Night Owl 9/Night Owl CD-ROM (NOPV9) (Night Owl Publisher) (1993).ISO/032a/wh930603.zip/06-03H.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-03 | 12KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Thu Jun  3 19:27:03 1993
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 12:11-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail],
Subject: Revised Mulroney Phot Op Transcript

                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    June 2, 1993


                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
             AND PRIME MINISTER BRIAN MULRONEY OF CANADA
                         IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

                           The Oval Office

8:49 A.M. EDT

         Q      Is this a hail and farewell visit?

         PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  I came down to see the
President about NAFTA and some trade matters and Bosnia, where we
have troops on the ground, and to work with him -- we agree with
prudent and thoughtful course he's been pursuing there.  And I'd like
to talk to him about further engagement at the United Nations.  And
also to say good-bye -- and to you, Helen.  After a decade I thought
I owed you a trip.

         Q      Are you going to miss it?

         PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Pardon?

         Q      Going to miss it, aren't you?

         PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Yeah.  All politicians suffer
from decompression when they leave office.

         Q      Do you agree with the Bosnia policy?

         PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Yes, I do.  I agree that --

         Q      You don't think it should have been more aggressive
on the allied part?

         PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Well, I've been astonished by
some American commentators and observers asking for an American
solution in Bosnia.  There's no such thing.  There is only a common
solution, for all of us have to get into this together and accept our
responsibilities.  It's unfair to say that, oh, why don't we have an
American solution to this intractable problem that's gone on for
hundreds of years.  It's not available.  But there is, perhaps, a
better, as the President's pointed out, a better common approach that
we can develop at the United Nations Security Council with everybody
pulling his weight or her weight.  And that's what we're going to
talk about today.

         Q      Mr. President, Senator Boren says now that there
can be no BTU tax -- no longer a compromise, it's now none.

         THE PRESIDENT:  I don't have any comment on that.  I had
a good visit with him.  He called me the other day, said he was
encouraged by where we were going, and he thought we would reach
agreement.  I'm not going to get into a verbal war of words.  The
Congress is out this week and we're going to meet next week and try
to work it out.

         Q      Have you decided to push a health care plan?  Have
you decided to push a health care plan?

         Q       Are you going to pull the nomination of Guinier?

         THE PRESIDENT:  No, there's been -- we're working ahead.
As a matter of fact, I've got another meeting, a big meeting on the
health care issue this week.  We are, you know, trying to -- we're
trying to do two things.  We're trying to, first of all, to get as
many of the kinks work out as we can before we go forward.  It's an
enormously complicated issue.  And then we want to make sure that we
have, you know, discussed it with as many people as possible -- many
groups and everything -- after we've reached some final conclusions;
and that when we present it to the Congress, it's presented at a time
and in a way that both the Congress and the American people can focus
on it.  But there's been no decision for a sustained delay here.  I'm
focusing right now on passing the budget when the Senate comes back
next week.

         Q      Will it be released this month?

         THE PRESIDENT:  I don't want to get -- I'm not in a time
-- I don't want to get --

         Q      How about Guinier?  Are you pulling out the
nomination of Guinier?

         PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Bye, Helen.  (Laughter.)  On
behalf of all Canadians, Helen, good-bye.

         Q      Nothing ventured -- (laughter).

                             * * * * * *

         Q      Mr. President, are you as certain as the Prime
Minister that NAFTA will pass?  And do you plan on calling on his
considerable experience in dealing with the perils of unpopularity?

         THE PRESIDENT:  Well, these things go up and down.  I
mean, you know, the American people want something done about the
deficit but very often don't want to -- you know, when the coverage
gets negative, because of the pain of it, it's something no one wants
to face.  I think what I have to do here is do more of what I did
yesterday -- force -- force full coverage of --

         What's happened in our country is that there has only
been discussion about the tax increases in the budget plan.  So no
Americans really know very much about all the budget cuts that are in
there and all the tax incentives that are in there for investment for
new jobs.  When they know the whole thing, and also when the middle
class knows how small the burden is on them, then the support for the
program and for the administration goes way up. So I'm laboring out
there under a general perception that the administration has a tax
plan that falls almost entirely on the middle class when, in fact,
the administration has a plan for spending cuts, investment
incentives to create jobs, and some taxes, which fall almost entirely
on upper income people.  And that's my problem.  It's very difficult
in the midst of a legislative debate to keep the public focus on that
since the focus is always on controversy.  But that's my problem, and
I'll fix it.

         Q      Why have you not gone out and fought --

         THE PRESIDENT:  And I think we can pass it with a very
concerted effort if the Congress has some assurances on the
environmental and labor issues.  Keep in mind, the United States --as
far as I know, no country has ever signed a trade agreement which --
also an investment agreement, which -- at least million of Americans
feel is an investment agreement that would encourage people to invest
in another country for production in our market, not in theirs.  And
so that is the tension here that -- I keep arguing to the American
people that that could happen anyway; that under our present law,
people, if they choose, can go and produce in Mexico for
the American market.  But that causes great tension here when we've
had 20 years of virtually flat wages for middle class working people.

         I believe NAFTA will create jobs and raise incomes in
both the United States and Mexico, and I think it will help Canada.
I have always believed that over the long run, the integration of our
three economies and the potential that gave us to continue to move
south into other market economies in Chile and Argentina and
Venezuela and others was enormous.  And I think eventually we'll get
there.  But it is going to be a very tough fight.

         Q      Why have you allowed Ross Perot to shape the debate
on that --

         THE PRESIDENT:  I haven't.  I can't -- I haven't allowed
it at all.  I don't agree with his position, I don't agree with his
assertions, and I don't agree with the evidence that he offers.  But,
you know, in this country we have a free press.  I can't control who
gets what kind of press coverage.  That's what the First Amendment is
all about.

         PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  On -- I saw Ross Perot's
appearance on television the other night; and I've heard every single
one of those arguments from the socialists and the protectionists in
the Canadian House of Commons.  There's not a single word that was
new.  The fact of the matter is that it's all contradicted by the
facts.  Canada and the United States entered into a free trade
agreement in 1988.  We've since been mired in a recession.  Even in
those four difficult years for both countries, American exports to
Canada have increased by approximately 25 percent, thereby creating
1.4 million new jobs in the United States.  And Canadian exports to
the United States have increased by a like amount.  Well, this is
clear indication that prosperity comes through these lowering of
trade barriers and the creating of new pools of common wealth.

         What Mr. Perot's argument is -- I saw anyway, and I
don't know him, and seems to be a fine fellow -- is that wage rates
alone are a determinant of competitiveness.  Wage rates are one of
many considerations of competitiveness -- cost of capital,
infrastructure, education, technology.  And if wage rates alone
determine the location of industry, Haiti would be the manufacturing
capital of the world.  Our productivity is so far and ahead above
that of Mexico that to make the argument simply on the basis of wages
is misleading in the extreme.

         I think the President's point of view is a very valid
one.  It's one that we support.  And the evidence appears to be there
-- that when you lower barriers to trade between and among friendly
countries, you create new pools of wealth and you raise the living
standards of everybody affected by it.  You don't lower standards.
And so these arguments -- I have to tell you -- Mr. Perot may have
some better days.  But I want to tell you that his arguments -- he
might be surprised to find that he's been poaching those arguments
from the socialists in the Canadian House of Commons, and they might
sue him for copyright infringement.  (Laughter.)

         Q      Mr. President, you that Mr. Mulroney is leaving
office --

         THE PRESIDENT:  -- on NAFTA, let me say one other thing
about NAFTA.  President Salinas when he took over in Mexico,
unilaterally reduced a lot of very high Mexican tariffs with the
consequence that the United States went from a $5 billion trade
deficit with Mexico to a $6 billion trade surplus.  And last month,
Mexico replaced Japan as the second largest purchaser of our
manufacturing products.  So we are, in effect, opening our trade
relationships anyway.  It's been, on balance, beneficial to the
United States.  And I just -- if you look at where the world is going
-- where Europe is going, where Asia is going -- there's no question
that both Canada and the United States need more trading partners in
our own backyard, and we need for them to be richer, to grow, to do
more, so they can buy more from us.  And I feel very strongly that
it's the right thing to do, and I'm going to keep plugging away and
hope we can pass it.  I think we can.

         Q      On Haiti -- On Haiti, Mr. President.  Is it time to
show some muscle on Haiti if diplomacy doesn't work?

         THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we thought we had an agreement on
Haiti and, of course, it didn't work out, and I'm very disappointed.
We worked very, very hard.  And I talked to the Prime Minister about
this on several occasions.  It is time to reexamine our options and
consider some others, and I expect the United States will do that.

         Q      Mr. Clinton, any parting words for Mr. Mulroney now
that he's going to be leaving office?

         THE PRESIDENT:  I wish him well.  He served well and for
a long time and I wish him well.  And he's given me a lot of very
good advice.  He's been very helpful.

         Q      Thank you.

                                 END9:05 A.M. EDT