[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
[November 3, 1993]
[Pages 1885-1886]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1885]]


Remarks on Signing the Message Transmitting Proposed NAFTA Legislation 
to the Congress and an Exchange With Reporters
November 3, 1993

    The President. Ladies and gentlemen, today I am sending to Congress 
the implementing legislation for NAFTA. This will create the world's 
largest tariff-free zone, from the Canadian arc to the Mexican tropics, 
with more than 370 million consumers and over $6.5 trillion of 
production. It will clearly benefit America's workers. Mexican tariffs 
today are 2\1/2\ times United States tariffs. As the walls come down, we 
estimate that another 200,000 American jobs will be created by 1995.
    NAFTA will also enable us to operate in an unprecedented manner in 
other areas. It will improve environmental conditions on the U.S.-
Mexican border, something that all Americans know we need to do and 
something that all Mexicans know we need to do. It will be the stimulus 
for economic growth beyond Mexico, enabling us to go into the rest of 
Latin America with similar agreements. And perhaps most important in the 
short run, it will give the United States access to the Mexican markets 
on terms more favorable than those available to many of our competitors 
who have also rapidly been expanding their sales into Mexico, whether 
from Europe or Japan or the rest of Asia.
    If we turn away from NAFTA, we risk losing the natural trade 
advantage that should come to the United States as Mexico and the rest 
of Latin America build market economies and stronger democracies. If we 
embrace NAFTA, it is one strong step to take this country into the 21st 
century with a revitalized economy. That is clearly in the forefront of 
the minds of all Americans, and that is why we are all pursuing it here 
in this bipartisan fashion.
    I want to thank the Democratic and the Republican leaders of the 
Congress who are here with me today, thank them for their tireless 
efforts, along with our administration, Ambassador Kantor, Mr. Daley, 
Mr. Frenzel, and others. We are working hard. We are making progress, 
and I hope when we send this bill up to the Congress today that it will 
reaffirm the clear interest of the United States in adopting this 
agreement.
    I'd like to sign it now, and then we'll take a couple of questions.

[At this point, the President signed the message transmitting the 
proposed legislation to implement the North American Free Trade 
Agreement.]

    Q. Mr. President?
    The President. I have to sign two, there being two Houses. 
[Laughter]

Election Results

    Q. Mr. President, it's a year after your election and the Democrats 
have now lost two Senate seats, two Governors, the mayors of--
[inaudible]--the largest cities in the country. Do you view it in any 
way as a judgment on your policies in the Democratic Party?
    The President. No. When Governor Robb was elected Governor of 
Virginia in 1981, I didn't think it was a repudiation of President 
Reagan. We also won a lot of mayors' races last night, including a lot 
of people who were early supporters of mine and very instrumental in the 
campaign. And we won the special elections for the House of 
Representatives that had come up that we had before. I don't think you 
can draw too much conclusion from this. I think what you can say is, the 
American people want change, and they want results. The point I want to 
make is that I believe every Member of Congress, without regard for 
party, who votes for this agreement will be rewarded for it, because it 
represents change and the creation of more economic opportunity. I think 
it represents change and results. That's the way incumbents are going to 
survive, by providing the kind of changes that the voters want.
    Q. So you don't think it's any reflection on you, or any referendum 
on you or your programs?
    The President. Let me say this: I was elected Governor of my State 
five times. Once I was elected in 1984 when Ronald Reagan got 59 percent 
of the vote in my State, and I got 63 percent. Voters are extremely 
discriminating. They make their own judgments for their own reasons. I 
think it is a manifestation that the voters are not yet happy with the 
pace of economic renewal, social reunification in this country. They're 
worried about crime. They're wor-


[[Page 1886]]

ried about all of these other social problems we've got. And I think 
it's also a sense they have that Government's not yet working for them.
    And all that is right. There's nothing wrong about that. And I think 
that all people who are in, if they want to stay in, are going to have 
to work together until we produce economic results, a country that's 
coming together instead of coming apart, and political reform. But 
that's why I will say again, it's certainly not a message to run and 
hide from the tough issues; that is not what it is. And that's why I 
think, again, I think NAFTA is symbolic of the kinds of things that 
people ought to be doing across party lines, because it will create 
economic opportunity. And that will lower voter anxiety. When people 
won't have to worry about whether the economy is growing or not, they'll 
be much more secure, and we'll be able to deal with a whole lot of these 
other issues that we've got. That's why I think this is a very 
important, symbolic issue.

NAFTA

    Q. Do you have the votes?
    The President. Do we have the votes? We don't have them today, but 
we're getting there. Really, I think all of these people would admit, 
thanks to all of them, we're making rapid progress. And we had a real 
movement in the last 10 days or so, and I think you'll see more and more 
progress in the next few days.
    Q. Are you going to win?
    The President. Yes. We're going to win it.
    Q. Are you cutting too many deals? The big sugar deal, is this 
just----
    The President. No.
    Q. Isn't that protectionist, the sugar concessions for the Louisiana 
Members?
    The President. I think the Ambassador is going to have a--you're 
going to have a press conference this afternoon to talk about that, 
aren't you?
    Ambassador Kantor. Yes.
    The President. We haven't done anything that's not consistent with 
what we said we'd try to do from the beginning on this agreement. And 
Mickey's going to talk about it today.

Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.