    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [April 8, 1997]
    [Pages 402-405]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Prior to Discussions With Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada
    and an Exchange With Reporters
    April 8, 1997

        President Clinton. Good morning, everybody. I'm delighted to have
    the Prime Minister here, and we're just about to start a conversation
    about NATO expansion, which is something of importance to both of us,
    and about some trade issues and a number of other matters. We have a lot
    of good agreements that we're going to have signed during this trip, so
    we're excited about that.
        And we're going to have a press conference afterwards, so we'll be
    able to answer questions about it all.

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    Chemical Weapons Convention

        Q. Jesse Helms called the Chemical Weapons Convention today
    destructive and defective and dangerous. The hearing is not off to a
    good start.
        President Clinton. Well, I know he's not for it. All I want to do is
    try to get it on the floor of the Senate and persuade two-thirds of the
    Senators to be for it.
        I think it's obvious that it's the right thing to do for the world
    and critical for America's leadership that we do it. I do not believe
    that all those military leaders who were here with us earlier this week
    and the Republican leaders, including Senator Kassebaum Baker and former
    Secretary of State Jim Baker, would do something that was dangerous for
    America. I think it's critically important for America.
        If we don't ratify it, then the rest of the world will be compelled
    to treat us like they treat the rogue states, and it will--just
    basically to ostracize us and impose trade sanctions on our chemical
    companies. And we'll deserve it if we don't ratify it, because we won't
    be good citizens in the world.
        Q. Will you speak with Senator Helms between now and----
        President Clinton. We're working with him. We've worked hard with
    him, and we've worked through a lot of his objections, and we'll keep
    working. But I'm going to focus hard on trying to--not only to persuade
    him but we have to have 67 votes. We've got to get it out of the
    committee, and then we've got to have 67 votes. That's what we've got to
    do. We're going to try to do it.

    Middle East Peace Process

        Q. Any further words--[inaudible]--Prime Minister Netanyahu?
        President Clinton. No, I don't have anything to add to what I said
    yesterday. We had a long, thorough, very frank conversation. I want
    these parties to do what they have to do to get this process up and
    going again. We've got to have an atmosphere of zero tolerance for
    terror, but we also have to have the kind of confidence-building
    necessary to make peace. And he's got some good ideas, and I think we
    have some good ideas, and we want to talk to the Palestinians this week
    and see if we can get this going again. But the parties have got to do
    what it takes to get it going, and I think if we work together we can do
    it.
        Q. Did you ask him to stop building at Har Homa?
        President Clinton. I don't want to say any more about what I did or
    didn't say.
        Q. [Inaudible]
        President Clinton. The incident in Hebron? Well, all those things
    are troubling. But the main thing is we can't let them get in the way of
    moving the path toward peace forward. That's the ultimate resolution of
    all these things. We've just got to keep going. They have to decide
    they're going to keep going, and they've got to do it.

    [At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group
    entered.]

    Prime Minister Chretien's Visit

        President Clinton. Let me say again how pleased I am to have the
    Prime Minister here. We're going to have a chance to talk about our
    mutual interests in NATO expansion, in Bosnia, in Haiti, and a number of
    bilateral issues between us. And of course, we're going to have some
    good agreements signed on this trip, so I think this will be a very
    useful and productive trip. I know it will be for me, and I hope it will
    be for the Prime Minister and for Canada. And again, I want to welcome
    you.
        Prime Minister Chretien. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here.
    I think it's going to be a very good meeting.
        You know, our relations are--you know, terms of trade, for example--
    the biggest in the world. And when we look at it, we manage to solve
    most of the problems in a very nice way. And I hope that if the world
    were to work the way that Canada and United States manage to work
    together, there would be more prosperity around the world. So you have
    to keep setting the example. We have to talk to each other to achieve
    it.

    Extraterritorial Impact of Sanctions

        Q. Mr. President, what about the issue of Helms-Burton? Do you think
    there's any common ground to be found there?
        President Clinton. Well, I think we have a difference of opinion. I
    think the real issue is how we manage our differences right now. And
    we'll talk about that.
        The Cuba issue is a difficult issue, but Canada has had a very solid
    position on human rights,

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    generally. And we just have a different approach here, and we'll try to
    find a way to manage our differences. I think that's the best way we can
    do it.

    Prime Minister Chretien's Visit

        Q. Mr. President, how unusual is it for you to invite a leader from
    another country to an unscheduled meeting the night before the scheduled
    meeting?
        President Clinton. Well, fairly unusual, but we're friends, and
    besides that, I owed him a golf match, which I now cannot provide. So I
    thought, since we couldn't play golf together, we ought to visit and
    talk about golf and other things together.

    [At this point, a question was asked and answered in French, and a
    translation was not provided.]

        Q. Mr. Prime Minister, is there a reason why you didn't want people
    to know about your first visit to the White House last night?
        President Clinton. You're wrong--[laughter].
        Prime Minister Chretien. [Inaudible]--called me and said, ``Come and
    have coffee with me,'' and I went. But he didn't invite you. [Laughter]
    But Moscovitz [Jason Moscovitz, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] was
    there with his crew, and he filmed that, and I waved at them. I didn't
    hide anything. You were not there; where were you?
        Q. I was looking for you, sir. [Laughter]
        President Clinton. It wasn't his fault----
        Prime Minister Chretien. But I was not in a bar downtown; you were
    at the wrong place. [Laughter]
        President Clinton. It was unscheduled, you see.
        Q. Have you rescheduled the golf game?
        President Clinton. Well, I have about a minimum--a minimum--of 4
    months and probably a couple more weeks before I can play golf. So it's
    a long way away.
        Q. Can you tell us, Mr. Prime Minister, what you talked about last
    night----
        Prime Minister Chretien. Oh, we talk about a lot of things. We talk
    about our relations and, as I mentioned earlier, that we have managed to
    resolve most of the difficulties. When we started we had 5 percent of
    our trade involved in dispute, and now it's down to 1 percent. And the
    fact that we have managed to talk to each other and very good relations,
    because we know and we believe--and we might discuss that--that the
    growth in the world will come if we have more free trade around the
    world.
        And we're talking about the progress in APEC. I will be the host of
    APEC in November. And we're talking about the expansion of free trade in
    the Americas as we decided, I think, in December '94 to ratify. And now
    we hope that they will be able to proceed quickly with the fast track,
    because when we met at that time, we had a goal to have an agreement
    with all these countries by the year 2005. But we have to--and Chile was
    to be the first one, and it was blocked. But now is the time to resume
    with them. We have signed a bilateral agreement with them. And look at
    free trade between the two of us--you know, 45 percent increase in the
    trade between Canada and United States. So we look at that, and we're
    both benefiting from that.
        And when we look at Asia, we know that this is the market of
    tomorrow. Imagine, you know, more than a billion--200,000 million people
    in China and India next door. And so when they start to become consumer,
    they will buy a lot of goods and services from America and I hope
    proportionately more from Canada. [Laughter] But it's fair competition.
        President Clinton. Keep in mind, we'll have a press conference
    later, too. We'll answer more.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:51 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
    of Israel. A tape was not available for verification of the content of
    these remarks.

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