and they're
    waiting to answer, depending on what happens to NAFTA.
        Given a fair chance, I know American workers can compete and win in
    our own hemisphere and throughout the world. Those who believe otherwise
    underestimate the American people. We still have the most productive
    workers in the world, and they've gotten more productive in the last 15
    or 20 years.
        On Tuesday night, Vice President Gore will debate a leading critic
    of NAFTA. The debate will be facts against fear, the fear that low wages
    and lower costs of production in Mexico will lead to a massive flight of
    jobs down there. Well, if we don't pass NAFTA, that could still be true.
    The lower wages and the lower cost of production will still be there.
    But if we do pass it, it means dramatically increased sales of American
    products made right here in America. It reduces the incentive to move to
    Mexico to sell in the Mexican market. And remember, the tariffs that we
    put on their products are already low.
        So we have to face the choice of facts versus fear. When Americans
    have faced that choice in the past, they've always chosen honesty and
    hope. Ultimately, this debate is a test of not only our purpose in the
    world but our own confidence in ourselves. I know the last several years
    have been tough on hard-working middle class Americans. I ran for
    President to change that, to give people health care security and
    security in their education and training and security as family members
    and workers. But I also promised to challenge you to embrace the world
    economy, because we can't run away from these change. Will we hunker
    down and say, ``My goodness, we're going to be overcome by a trade
    agreement with Mexico,'' a country with an economy only 5 percent as big
    as ours, or are we going to reach out to the rest of the world and say
    we can compete and win again?
        My visit to Lexington, Kentucky, and my talk with those farmers on
    the phone yesterday reminded me that Americans are hopeful and hard
    working. When the moment of decision comes, I believe ordinary working
    Americans will agree with every living President, every living Sec-

    [[Page 1920]]

    retary of State, every living Secretary of the Treasury, every living
    Nobel Prize-winning economist, and over 40 of the 50 Governors that
    NAFTA means expanding markets. And we have to have expanding markets,
    not shrinking horizons. Our jobs and our children's jobs depend on it.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
    White House.