[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
[November 17, 1993]
[Pages 2005-2007]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the House of Representatives Action on the North American 
Free Trade Agreement and an Exchange With Reporters
November 17, 1993

    The President. Thank you very much. Just a few minutes ago the House 
of Representatives voted to approve the North American Free Trade 
Agreement. NAFTA will expand our exports, create new jobs, and help us 
reassert America's leadership in the global economy. This agreement is 
in the deep self-interest of the United States. It will help make 
working Americans, the world's most productive workers, winners in the 
world economy.
    I want to thank the lawmakers of both parties who gave their support 
to NAFTA. Many of them, as everyone knows, showed real courage in voting 
their consciences and what they knew to be in the best interest for 
their Nation. I want to thank all the citizens who worked so hard for 
this, the business leaders, especially the small business leaders, the 
spokespersons for the NAFTA fight, including Lee Iacocca who's here with 
us tonight.
    I want to say a special word of thanks to the members of the Cabinet 
who labored so hard and long, especially Mickey Kantor, our Trade 
Ambassador, for his tireless effort on the side agreements and to lobby 
this through, and the Secretary of the Treasury, who is a native of 
south Texas and who understands so clearly why this is in our interests. 
And I want to say a special word of thanks to Vice President Gore for 
bringing home the message to the American people in his superb debate 
performance.
    Tonight's vote is a defining moment for our Nation. At a time when 
many of our people are hurting from the strains of this tough global 
economy, we chose to compete, not to retreat, to lead a new world 
economy, to lead as America has done so often in the past. The debate 
over NAFTA has been contentious. Men and women of good will raised 
strong arguments for and against this agreement. But every participant 
in this debate wanted the same things: more jobs, more security, more 
opportunity for every American. And so do I.
    I thank those who worked with us. I thank especially the people who 
organized the grassroots effort in our behalf, Bill Daley and former 
Congressman Bill Frenzel. I also thank the passionate defenders of the 
working people who oppose NAFTA for exercising their right to speak out. 
And they were right to speak out

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against economic conditions which have produced too few jobs and 
stagnant incomes, as well as inadequate strategies for retraining our 
workers and investing in our people and our places that need them. They 
fought hard, and they have my respect.
    But in an economy where competition is global and change is the only 
constant, we simply cannot advance the security of American workers by 
building walls of protection around our economy or by pretending that 
global competition isn't there. Our only choice is to take this new 
world head on, to compete, and to win. That's why it's so important that 
we pass NAFTA, and I hope the Senate will complete the process in the 
next few days.
    By eliminating Mexico's tariffs and restrictive rules we'll be able 
to export more cars, more computers, and other products and keep more 
American workers on the job here at home. NAFTA will raise environmental 
and labor standards in Mexico. And I want to ask tonight labor and 
management to work together with our administration to ensure that the 
labor and environmental provisions of NAFTA are honored. We must make 
sure that this pact works to America's advantage.
    NAFTA is a big step, but just the first step in our effort to expand 
trade and spark an economic revival here and around the world. One 
legitimate point that the opponents of NAFTA made is that we will do 
even better in the global economy if we have a training system and a 
retraining system and a job placement system for our workers worthy of 
the challenges they face. We simply must guarantee our workers the 
training and education they need to compete in the global marketplace. 
And I call on the coalition that passed NAFTA to help me early next year 
present to the Congress and pass a world-class reemployment system that 
will give our working people the security of knowing that they'll be 
able always to get the training they need as economic conditions change.
    We must also provide our citizens with other things, with health 
care that can never be taken away, with increased investment in people 
and places and jobs. And we must continue the fight to lower foreign 
trade barriers which slow economic growth here in the United States and 
around the world.
    Tomorrow I go to Seattle to meet with the leaders of 15 Asian 
Pacific economies. I will ask them to work toward more open markets for 
our products. When I return, I'll reach out to the other market-oriented 
democracies of Latin America, to ask them to join in this great American 
pact that I believe offers so much hope to our future. And next month we 
will urge our European and Asian competitors to complete work on the 
worldwide trade agreement that can literally create hundreds of 
thousands of jobs here in the United States as we open markets all 
across the globe.
    We've faced choices before like the one we faced tonight, whether to 
turn inward or turn outward. After World War I, the United States turned 
inward and built walls of protection around our economy. The result was 
a depression and ultimately another world war. After the Second World 
War, we made a very different choice. We turned outward. We built a 
system of expanded trade and collective security. We rebuilt the 
economies of our former foes and in the process created the great 
American middle class.
    Tonight, with the cold war over, our Nation is facing that choice 
again. And tonight I am proud to say, we have not flinched. Tonight the 
leaders of both parties found common ground in supporting the common 
good. We voted for the future tonight. We once again showed our 
strength. We once again showed our self-confidence, even in this 
difficult time. Our people are winners. And I believe we showed tonight 
we are ready together to compete and win and to shape the world of the 
21st century.
    Thank you very much.
    Q. Mr. President, how are you going to make up with the Democratic 
leaders who fought this trade agreement so vociferously?
    The President. Well, I thought what they all said tonight was a very 
good signal. At the end of that debate I was deeply moved by the efforts 
that people on both sides of the issue made to reach out to each other 
and to say that we have to make this work now, we have to go forward 
now, we have to build our economy. And I think you will see that 
happening. I think you will see a greater sense of unity and commitment 
to have the kind of job training programs we need, to have the kind of 
investment strategies we need to keep forcing these trade barriers down 
abroad.
    And I must say, too, I hope we'll see in the future some more of 
this bipartisan effort to build economic security for Americans, because

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a lot of our national security in the future is going to be involved 
with rebuilding our economic strength from the grassroots up. And that's 
a very hopeful part of this debate.
    Q. What about the relationship with organized labor, sir?
    The President. Well, one of the things I learned, again, in this 
fight is that they have an enormous amount of energy and ability to 
organize and ability to channel the passions and feelings of their 
workers. You know, when you think about it, we had the White House, the 
leaders of both parties, an enormous amount of support, and we had to 
come from a long way back to win this fight because of the work they did 
largely. And what I want to do is to ask them to join me now, as I said 
tonight, in making sure that the labor and environmental agreements are 
honored, in going on to the health care battle, in going on to other 
economic battles, and in making sure we give our working people the kind 
of education and training programs they need to compete in this 
different and very competitive global economy.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:03 p.m. in the Grand Foyer at the White 
House.