[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[November 10, 1999]
[Pages 2041-2043]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion With Harley-Davidson Employees in
York, Pennsylvania
November 10, 1999
The President. Let me just say first, I have had a great tour. I'm
glad to be here. Thanks for the jacket. But thanks, most of all, for
your wonderful job you do. And I'd like to just have some opening
remarks from Jeff and Harry, and then maybe we'll do a little roundtable discussion.
As you know, as I said, I'm interested in two things today. One is
how has Harley done it; what are the major elements in your success at
home and around the world? And secondly, how important is the global
market to the profitability and long-term success of your company?
[The discussion continued.]
The President. Several years ago, you were subject to unfair
competition in the American market, and it took some action to get that
straightened out. But one of the reasons that I wanted to have this new
trade meeting that we're going to have next month in Seattle--we're
going to try to launch a new round of trade negotiations, and the main
purpose, from our point of view, is lowering tariffs to American
products, because there's a lot more, not just yours but a lot of other
products where, even though we have a very successful economy and
relatively high wages compared to most other countries, we are quite
competitive in a whole range of areas if we can get these tariffs down.
I think it's very important.
[The discussion continued.]
The President. You know, it's very interesting, I have tried to get
the White House and the Government to operate more like
you just described, and one of the
real problems of doing it in politics is that if you make a mistake,
it's big news. And if you don't, it's kind of like the dog that doesn't
bark. I mean, it's not like--if you don't make a mistake, you sell a lot
of motorcycles; the bottom line goes up. Sometimes if we don't make a
mistake, you get your Social Security check.
And it's become--one of the things that Vice President Gore really tried to do with our reinventing
Government initiative is to get decisions made more quickly by people
that are closer to the decision point. And we tried to run the White
House as a team and have people not be scared of their shadow when they
come to work, to go ahead and make a decision and do things at work.
But it's very interesting to see what the problem in Government is,
which is that--and I'm not blaming anybody and certainly not our friends
in the press who are here covering this event--but it is--the pressures
are great not
[[Page 2042]]
to mess up, so that tends to set up systems that are too top-down, too
rule-oriented. And we really tried to change that. And we've had pretty
good success, I think.
But you've got to be willing--if you trust people to make decisions,
you've got to be willing to make a mistake, because managers make
mistakes, so workers are going to make mistakes. Everybody makes
mistakes. I'd be curious to know how you handle that, how you deal with
the inevitable occasional error.
[The discussion continued.]
The President. One of the things that will inevitably happen, and we
deal with this in every trade negotiation, is you have more and more
trade; you have to move toward greater uniformity; you have to respect
other countries, their determination about what's safe and what's good.
Sometimes a lot of these standards are also a ruse to promote
protectionism, and we've had a lot of problems with that, too, in
addition to tariffs. We've had standards that--we used to have laughable
standards with the Japanese, I remember, on things like importing skis
and whether the skis were a quarter of an inch too wide or too narrow.
So these things happen, and the only way you can change them is to enter
into and do a negotiation and just keep trying to push through, push
through. And then if the rules aren't followed once you've set up rules,
as Tom pointed out, there have to be some consequences to them.
[The discussion continued.]
The President. That's a very important point. If people overseas
aren't making any money, they can't buy whatever it is we're selling.
But we have done that; the United States has maintained the most open
market in the world. We've been fortunate enough to have low
unemployment and low inflation for a long time, so it has benefited us
as a whole. But it still puts enormous pressure on certain higher wage
workers that are very competitive in a global economy if they have free
access to markets.
So it's this constant balancing act for me, how to protect the
overall health of the economy and still make sure that no sector is
getting the shaft. But we do have an interest in other people making
money. We ought to want our friends around the world to do well. That's
the only way that we can--we have 4 percent of the world's people and 22
percent of the world's income. So you don't have to be an Einstein at
math to figure out you've got to sell something to the other 96 percent,
and they can only buy what they can afford to buy.
So to me, that's the ultimate logic of trade. But it's a constant
fight to make sure the rules are fair.
[The discussion continued.]
The President. As I said, one of the major purposes of this new
trade round we hope to start in Seattle next month is to get a
comprehensive review of all the problems that are still out there and
try to take them down. And I hope we can do it. I guess I ought to say
this. In the first 5 years of my Presidency, through 1997, 4\1/2\ years,
30 percent of our growth came from expanded trade. Then since--in '98
and the first half of '99, a higher percentage has come generated from
domestic economic growth because of the Asian financial--but as they
come back, it will be 30 percent or more, particularly if the European
economy grows and they're relatively open to our products and services.
We'll do even better than 30 percent, starting in, I'd say, 2 years from
now.
[The discussion continued.]
The President. We've just been learning how these great motorcycles
are made and the teamwork between management and labor here and also how
they're sold not only in the United States but around the world. And
their message is that if they have fair access to markets, they can sell
them everywhere--and I believe they can--and that the partnership and
the trust that exists between the people who work here and the
management is a major reason for the absolutely stunning success that
this country has enjoyed in the last several years.
[The discussion continued.]
Mr. Harry Smith. I want to thank you also,
Mr. President. I think you treated labor very fairly over the years, and
I think you've done one hell of a job. And we thank you for coming.
The President. I'm not done yet. But when I am, I'm going to get on
one of those motorcycles. [Laughter] Most Presidents get on Air Force
One and ride off into the sunset. Maybe I'll just get on a Harley and
ride off into the sunset. [Laughter]
[[Page 2043]]
Mr. Jeffrey L. Bleustein. You can get
on Hog One. We'll make one of those. [Laughter]
Q. Mr. President, can you tell us why you think education and
teachers are becoming the showdown issue on the budget this year?
The President. I don't know why, except that I have very strong
feelings about it. And the Congress changed its position from last year
to this year, the Republican majority in Congress changed its position.
We had an agreement last year. And there is something to the argument,
well, if schools already have small class sizes, they should be able to
use the money on other things, but we have agreed to that. I just don't
believe we ought to give a block grant out there when we know we've got
the largest school population in history, the most diverse in history,
and the kids who have small classes have permanent learning gains. We've
got all this research that shows that. We made a commitment last year; I
think we ought to keep our commitment. And I think we're getting closer.
It may or may not be the last unresolved issue by the close of business
today. But we're working at it.
[The discussion continued.]
The President. The people who are here like working here. I shook
hands with a lot of the workers here today. They like it. They're proud
of it. And all they want is a fair chance to sell their products. And I
told them that when we meet in Seattle in this meeting of the World
Trade Organization, what our goal is to open a new trade round that will
reduce the tariffs and the non-tariff barriers to American products and
services and, in return, make sure that people have continued access to
our markets.
But these people here and your company prove, and so many others
prove that if we have open and fair trade, the United States can compete
with anybody. And it's the only way we can continue to grow our economy
at a rapid rate, and at the same time help the rest of the world do
well.
[The discussion continued.]
The President. First of all, I want to thank you for being here
together and for working together and for making America number one in
telecommunications in so many, many ways. And I want to thank all the
people at all the other sites for their support for America's role in
the global economy and for expanding the opportunities for trade.
We're going to be working hard for it. I think we need to work hard
to keep trying to build a consensus in our own country for the expansion
of trade and for policies that will support benefits to all Americans
who are out there working every day and deserve to be a part of this
global economy. And we'll keep working on it. And I thank you very much.
And I'd be curious, before we close, to know, do you sell Harleys
over the Internet? And can I order one over the Internet? If not,
Armstrong will provide at a very
reasonable price a comprehensive way to do that. [Laughter]
Note: The discussion began at 11:55 a.m. in the Conference Room at the
Harley-Davidson Motor Co. plant. In his remarks, the President referred
to Jeffrey L. Bleustein, chief executive officer, Harley-Davidson Motor
Co.; Harry Smith, president, Local 175, International Union of
Machinists; R. Thomas Buffenbarger, international president,
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and AT&T
chief executive officer C. Michael Armstrong, chairman, President's
Export Council, who led the final portion of the roundtable discussion
via satellite teleconference to a trade dialog with AT&T employees in
Basking Ridge, NJ. A tape was not available for verification of the
content of these remarks.