Expanding trade and creating American jobs.

• Author: Clinton, Bill
• Position: Trade and the Environment

The issue here is not whether we should support free trade or open markets. Of course, we should. The real issue is whether or not we will have A national economic strategy to make sure we reap the benefits, And the answer today is - we don't.... It is in that context that we have to look at this North American Free Trade Agreement. Is it good for Americans? Will it help us to develop a high-wage, high-growth economy here at home? Or, by opening Mexico to more U.S. and foreign investment, Win it simply encourage more United States companies to abandon their workers and communities here and move to Mexico? Will it depress wages of those who are left here, and will they even have ironically, less money to buy the products that Mexico will send back to this country?

Well, if you look at the experience of the maquilladora plants, those who have moved to Mexico right across the border, there is certainly cause for concern. We can see clearly there that labor standards have been regularly violated; that environmental standards are often ignored, and that many people who have those jobs live in conditions which are still pretty dismal not just by our standards, but theirs. So there is some reason to fear that there are people in this world and in our country who would take advantage of any provisions insuring more investment opportunities simply to look for lower wages without regard to the human impact of their decisions.

Still, you must look at the other side of the coin. Changes in Mexico under President Salinas have ballooned oui two-way trade with them and have eliminated the trade deficit we once had with Mexico, thus creating jobs here in America even as our investment policies have cost them. . . .

I believe NAFTA can contribute to this effort, not undermine it, as long as we move aggressively to address the serious omissions from the agreement. I believe we have to do more for our own workers, to protect the environment on both sides of the border, both because it's good for the environment and because if they don't do it, it will further lower their cost of production, to promote prosperity on both sides of the border. If we do these things and, again, if we develop a serious economic policy at home, then NAFTA can be a very good thing for the United States.

We simply cannot go backwards when the rest of the world is going forward into a more integrated economy. We cannot go inward when our opportunities are so often outward. For all our...