    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [November 16, 1993]
    [Pages 2001-2005]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Governors' Endorsements of NAFTA and an Exchange With
    Reporters
    November 16, 1993

        The President. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Vice President,
    and thank you to all the Governors who are here and to the many
    Governors who are not here who have helped

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    us in this battle to pass NAFTA.
        I think I should say by way of sort of a parenthesis at the outset
    of my remarks, in reaction to Governor Thompson's eloquent comments
    about the Rose Bowl, that in view of the wisdom of the voters in
    Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin in the last election, this administration
    has no position on that football game. [Laughter]
        You know, I looked at the Governors who are here with me, and I had
    to think--I actually counted. We are about equally divided back here
    between Democrats and Republicans. And I think it is an interesting
    statement that these who have come here and those who are not here who
    have also endorsed this agreement are more or less equally divided in
    about the ratio the parties hold of gubernatorial offices. And the
    reason for that is that if you're a Governor today, a big part of your
    job is keeping the job base you have, trying to find more jobs, and when
    you lose jobs, trying to replace them as quickly as possible.
        It's not unusual to see a Governor who actually knows huge numbers
    of employers by name, who's been in, in my case, literally hundreds of
    manufacturing facilities and different small businesses and who
    understands how businesses rise and fall and how they fit within the
    economy of the State, the Nation, and the globe. The job of Governors is
    to create jobs, to keep jobs, to enhance the economic base and the
    economic security of our people.
        Any of these Governors will tell you that it is difficult to hold
    onto this job if your voters don't believe you have a clear economic
    program and that your State is moving in the right direction against all
    the odds. Many of us have served in very difficult economic times, with
    high unemployment rates caused by all kinds of factors. But we always
    found that the people of our State wanted us to have a theory about how
    the economy works and how we were going to get more jobs. That is what
    these folks do for a living.
        So I am especially honored to have these Governors here and to have
    their support because they understand on a bipartisan basis that a big
    part of America's national security involves the ability to create
    economic security for our people. They further understand that the only
    way to have economic security is to compete and win in the global
    economy.
        As I have said many times and I want to say here on the eve of this
    great vote, every wealthy country in the world today is having trouble
    creating new jobs. Productivity increases, which are necessary to
    compete in the global economy, in the short run sometimes cause
    difficulty in creating jobs because a more productive worker means fewer
    people can produce more products and services. Therefore, if you want
    more jobs at higher wages in this world, you have to have more
    customers. There is no way around that.
        No one has seriously advanced the proposition that the United States
    can grow jobs and raise incomes, our most urgent economic priority,
    without having more customers for our products and services. The
    Governors understand that. That is why they do not seek to run away from
    change or to shield their people from change but instead to embrace it,
    to compete and win. That is the great message that must be carried to
    the Congress over the next 24 hours as the Members prepare for this
    vote.
        This really is a vote about whether we're going to try to hold onto
    yesterday's economy or embrace tomorrow's economy. It's about the past
    and the future. You know, if I could wave a magic wand and return every
    American to absolute job security with no competition at all, I might do
    that although I'm not sure our country would be better off. At least
    more and more people think that that is a possibility as you hear this
    NAFTA vote. And I'm telling you folks, these Governors understand that
    is not a possibility.
        Governors have stood at the doors of plants when they closed. I have
    stood by plants and shaken hands with workers, hundreds of them, when
    they walked off the job for the last time. If I thought that this was
    going to cost the American people jobs, I would not be for this
    agreement and neither would these Governors. Our work is putting
    Americans to work.
        Now, in the last 10 months, with the deficit down, with inflation
    down, with interest rates down, this economy has produced more jobs in
    the private sector than in the previous 4 years. And every American can
    tell you that's very fine, but it's nowhere near enough. We cannot get
    more jobs in this economy until we have more customers for our products
    and our services.
        Tomorrow the Congress has simply got to vote for hope over fear, for
    the future over the past, they've got to vote for confidence in

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    the ability of the American people to compete and win. These Governors
    are closer to their workers than any other public officials in the
    country. They know we can compete and win. So do I. And tomorrow I think
    the House of Representatives will say the same thing.
        Thank you very much.

    NAFTA

        Q. Mr. President, you have stressed bipartisanship here. But Lane
    Kirkland says that you have really abdicated the leadership of the
    Democratic Party with your all-out campaign.
        The President. My job is to try to lead the United States and to try
    to help this country move forward and to do what I think is right to get
    that done. I do not believe we can grow this economy without expanding
    our trade. I'm doing the job that the people elected me to do, to try to
    expand the economy.
        Q. Can you explain about the political cover, as it's been
    described, that you're offering Members of Congress, Republicans and
    Democrats, in terms of NAFTA not being a legitimate political issue in
    the 1994 campaign?
        The President. I have told all Members of Congress who vote for this
    that I will do everything I can to defend this vote and to say that a
    vote for this agreement should not be the basis for defeating any Member
    of Congress without regard to party. And I believe that.
        Q. Mr. President, Ross Perot has accused you of giving away billions
    of dollars in taxpayers' monies to buy votes in favor of NAFTA. And he
    says that what you're doing makes the scandal in New Jersey look like
    peanuts. What do you say about that?
        The President. I say that the Vice President, first of all, disposed
    of most of Mr. Perot's arguments pretty well the other night. The
    Members of Congress who come to me and ask me for things have asked me
    to help their people. The people that I've talked to in Congress have
    been nobly motivated. Most of them have taken great risks and, as you
    heard, were threatened on national television with their very political
    life by Mr. Perot the other night to vote for this. When they come to
    see me, they want to know things like: Is this job training package
    going to be really adequate? How do I know the members of my district
    are going to have access to job training programs? What are you going to
    do to ensure that the environmental standards will be kept? And how
    quickly will we see investments in cleaning up the environment along the
    border?
        Those are the kinds of substantive questions that we've been asked
    to hammer out and work through and give assurances on. I think that is
    the job of a Member of Congress. I don't feel badly about that at all.
        Q. Mr. President----
        Q. Mr. President--sorry.
        The President. Go ahead. Both of you. [Laughter]
        Q. Isn't there a danger, Mr. President, these kind of side deals
    you've had to make on sugar, citrus, wheat can end up undermining the
    very thing you tried to do with the trade agreement?
        The President. No.
        Q. Why not?
        The President. Well, the side agreements we made on agriculture were
    just like the side agreements we made on the environment and on the
    labor standards. They don't undermine the fundamental things in the
    agreement. The Mexican tariffs come down. The barriers to trade go down.
    The Mexicans have access to nationwide investment in their country. We
    win; they win. The big things in the agreement are still wholly intact,
    and as a matter of fact, I think it's a much better deal than it was a
    year ago.
        Q. How do you feel about this bipartisan coalition? There was an
    extraordinary joint whips committee meeting yesterday. When all the
    votes are being counted in the middle of the rollcall, do you really
    trust Newt Gingrich with what may be the future of your Presidency?
        The President. First of all, I wouldn't even characterize it that
    way. I believe that Newt Gingrich believes in NAFTA just like I do. And
    I believe he wants it to pass. And do I trust him to do everything he
    can to deliver every vote he can? You bet I do.
        And let me say that, you know, we can't win for losing around here.
    I mean, when we were voting on the budget, you were asking me wasn't it
    terrible we didn't have any Republicans voting with us. I like the idea
    of people in the two parties working together when they agree. I do not
    like the idea that any party's, either party's discipline would prevent
    people who agree with one another from working together toward the
    national good. I think that's what the American people want us to do. I
    think they want us to disagree when we disagree, to agree when we agree,
    but not to let our labels keep us

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    from working together.
        So this has been an immensely rewarding thing for me to work with
    the Republicans who agree with us on this issue. Mr. Bonior has worked
    very hard with the Republicans who agree with him on the issue, and I
    would like to see more of it in America. I think that our country would
    work better if we could work out agreements and work together in a
    constructive way, particularly on issues that affect our national
    security.
        When I was a boy, looking at Washington from afar, growing up, the
    normal thing was for the Republicans and Democrats to work together on
    foreign policy because everyone understood that was our national
    security. Well frankly, folks, a lot of these economic issues are our
    national security today. And I hope we'll see a lot more of this
    bipartisanship.
        Q. Do you have the votes?
        The President. We're getting there. I never say that until they're
    counted, you know, but I feel good today. We're getting there.
        Q. Mr. President, a lot of people have characterized this as a test
    of your Presidency. And the stakes seem to have been ratcheted up,
    particularly in the last few days, to the point where one Senator was
    quoted as saying your political future is at stake and, at the very
    least, the future of any political programs you want to enact. Do you
    think that is an exaggeration, or are the stakes really that high?
        The President. I think the stakes for our country are high. What
    happens to me is not nearly as important as what happens to the country.
    Thursday morning I'll wake up, and I'll get on that plane and go to the
    APEC meeting and do the best I can for America. A month from now people
    may be concerned about something else. But what I want to emphasize is
    the importance of this to our country.
        I want to make, in closing, since this is my last shot, one argument
    that none of us have made yet again this morning. And that is that NAFTA
    is the gateway to all of Latin America, to 700 million people. It is an
    insurance policy against protectionism in the rest of the world. And it
    is an enormous lever for us to convince our friends in the Pacific
    region and our friends in Europe to complete the worldwide trade
    agreement, the GATT round, by the end of the year so we can continue to
    expand the global economy.
        Yes, sir.
        Q. Mr. President, your opponents on this issue, Mr. Gephardt, for
    instance, say that if NAFTA fails they will immediately offer to
    renegotiate it with you, to revive it. If NAFTA does not pass tomorrow
    night, is it dead, or are you going to immediately try to work with them
    to renegotiate it?
        The President. They're missing the point. They can renegotiate with
    me all they want. They can't renegotiate it with the Mexicans. I think
    the Government of Mexico has made it quite clear that this trade
    agreement includes environmental concessions and labor concessions on
    their part, which I think are good for them, by the way, but never
    before put into a trade agreement by any nation ever. I think it is
    clear what they will do is to look to other nations to make other deals.
    You see, even the Canadians said today that if we voted it down, they'd
    try to make a separate agreement with Mexico. I feel quite sure that
    other nations will as well.
        Q. Mr. President, what are you learning from this intensive
    campaign? Are there a lot of disappointments? And do you have any
    unusual surprises?
        The President. There haven't been any disappointments. Actually,
    what I'm learning from this campaign is that an awful lot of people
    really love this country and many Members of Congress are literally
    willing to put their political careers on the line tomorrow night to do
    what they think is right, even though they're not quite sure their
    voters agree with them yet. Every Member we get who's in a difficult
    district, who's voting for this is doing it because he or she believes
    that it's in the interest of their constituents even if they haven't
    quite persuaded them yet. And it's been a deeply moving thing for me.
        I also would tell you all that we've had a lot of close votes up
    here, but we're moving the ball forward in this country. It is hard to
    do hard things. And sometimes hard things win by narrow margins. But
    America is going through a period of real change and ferment at a time
    of great difficulty for millions of our citizens. So the fact that this
    is tough, it should be exhilarating to all of us who are carrying
    forward. It's just our responsibility to take the tough fight and go
    forward.

    North Korea

        Q. Mr. President, on one other topic, are you willing to give up
    military exercises in South

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    Korea in exchange for nuclear inspections in North Korea?
        The President. I'm not at liberty even to comment on that now. The
    negotiations are going on, and I don't think I should comment. I'll have
    more to say about that, I hope, in the next few days.
        One last question. Go ahead.

    Canadian Agricultural Subsidies

        Q. Have you decided to ask Canada to change its grain pricing
    policies? And are you prepared to seek tariffs or quotas, if they don't,
    on durum wheat?
        The President. First of all, I don't think I should prefigure my
    conversation with the Prime Minister of Canada. I'm going to have my
    first meeting with him in just a couple of days, and we're going to
    discuss some of the issues outstanding between us, including the
    differences both of us have with each other's definition of what
    constitutes fair trade in agriculture. The Prime Minister has made an
    interesting suggestion, which is that we ought to try to reach agreement
    on what does or doesn't constitute a subsidy, something which was not
    done before our agreement with Canada was developed. And that is what
    led to a lot of this misunderstanding because they have things that our
    farmers consider to be significant subsidies that are indirect. So we're
    going to meet and visit about that when we get out to the Pacific. Right
    now, we've got to pass NAFTA.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:05 a.m. at the North Portico to the West
    Wing at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Tommy G.
    Thompson of Wisconsin.