[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 7 (Monday, February 21, 1994)]
[Pages 286-288]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the Economic Report of the President and an Exchange 
With Reporters

February 14, 1994

    The President. Good morning, everybody. Before I say a few words 
about this year's economic report, I want to thank the Chair and the 
members of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Laura

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Tyson, Dr. Alan Blinder, Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, and their very dedicated 
staff for putting this report together and for being so productive and 
persistent in fighting to change the conditions of economic life for 
ordinary Americans by helping me to implement a coherent strategy and 
changing the direction of economic policy in this country.
    The American economy is once again on the path to renewal, the path 
of rising output, increasing employment, and falling deficits. This did 
not happen by accident. It is the result of a disciplined, unified, 
carefully thought-out strategy.
    There have been many reports in addition to this report which have 
said essentially the same thing over the last few months, that we now 
have the best conditions for long-term sustained economic growth that 
we've had in two to three decades. Our steadfast commitment to deficit 
reduction is one reason. It's helped to produce the lowest core 
inflation and interest rates in 20 years. And that has led to increasing 
business investment, more auto sales, more home sales, and millions of 
Americans refinancing their homes.
    With the passage of NAFTA and the completion of the GATT agreement, 
with our efforts in Asia and with the national export strategy, we've 
done more to open world markets for our country and our products than at 
any time in the last generation. Most important, last year our economy 
created almost 2 million jobs, 90 percent of them in the private sector, 
more than were created in the previous 4 years combined.
    And so we have a good strong start on an economic recovery. Our task 
now is to keep it, to expand it, to sustain it so that Americans in all 
parts of the country will feel new opportunities and stronger incomes. 
We know that our work is not done because there are still too many 
people who are unemployed and still too many regions that are in 
trouble.
    So to build on our renewed strength at home and to take full 
advantage of greater trade opportunities abroad, we continue the process 
we began last year of reducing the deficit and investing more and more 
wisely in the foundations of growth. We're keeping faith with deficit 
reduction in the budget of 1995. In fact, the same experts who predicted 
that when I became President the deficit would be $300 billion next 
year, now say it will be 40 percent lower, under $180 billion.
    We're leveraging our investment in dual-use defense technologies to 
keep ourselves commercially competitive and militarily strong. We're 
investing in new environmental technologies to create new jobs, in the 
new national information infrastructure which will help us to educate 
our children, raise productivity, provide better medical care, and 
reinvent the way our Government works. That's what the Vice President 
always tells me, and it happens to be true.
    And we're investing this year more directly in the American people, 
in education and training and the skills they need to seize 
opportunities in a growing economy. And finally, we will further 
strengthen the foundations of our society and our economy by reforming 
our health care system, which is too expensive and does too little, and 
by working to make our welfare system a second chance, not a way of 
life.
    In just one year, this economic team has accomplished a great deal. 
The initiatives I described comprise our economic strategy. The goal is 
clear: To secure more jobs and a high and rising standard of living for 
the American people in an increasingly tough global environment. Because 
this is a strategy for the long run, its full effects will not be felt 
overnight. But as we demonstrate in this report I'm about to sign, there 
are already many signs that the strategy is paying off.
    Thank you very much.

[At this point, the President signed the report.]

Japan-U.S. Trade

    Q. Mr. President, are you going to impose sanctions on Japan?
    The President. When our talks stalled last week and it was clear we 
were at an impasse, I agreed with Prime Minister Hosokawa that we would 
undertake a period of reflection and give them a chance to do the same 
thing. So we are now reviewing all of our options, but we haven't ruled 
anything out.
    I might say that the news story that I saw on the cellular telephone 
today is really quite coincidental with this, although it's illustrative 
of the same problem. That is, we have

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been engaged in these talks on cellular telephones for a very long time, 
and the deadline, as I said, purely coincidentally ran out at this time. 
But it is a good illustration of the problem we face in entering the 
Japanese market.
    Q. But if you take action in support of Motorola's bid to penetrate 
the Japanese market, won't that lead to retaliation by the Japanese, and 
couldn't that be the start of a trade war?
    The President. It could be, but I think they would have to think 
long and hard about it. I mean, after all, with all the Japanese 
investment in this country and all the jobs that are here and with all 
the trade we have in Japan, they still have a built-in trade surplus of 
tens of billions of dollars, and not only with us but with many other 
countries. They have reached a point now in their gross and wealth and 
strength when it is simply no longer acceptable for, I think for their 
own consumers as well as for the rest of us, for them to follow a policy 
so radically different from the policy of every other advanced economy. 
It costs jobs and incomes in our country and Europe and other places and 
causes their people to have to pay almost 40 percent more for basic 
products. I just think it's an unsustainable policy. I said so last 
summer when I went there; I still believe it. And it's just not 
acceptable for the United States to continue on the same path.
    Q. What about options other than trade sanctions?
    The President. We're looking at several options, but I'm not ruling 
anything out.
    Q. Isn't it a little dangerous now, on the eve of a major decision 
with North Korea's nuclear program, to enter into this politically 
difficult period with Japan? The United States will need Japan----
    The President. Well, we will need Japan. But the United States, 
Japan, and China all agree with South Korea on this policy, that we 
should be pursuing a nonnuclear Korean Peninsula. That is not going to 
change. I would call you back to the statements that both Prime Minister 
Hosokawa and I made when he was here. We have great common interests and 
a natural friendship, and I don't think that's going to change. But the 
relationship has to change. There are elements in Japanese society and 
elements in the Japanese political system who very much want the 
relationship to change. So we're just going to have to see what our 
options are and proceed.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:42 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.