    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 24, 1997]
    [Pages 1653-1654]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With Prime Minister Ryutaro
    Hashimoto of Japan in Vancouver
    November 24, 1997

    Asian Economies

        Q. Mr. President, can you assure Americans that the Asian financial
    crisis won't damage their portfolios or hurt them financially in any
    way, especially those who are middle-aged or older who are preparing to
    retire? How does that affect Americans, what's going on over there?
        The President. Well, it affects us in several ways. First of all, we
    sell about a third of our exports to Asia. And if the Asian financial
    difficulties worsen, don't get better, then the value of the Asian
    currencies goes down; they don't have money to buy exports anymore;
    their exports to our country and to others become much cheaper; and more
    importantly, they lower the overall rate of economic growth in the
    world, which would hurt Americans. That is the most likely negative
    consequence of that.
        Now, obviously, if there--we have seen that when there are problems
    in financial markets in some parts of the world, sometimes it bleeds
    over to other parts of the world, and it can have an impact on our stock
    market, for example, which would go to the question that you raised.
        My view is that we should approach this with determination but with
    confidence. I mean, after all, we have a lot of productivity and a lot
    of hard-working people in Asia. And we have now, after the Manila
    meeting, a mechanism to approach these financial challenges. So we need
    to take this very seriously. We need to work

    [[Page 1654]]

    very hard at it. We don't need to be at all casual, but we should also
    have confidence that we can work through it.
        Q. Is Japan going to need a bailout from the IMF?
        The President. Are you asking the Prime Minister?
        Q. No.
        The President. I'm not in a position to answer questions about
    Japan's situation, except that I think that we believe that they must,
    and we're certain that they will, deal with these issues in an
    appropriate fashion. We just want to be in a position to be supportive
    when we can, and that's what we said at Manila, and that's what we did
    in Indonesia. But I think Japan can lead Asia out of this difficulty
    with the strength of its economy and the right moves.
        Q. With the recommendations that came up in Manila, there's some
    suggestion that maybe--that the leaders might have to go further than
    the ministers went to nip this in the bud, to really fix it.
        The President. Well, that's one of the things we're going to discuss
    here. We haven't really had the leaders meetings here. I mean, we're all
    talking one on one, but when we get into the APEC meeting, one of the
    things we want to discuss is, do we believe what happened at Manila will
    work? If so, what are we prepared to do to make it work? What are we
    prepared to do if we have to go beyond that?
        But I think if you look at the basic framework of Manila, it's quite
    an intelligent idea. Every country should have good economic policies on
    its own. The IMF should fashion a remedy appropriate to that country in
    these times. If that fails or is insufficient, then those of us in the
    region will come in and support it--to try to make so it's like a three-
    level approach. I think it makes a lot of sense, and I don't think we
    should assume that it's not adequate until we give it a chance to work.

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

    International Agreement on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

        Q. Mr. President, on Kyoto, Secretary Albright today said that the
    U.S. would act first, which has been the policy. And then she said that
    well-off developing nations presumably should be the next up. Will you
    or will you not push for all developing nations to sign the treaty or to
    somehow make some sort of firm commitment to reductions?
        The President. Well, we believe the developing nations, as well as
    the developed nations, should be involved in the process. We also have
    always made clear that they should not be asked to adopt the same
    targets that we are but that what we want to do is to find a way for the
    largest possible number of nations to participate in Kyoto so that we
    can tell the developing nations, ``Look, we don't want you to give up
    your future economic growth, but we do want you to work with us to get
    there with a different energy path than we adopted, because the
    technology is there and you will actually benefit more from doing it
    right the first time than from paying for a big transformation after
    you've already developed in this way.''
        And keep in mind, we have to do this. Otherwise, 30 years from now,
    all of us in the developed nations will have lowered our greenhouse gas
    emissions, and increased emissions from other countries will mean we
    will not have made one bit of progress. So we have to find a way to do
    this and still reassure these developing nations they're not giving up
    future growth.
        I believe we can, and we're working on it. I'm lobbying as hard as I
    can here and have been, as you know, and did all through Latin America.
    I'm doing the best I can.

    Note: The exchange began at 1:47 p.m. in the Princess Louisa Suite at
    the Waterfront Centre Hotel.