    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 6, 1997]
    [Pages 1507-1509]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Fast-Track Trade Legislation and an Exchange With Reporters
    November 6, 1997

        The President. Good evening. Today I was proud to represent all
    Americans in honoring the service of President George Bush at the
    dedication of his Presidential Library. It was an extraordinary moment
    for many reasons, but one of the most impressive things to me was that
    there were four men, two Democrats, two Republicans, who have held this
    office, all agreeing strongly that for America to continue to lead in
    the world economy, Congress must extend the President's power to
    negotiate new trade agreements.
        A large bipartisan majority in the Senate supports extending this
    authority. Speaker Gingrich and I are convinced that the authority will
    strengthen our leadership, and we want the House to follow suit. A vote
    against fast track will not create a single job, clean up a single toxic
    waste site, advance workers rights, or improve the environment anywhere
    in the world, but it will limit America's ability to advance our
    economic interests, our democratic ideals, our political leadership.
        So, once again, before Congress votes tomorrow, I call upon the
    House of Representatives to vote for American leadership, for America's
    economic future, and pass the fast-track trade negotiating authority.
        Q. Mr. President, how close are you at this point? How close do you
    think you are in the House?
        The President. I think it's a close call. Obviously, I'm here
    because I'm trying to pull out all the stops, and I want to emphasize
    the extraordinary moment we had today when the four Presidents were all
    strongly endorsing fast track. President Ford, President Bush have
    spoken out on this; President Carter has actually made a number of phone
    calls. It is close, but the policy is not close, and I am convinced that
    a substantial majority of the Congress knows the policy is not close,
    that it is clearly in America's interest to do this.

    Iraq

        Q. Mr. President, the Iraqis in a letter today threatened again to
    shoot down the next U.S. spy flight. There is apparently no give on
    their side at all. Are you becoming more concerned?
        The President. Well, it would be a mistake for them to shoot down a
    plane. But we have a team there working for the United Nations, and our
    policy is clear--and I don't mean American policy--world policy. What
    they need to do is to resume the inspections. And the team is coming
    home this weekend, and we'll see where we are then and where we go from
    there.
        Yes.

    Fast-Track Trade Legislation

        Q. What deals have you cut and are you planning to cut in order to
    get fast-track trade through, and does that include Congressman Smith's
    language on abortion?
        The President. What we've tried to do is to resolve--if there are
    any issues, economic issues, that affect congressional districts or
    States that we can resolve honorably, we've worked hard to resolve those
    in ways that I think are consistent with what we're trying to do on fast
    track. If there are other issues that we can resolve that permit the
    business of the Congress to go forward, we're trying to resolve them.
    But there has been no agreement of the kind you just mentioned.

    [[Page 1508]]

        Q. Mr. President, can I ask you about your statement that if this
    were a secret ballot, this would pass by a 3-to-4 margin? Is that a
    fairly damning assessment of Members of Congress? It suggests they're so
    strongly in the grip of special interests that they won't vote their
    conscience on an issue that directly affects U.S. standing in the world.
        The President. Well, they're under a lot of pressure. And you know,
    we see a lot of evidence that from time to time in these elections, that
    if one side is funded and another is not, that they can be very--that
    they can be in trouble. And there are other issues there for them to
    consider. All I'm saying is, I believe if there were a secret ballot, it
    would pass overwhelmingly.
        And what I'm trying to do is to bring the vote tomorrow evening in
    line with where I think everybody's understanding is. I think the most
    important thing to do is to heighten the public awareness of this. The
    level of--though we've been talking about it now for months, I think
    because this is the authority for the President to continue to negotiate
    trade agreements rather than a specific agreement with a lot of
    specifics in it, there's not as much public interest, public awareness,
    or public involvement in this, and that has made the issue more
    difficult to lift the level of the national interest on. But I feel I
    must say I'm encouraged by the developments of the last few days, and
    we're just going to continue to do it.
        Let me just mention one other thing that we've done in this, because
    I think I should have been talking more about this, but I think it's
    quite important. In order to address some of the concerns of Congress
    with regard to labor and the environment and congressional input, we
    establish in this trade bill a panel of advisers on labor issues, a
    panel of advisers on environment issues, parallel to that which existed
    in previous bills of advisers on business issues. That's never been done
    before. In addition to that, we're going to have a congressional
    observer group for every one of these trade negotiations the way we have
    congressional observer groups for NATO expansion, for example, or for
    the chemical weapons treaty.
        Now, those of you who followed this and have been on our trips, for
    example, like when the congressional observer group went with me on the
    NATO trip to Madrid, know that this is a critical part of securing
    congressional approval because the NATO observers are involved in the
    early negotiations. They know what's going on. Their voices are heard.
    They are not just confronted with a fait accompli at the end of the day.
        All these things have been changed for this particular fast-track
    bill, so one of the things I'm trying to hammer home to a lot of
    individual Members is that they--or their representatives, whether
    they're Democrats or Republicans, and--will have an involvement in how
    these specific trade agreements are negotiated, far greater than their
    predecessors have had in my administration and in previous
    administrations going back 20 years. And I think that's a big plus. One
    more.
        Q. With the outcome still in doubt, have you and Speaker Gingrich
    considered delaying tomorrow's vote to give you more time to round up
    support?
        The President. We find that the deadline concentrates our attention
    markedly, and so we're working hard. We think we can get there by
    tomorrow night, and that's what we're working to do.
        Q. Mr. President, is it tomorrow night now?
        The President. I'm sorry. I don't know. I haven't talked to the
    Speaker today. We think we can get there tomorrow, and that is what we
    are trying to do. I have not received any information. You probably have
    better information than I about when it is scheduled.

    Iraq

        Q. A question again about Iraq. What do your intelligence people say
    are motivating Saddam Hussein? Why is he doing this? Why is he pushing
    this again to the brink?
        The President. Well, we learned, you know, back during the Desert
    Shield/Desert Storm period that his motivations are somewhat complex and
    difficult to fathom from time to time. All I can say is that the reason
    that we have the inspection regime and the reason we are determined to
    resume it is that, whatever else happens and however long he stays
    there, the international community has decided that he mustn't be
    allowed to resume the production of weapons of mass destruction. So he
    can have whatever motive he wants.
        We have tried to work with the United Nations to deal with the
    humanitarian concerns of the Iraqi people. We are very concerned about
    those. But we can't permit a man with

    [[Page 1509]]

    his record, the regime with their policies, to get into the weapons of
    mass destruction business if we can stop it. And that is what the
    inspection regime is designed to do, and there is a lot of evidence, you
    know, that it has been quite successful. So all I know is that whatever
    his motives are, I just want to start the inspections again.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:32 p.m. in the Briefing Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.