32 



You mentioned something which I think is of incredible impor- 

 tance. I think you really hit at the heart of this problem. We have 

 to come back to this Congress with a NAFTA and supplemental 

 agreements that make the situation substantially better, I think, 

 in order to be able to advocate an agreement that you and others 

 here would want to see this country go forward with. This is not 

 only in the interests of the United States. It is in the interests of 

 North America and global growth. If we don't make the situation 

 better than it is today, then we have not done our job. 



So that is the criteria under which I am operating, on instruc- 

 tions from the President. From what I can gather from you and 

 your colleagues and the other body, I think it is probably what they 

 would like to see, a situation that is substantially better than it is 

 today. That doesn't mean there have to be winners and losers; 

 hopefully it is a win- win situation for all three countries, and I 

 think we can accomplish that. It's not easy; it's going to be difficult. 

 There will be very tough negotiations, which we started today, but 

 with the help of the Congress and some ideas that you and the 

 chairman and others have had and with the support of this Presi- 

 dent, which we have, I think we can get it done. 



Mr. Brown. Well, the chairman has made some suggestions 

 based on his own long experience with the region that he rep- 

 resents, the border regions between Mexico and the United States. 



As you know, we have problems in the border regions in Califor- 

 nia, mainly, very serious transport environmental problems, mani- 

 fested in a number of different ways. We have had these problems 

 for a long time. We have had mechanisms since World War II to 

 coordinate the health approach to the border regions, all the way 

 from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. It's not been particularly 

 successful. We have had science and technology agreements for at 

 least the last 20 years. They have not been particularly good. 



I am suggesting to you — my question raised the point that maybe 

 this is an opportunity to really put some teeth into this coopera- 

 tion, which I call research and development but you can call it a 

 lot of other things — this understanding of what the problems are 

 and what the best solutions are through a rational, systematic, re- 

 search-oriented kind of approach. 



The President has a letter from the Florida delegation calling for 

 a kind of economic and social research activity; in other words, 

 compiling precise data that will be helpful in monitoring the effects 

 of the agreement. We need that emphasis on good information, sup- 

 port for research to get that good information, and a structure to 

 make sure that it works. I am suggesting that to you, in addition 

 to my deep concern over the standards themselves with regard to 

 the environment and labor. 



Will you support that kind of approach? 



Ambassador Kantor. In fact, yesterday, in front of the Environ- 

 ment Committee headed by Senator Baucus in the other body, we 

 talked about that. We do support it, both in terms of research and 

 reporting, in terms of exception conditions and reviewing, and mak- 

 ing public when a country is not enforcing its standards. I think 

 all of that is of tremendous help, using expertise on the staff and 

 being able to bring in expertise — ^we agree with all of that very 

 much. 



