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These initiatives — along with welfare reform, changes in education, worker train- 

 ing, investing in technology — all work in pursuit of the same objective: to build a 

 more productive and competitive economy. 



Our trade policy, including NAFTA, is an essential part of that strategy. Since 

 we are producing more with fewer workers, opening up new markets is the key to 

 new job creation and economic growth. Closing ourselves off from the world does 

 nothing to improve our competitiveness and only deprives us of new economic oppor- 

 tunities. As President Clinton has said, we must compete, not retreat behind our 

 borders. 



This is, of course, precisely what our competitors are doing. The European Com- 

 munity is expanding trade with Eastern Europe and the countries of the former So- 

 viet Union. Japan is searching out new opportunities in China, Malaysia, Indonesia 

 and the rest of Asia. 



In this intensely competitive global economy, NAFTA presents an opportunity to 

 compete freely in a vast new market: 90 million people in Mexico, in a fast growing 

 area, hungry for U.S. goods. It is also a step to an even larger market — 400 million 

 people throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean. 



The United States seeks to open markets everywhere and trade and compete 

 worldwide. We have nearly $200 billion each year in two-way trade with the EC; 

 through APEC, we seek expanded trade with the rapidly growing nations of Asia. 

 Japan is a major market for U.S. products, despite the major and persistent barriers 

 that we are committed to breaking down. Completing the Uruguay round — taking 

 down tariff and nontariff barriers worldwide, and writing new rules for the inter- 

 national trading system — remains a top priority for us. 



But it is no accident that Canada is our number one trading partner, despite hav- 

 ing a population of only 27 million, and Mexico has become our third leading trading 

 partner, despite its historic policy of maintaining a closed economy. Shared borders 

 and geographical proximity do matter, even in this globalized economy. 



And we have a natural advantage, and a great opportunity, to expand trade and 

 investment with Mexico, and then with the rest of Central and Latin America and 

 the Caribbean. Many of those countries have chosen, in recent years, to cast off the 

 controls on their economies and the shackles on their political systems. They took 

 these steps at the urging of the United States. 



Tariffs have fallen and nontariff barriers have been reduced. Since 1989, U.S. ex- 

 ports to Latin America and the Caribbean increased over 50 percent and are grow- 

 ing at over twice the rate of U.S. exports to the rest of the world, making this region 

 our second fastest growing market. They have become a growing market for U.S. 

 products; 43 percent of Latin American imports come from the United States. 



Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, and many other nations are intently following the 

 NAFTA debate. The possibility of NAFTA accession provides an incentive for further 

 trade and investment liberalization in the region. The decision to reject NAFTA 

 would have profoundly negative economic and political consequences throughout the 

 hemisphere. 



The companies, farmers and workers of the United States are world-class competi- 

 tors. We lead the world in everything from airplanes and computers, to wheat and 

 soybeans. Without fanfare, and with much pain from adjustment, we have returned 

 to being a world-class manufacturer of automobiles and steel. We have regained our 

 position as the world's leading exporter. But expanding our access to markets and 

 assuring that the markets of other nations are as open to our goods and services 

 as ours are to theirs is absolutely critical to our success at creating economic growth 

 and jobs. 



Japanese firms have long benefited from having a lock on the emerging markets 

 of Asia. NAFTA will give U.S. firms a definite advantage in the Mexican market. 

 The NAFTA gives the United States the potential to compete more effectively with 

 Japanese economic strategies. Japanese companies have invested heavily in the 

 emerging economies of the Far East and set up assembly plants to assemble Japa- 

 nese components into finished products for export. This creates a trade surplus for 

 Japan with these countries and increases Japan's production and exports. The 

 NAFTA can be an instrument for helping the United States and Mexico cooperate 

 in meeting Japanese competition and producing more globally competitive products. 



In the new global economy, there are challenges and risks, as well as great oppor- 

 tunities. I am confident that American workers are up to that challenge — and will 

 reap the benefits. One reason I am so confident is that we are not going into 

 NAFTA blindly. We do not have to speculate about the results from this change; 

 we have gone through a 7-year trial run. 



