    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 25, 1997]
    [Pages 1655-1656]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1655]]

    Remarks to the United States Consulate Staff in Vancouver
    November 25, 1997

        Thank you very much. Thank you. First of all, this is the first
    chance I've had to say thank you, Ambassador Giffin. Let me thank all of
    you for coming, all of you who work for the American consulate here, for
    our Embassy, both the Americans and the Canadians who are here. And
    those of you who brought your children, thank you for bringing your
    children.
        I know that whenever a President comes to another country and to
    another community, the very happiest time is when he gets on the plane
    and leaves--[laughter]--because it's a lot of trouble. And I appreciate
    the trouble that you have taken to make my second visit to Vancouver a
    really wonderful one.
        I was told that when I came here before as President in 1993, to
    meet with President Yeltsin, I was the first sitting President ever to
    come to Vancouver. Now I hope that no one will ever catch my record. But
    it is a wonderful place.
        And I want to thank Gordon Giffin, who is almost as Canadian as he
    is American, for his willingness to become our Ambassador and leave his
    happy home in Georgia. And I thank Mary Ann Peters, who worked for me at
    the National Security Council before she came here as a DCM. Ken Fairfax
    was also at the National Security Council. He had to track nuclear
    materials in the former Soviet Union; I imagine he's happier in Canada
    now. But he did a fine job. And Jim Tomsheck used to be on my
    Presidential protection detail; he's now an assistant treasury attache.
    And I asked him whether this was not a better job and he said, ``Well,
    both of them were an honor.'' I think that was a political way of saying
    this is a much better job. [Laughter]
        Thank you, Jay Bruns, and thanks to all the people here at the
    consulate. I do think that you went the extra mile to turn--to move the
    consulate to a golf course. I know that my love for golf is legendary
    but this is sort of overdoing it. I appreciate you coming here because
    it is on the way to the airplane.
        And speaking of the airplane, Air Force One, and Harrison Ford, I
    actually made arrangements for Harrison Ford to see Air Force One for
    the first time when we happened to be in Wyoming. And I was present when
    he asked Glenn Close to become his Vice President. If you've seen the
    movie, you know she's the Vice President. And she and I were sitting
    there, and he got down on his knees and proposed to her. [Laughter] It
    was very romantic. And she said, ``I can't. I'm too busy.'' And I looked
    at her, and I said, ``Glenn, you do not say no to the President.''
    [Laughter] So that's how the movie came to be.
        Let me say that this APEC meeting was a very important one.
    Historically, it may be to the most important one we've had since we
    started meeting in my first year as President at Blake Island,
    Washington. We committed ourselves to a common vision of peace and
    stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Then we met in
    Indonesia and then in the Philippines. We adopted a plan, a strategy, a
    blueprint for open trade by the year 2020.
        And last year, we came out for the information technology agreement,
    to reduce to zero tariffs on computers, semiconductors, and
    telecommunications equipment. It's now been embraced by the World Trade
    Organization, and it amounts to a $5 billion tariff cut on American
    products and services. It's an enormous positive impact for the United
    States, and indeed, it will also help Canada and every other country
    that manufactures and sells such equipment. And it will lift the living
    standards and the quality of life of people all around the world.
        This year, we proved that our community is for good times and for
    challenging ones, as well. Asia's financial difficulties would have made
    it tempting for some of our partners to turn inward, maybe even to stay
    home. But instead, we agreed to open trade in nine new areas totaling
    $1.5 trillion in goods and services, everything from chemicals to
    medical equipment to environmental technology. This is a really strong
    vote of confidence in our common future.
        We also supported an action plan to meet the financial challenges
    that we all face in Asia. And I say that advisedly, we all face them,
    because Canada and the United States will not be unaffected unless we
    can restore confidence and growth and forward progress throughout the
    Asian area.

    [[Page 1656]]

        We believe that the affected countries are doing the right thing in
    committing to take the right steps to remain strong, with the IMF taking
    the lead for international community and with other advanced countries
    backing them up when it's appropriate.
        Last year we set an agenda for more open trade. This year we set an
    agenda to help us meet the challenges of the international financial
    system in the 21st century and to tackle other problems, including
    global warming. We committed to working to achieve an agreement in
    Kyoto, which is coming up in just a couple of weeks. I can't tell you
    how important I think this is. The scientific evidence is overwhelming
    that the Earth's climate is warming at a more rapid rate than it has in
    thousands of years. The leader from Papua New Guinea was here, saying
    that he literally feared huge chunks of his country being overrun if the
    sea level rises. He said, ``It's not just our livelihood; it's our
    culture and our religion. It's everything about our life.''
        We know that global warming will lead to more extreme weather
    developments, the floods in the northern part of the United States, the
    fires in Indonesia, things of this kind. And so we know that we have to
    face these together.
        We have already endorsed some things that will help, including a big
    natural gas energy network from North to South Asia which will
    dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise come from
    coal or oil. We are going to take on the transnational consequences of
    environmental crises like the forest fires burning across Indonesia.
    We're developing an emergency program to predict, prevent, and
    coordinate our response to natural disasters of that kind in the future.
        We're acting to meet the challenges that we'll face as a community
    and seize the opportunities we can only seize fully as a community. And
    I just want to reemphasize that your work is vital to that success. It
    wasn't so many years ago that it would have been unheard of for a few
    leaders from Asia, from North America, and from South America to sit
    around and have the kind of conversations we've had for the last 2 days.
    We didn't agree on everything, but we agreed on a great deal. And the
    world is better off and our people will be better off because of the
    work that you helped to make possible.
        Again let me say a special word of thanks to all of our own citizens
    here at the consulate for serving as ambassadors of the United States,
    and to the Canadian citizens who work to help us do our job every day.
        I wish Secretary Albright were here with me. She gives a great pep
    talk to all of you, and she would say that one of the great unnoticed
    benefits of the balanced budget agreement I signed last summer is that
    for the first time in years we have taken the cloud off the annual
    debate about whether the United States would walk away from fully
    funding our diplomatic efforts around the world in a way that supports
    people like you here and in every other nation in which we're
    represented. The balanced budget agreement did a good thing to help fund
    fully our diplomatic efforts. And I hope that will give you a lot of
    security and boost your morale as you do America's mission in the months
    and years ahead.
        Let me finally say a special thank-you to the people of Vancouver.
    Hillary and Chelsea and I had a wonderful family vacation here a few
    years ago at the beginning of this decade. I fell in love with the city.
    We went over to Victoria; we loved everything we saw over there. And
    when I came back today to the same place that I met with President
    Yeltsin 4 years ago, I saw again what an astonishing and unique place
    this is for historic and cultural reasons and for all the modern reasons
    that I'm sure that a lot of you young people know and understand far
    better than I do.
        I am gratified that we came. I'm pleased by the results of the
    meeting. And again, thank you very, very much for what you do to help
    the United States move the world to a better place in a new century.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:32 p.m. at the Shaughnessy Golf Course.
    In his remarks, the President referred to Mary Ann Peters, Deputy Chief
    of Mission, U.S. Embassy in Canada; Ken Fairfax, consulate economic
    officer; Judson L. Bruns III, U.S. Consul General, Vancouver; actor
    Harrison Ford; actress Glenn Close; and Governor General Wiwa Korowi of
    Papua New Guinea.