[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 26 (Monday, July 4, 1994)]
[Pages 1371-1372]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With 
President Eduardo Frei of Chile

June 28, 1994

    President Clinton. I would like to begin by welcoming President Frei 
here. He leads a nation which has made a remarkable transformation to 
democracy with tremendous economic growth and support for market 
economics. And we are very much interested in broadening and deepening 
our economic relationship with Chile.
    I also want to congratulate him on the speech he gave recently in 
the Ibero-American summit in Cartagena, which was a ringing endorsement 
of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.
    I think that during the course of his term as President of Chile, 
the United States will be able to work very constructively with Chile, 
and I believe his leadership throughout our hemisphere will be very 
significant. And I look forward specifically to discussing with him 
today what we can do to make the most of the Summit of the Americas that 
will be held in Miami in December.

Haiti

    Q. Will you be talking about Haiti? And Mr. President----
    President Clinton. Yes, we will.
    Q. ----is there a big increase now in the Haitian refugees, and will 
you open up Guantanamo Bay?
    President Clinton. Yes, we will discuss Haiti. And we are discussing 
what our response should be. There has been a significant increase in 
Haitian refugees, I think as a result of political repression in Haiti, 
perhaps intensified anxiety over the tougher sanctions. And we're going 
to examine what our options are there.
    We do have, as you know, another processing center coming on-line, 
but we have not gotten it up and going yet. And as I have said all 
along, we have to calibrate our response based on our capacity to deal 
with this.
    I would also note that the safest and best thing for the Haitians to 
do is to apply at the in-country processing center. The rate of approval 
there has gone up as well. And that is the safest and best route to the 
United States, and I would hope that more Haitians would use it.

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

Chile-U.S. Relations

    Q. President Clinton, please, why did you invite President Frei to 
the White House?
    President Clinton. Well, I invited him here because of the enormous 
importance I attach to the relationship between the United States and 
Chile, because of the remarkable success that his nation has had in 
moving to democracy and maintaining an enormously

[[Page 1372]]

impressive rate of economic growth, because there are many issues that 
we need to consult on and work together on, the upcoming Summit of the 
Americas in December, and Haiti, just to mention two, as well as our 
bilateral economic relationships, which are very important. So I wanted 
to see him, and I'm honored that he was able to make time to come up 
here and have this meeting.
    Q. Mr. President, what is the position of your administration vis-a-
vis the U.S. trade agreement with Chile as opposed to entering through 
NAFTA? Would you favor Chile entering through NAFTA or through a free 
trade agreement which is bilateral?
    President Clinton. I don't really have an opinion on that at this 
time. I want to discuss it with the President, and I want our advisers 
to be able to discuss it and just determine the best way.
    The most important thing for me now is to get the Congress to 
approve the fast-track negotiations with Chile so that we can accelerate 
this economic partnership whichever way we decide to go. That's very 
important to me to know that the Congress will support that, because I 
have said all along that I thought we ought to move next with this free 
trade agreement to Chile, and that that could be a model for all of 
South America.
    So my emphasis now has been getting the Congress to support this. I 
think they will. The President's met with Members of our Congress in 
both parties. And in terms of which is the best way, I want to hear his 
view on that, and then I want to let our people talk it through, because 
I just want the objective to be achieved. I don't have an opinion about 
which is the best way to get there.

Note: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.