home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Software Vault: The Gold Collection
/
Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
/
cdr11
/
wh930622.zip
/
06-22G.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Internet Message Format
|
1993-06-23
|
10KB
From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:jcma@REAGAN.AI.MIT.EDU Tue Jun 22 06:12:11 1993
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 01:53-0400
From: The White House <75300.3115@compuserve.com>
To: Clinton-Speeches-Distribution@campaign92.org,
Subject: Remarks by The President in U.S.-Mexico Meeting 6.21.93
E X E C U T I V E O F F I C E O F T H E P R E S I D E N T
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 21, 1993
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN U.S.-MEXICO BINATIONAL MEETING
The Roosevelt Room
2:10 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Please sit down, ladies and gentlemen. I want
to welcome all of you here to the Roosevelt Room at the White House and
say a special word of welcome to our distinguished guests from Mexico.
Today the U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission is holding its tenth
meeting at the State Department. I want to say how very proud I am as
President to welcome all the participants here. There is no closer
partnership between two nations than that which we have with our
neighbor Mexico.
We share strong ties of history, our cultures are richly
interwoven, our people are strong and their bonds of kinship and
friendship. And the peaceful cooperation of the communities along our
2,000 mile border is it not only important, but is a real tribute to
both our peoples.
An important sign of this close relationship is the Binational
Commission itself which provides a forum for our Cabinets to meet
annually, to work on issues ranging from the environment to education to
telecommunications. Another sign of that partnership is our
increasingly close cooperation in world affairs and our commitment to
support democracy here in this hemisphere.
We worked together to help end the war in El Salvador. Mexico
has contributed to the international civilian mission of human rights
observers in Haiti. Mexico's leadership in the OAS was critical to the
successful collective defense of democracy in Guatemala. And President
Salinas speaks with a special authority as one of the world's leading
economic reformers when he calls for progress in the Uruguay Round to
expand world trade.
Mexico and the United States agree that the movement toward open
markets and free trade in Latin America is vital for the long term
success and strengthening of democracy and human rights in this
hemisphere.
The countries of Latin American have already made tremendous
strides. The emergence of democratically elected governments in this
region has permitted Latin America to modernize and to develop. The
Latin countries have made enormous progress restructuring and opening
their economies, controlling inflation and increasing the
competitiveness of their own productive sectors.
In the last two years, for the first time in a decade, Latin
America has had real growth in per capita income. Democratic
governments have achieved peace, strengthened freedoms and accelerated
the pace of economic integration. With the support of the OAS and the
United Nations, internal conflicts in Nicaragua and El Salvador have
ended and hopefully will soon end in Guatemala.
The OAS routinely observes the freedom of elections across the
region. Subregional free trade agreements have emerged throughout the
hemisphere. These are points that were recently very well articulated
by Foreign Minister Solana at the OAS and those which we in the United
States enthusiastically embrace.
Increasingly today, the line has blurred between domestic and
foreign policies. What we do abroad directly affects us here at home.
And our success at home directly impacts what we are able to do abroad.
No relationship illustrates better the strong linkage between foreign
and domestic policies and the relationship between the United States and
Mexico. The interdependence of our societies and our people are
stronger than ever, and they will continue to grow. Domestic policies
affect the lives and prosperity of Mexicans even if they are American
domestic policies in the same way that the domestic policies of Mexico
profoundly affect us.
You need only look at the scope and complexity of today's agenda
in this meeting to understand how important Mexico and the United States
are to each other. We will work to deepen and expand that partnership.
One of the most productive areas in which we must work is on trade
between our two nations. That has doubled in the last five years. This
trade is vital to our economic future, to Mexico's economic future, and
to our cooperation in every other area of endeavor. It is making both
of our economies grow. It is making both of us more efficient and more
competitive in global markets, and it adds to the resources we can use
to address our common concerns such as the environment.
That is why I am firmly committed to the North American Free
Trade Agreement and why the American people and Congress will, I hope
and believe, support the NAFTA this year. We are the world's number one
exporter. Exports are creating more jobs for us in the last few years
than any other source of economic activity. American workers and
companies want to be able to compete fully and fairly in global markets.
They seek no special advantage; only a level playing field. Mexico has
already made important strides in labor rights and in protecting the
environment. And when we conclude the side agreements which are now the
subject of negotiations, we will have an even broader basis for
cooperation and progress, and a warmer embrace of the NAFTA here in the
United States.
By approving NAFTA, we can cement in place a new source of jobs
and economic growth for workers in Canada, Mexico, and our own country.
And we'll do more than that. We can send a signal to the nations of the
Americas that are on their way to rebuilding their economies, that we
are on our way to work with them to build a hemisphere of freer trade,
more jobs, and higher growth.
Once again, let me say how very grateful I am to see all of you
here. And I know my administration is proud to be a part of these
negotiations. I look forward to our continued successes, including the
success of NAFTA. I believe that the future belongs to countries
committed to democracy, to free markets, and to closer integration of
their economies and more trade.
That's where the jobs and the incomes are, that's where the hope
of a better life lies.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
* * * * *
Q Mr. President, what is your reaction to the Supreme
Court ruling on Haitian refugees?
THE PRESIDENT: I haven't had a chance to review it. I'm sorry,
I haven't had a chance to review it.
Q Are you frustrated by the fact that these negotiations,
the bilateral negotiation are taking so long, and they don't seem to get
anywhere yet?
THE PRESIDENT: No. I think that everything takes a little
longer around here than I think it should. But I think we are getting
somewhere, and I think that you will see these negotiations produce
successful agreements. And I think we will go forward with the Free
Trade Agreement this year. I'm very hopeful.
Q Can I follow up on that, Mr. President. Don't you think
with the full domestic agenda you have and the opposition to NAFTA in
the United States, it's more likely to get to ratification, if at all,
next year and not this year?
THE PRESIDENT: No. Because I think the issue has been, in
effect, fully aired and debated before it comes up for ratification.
And I think a lot of the questions that have been raised about it in the
Congress are the very questions that are being debated and dealt with in
the negotiations now going on between the countries. So I would expect
that we can get successful consideration of it this year.
And also, you know, I think this is another one of those battles
of ideas in which we're engaged. But I believe very strongly that this
will create jobs and increase incomes for people on both sides of the
border. And I think if that argument is accepted it's just as likely to
be accepted this year as next year.
Q Mr. President, -- detail on your half-brother, do you
know?
THE PRESIDENT: What did you say, Helen?
Q -- California. Same question, basically.
THE PRESIDENT: I placed a call today and I don't think I
should -- but there was nobody home. I don't think I should say
anything until after the call takes place.
Q You do not have the votes in the House right now. Are
you planning on launching a campaign in order to push forward for
ratification of NAFTA?
THE PRESIDENT: I try to win the things that I support and I
certainly -- when we can bring it up, we'll bring it up and try to win
it. And I have been discussing this quite a bit, actually, in personal
conversations with various members of the House and Senate and getting
advice, beginning to plot strategy. But, of course, we'll have a
campaign to do it. We can't prevail without a campaign; we have to try
to win it.
Thank you very much. One person from the Mexican press, we'll
take one question. That's only fair.
Q Mr. President, do you have a new policy to fight drugs
here or do you have a new policy towards immigration?
THE PRESIDENT: We will but I believe that the announcement of
that should involve the Drug Czar, Mr. Brown, and others. And we will
have something to say about that in the future.
Thank you. (Applause.)
END2:25 P.M. EDT