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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 93/06/21 Opening Remarks at the U.S. Binational Commission Mtg. Office of the Spokesman U.S. Department of State Office of the Spokesman Washington, D.C. Opening Remarks as Delivered by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission Meeting June 21, 1993 Washington, D.C. I want to welcome everyone here today -- Foreign Secretary Solana, all our Mexican friends, my colleagues from the Cabinet and throughout our government. This is our Administration's first Binational Commission meeting, and our first chance to discuss the relationship between Mexico and the United States on a comprehensive basis. I hope that our Mexican friends will understand that I am directing my remarks not only to you and to the Mexican people, but to the American people as well. American foreign policy begins with Mexico and Canada. With these two nations in particular, foreign policy concerns are domestic concerns. In our relations with Mexico, the fundamental interests of both nations converge: economic growth and immigration; border security and drug trafficking; environmental protection and working conditions. Today, at this tenth BNC meeting, members of President Clinton's cabinet and our Mexican counterparts are working to strengthen our cooperation on all these important issues. Let me mention someone who is not here today: President Salinas. His leadership and vision have helped to forge the most productive ties the United States and Mexico have ever enjoyed. As President Clinton has made clear, our challenge is to strengthen and deepen the partnership that so clearly benefits the people of both our nations. Together, and in conjunction with Canada, we can meet this challenge by moving forward with the North American Free Trade Agreement. Our Administration intends to seek and win congressional approval later this year so that the agreement can go into effect, on schedule, on January 1, 1994. NAFTA is in the overriding national interest of the United States. For over half a century, every American President -- Democratic and Republican alike -- has stood for closer cooperation and for more open trade through the hemisphere, beginning with Mexico. Now the leaders and people of Mexico are embracing historic reform -- economic and political -- to open their country to the global economy. For both nations, this is an historic opportunity that simply must not be lost. Through the NAFTA agreement, the United States has a once-in- a-generation chance to open up a new frontier of trade with our neighbor to the south. I am confident that when the American people and the Congress hear the debate and consider what is at stake in NAFTA, they will give it their strong support -- because it is good for our nation's prosperity and good for our security. Some voices are telling the American people that the way to prosper is to close our borders, to retreat behind walls of high tariffs and trade barriers. In American history, I am glad to say we have rejected such advice time and time again -- and we will reject it this time. The American people realize that our interest lies in an open, competitive international marketplace. We have reason to be confident of our strengths. We are the number one global exporter. We have the most productive labor force. Our high technology is the envy of the world. Given an open market, our workers and companies can compete and win. Our experience with Mexico proves just that. Since Mexico began to open its markets in the last decade, our trade balance has improved steadily. In 1990, we registered our first trade surplus with Mexico in a decade - - and we have remained in surplus in each of the last two years. In 1992, we exported over $40 billion worth of goods and services to Mexico -- more than double our exports five years ago. Some will tell you that there is no constituency in the United States for NAFTA. But they overlook the fact that our exports to Mexico now sustain the jobs of approximately 700,000 Americans. And the U.S. jobs supported by exports to Mexico are good jobs -- paying about 12% more than the U.S. national average. NAFTA will lower U.S. and Mexican trade barriers even further -- and allow trade to grow even faster. We estimate that NAFTA will generate an increase of about 200,000 jobs in the United States. NAFTA is not an us-versus-them issue, where Mexico's gain is our loss. Americans know that we can't prosper if our trading partners stagnate. No nation has done more than Mexico to open its markets in recent years. Mexico is our fastest-growing export market -- buying two-thirds of its imports here in the United States. Last month, Mexico replaced Japan as the second largest purchaser of our manufacturing products. As a percentage of per capita income, Mexicans spend over seven times more on U.S. goods and services than Europeans or Japanese do. And as Mexican incomes go up, they will likely buy even more from us. By spurring economic growth in Mexico, NAFTA will give Mexico greater capacity to make progress on issues involving the quality of life on both sides of the border. Our environmental cooperation with Mexico has deepened substantially in the last five years. The U.S.-Mexico Integrated Border Environmental Plan, an unprecedented $1 billion environmental initiative, is designed to clean up the border, to conserve resources and to undertake joint water treatment projects from California to Texas. We are cooperating on air pollution, rain forest preservation and other important environmental projects. Mexico is also taking strong steps on its own. There are now four times as many trained Mexican environmental inspectors patrolling the border as there were in 1990. But we must do more together to protect the environment -- and we will. Cooperation on labor standards and workplace health and safety is also intensifying. Seminars are being held with employers and unions in specific industries in Mexico. Best practices are being shared. And we are addressing child labor concerns. Mexico recognizes that illegal narcotics is a shared problem that can only be solved through close cooperation. President Salinas tripled Mexico's antidrug budget, tackled the related problem of corruption and took on the drug barons. Many of Mexico's most notorious drug traffickers are now behind bars. This is breakthrough progress -- but we simply can't let up. In the spirit of the broader cooperation that NAFTA envisions, we are negotiating supplemental agreements to strengthen environment and labor standards. These agreements are crucial in two respects. First, they offer the means to achieve real progress in raising these standards that are so vital to the people of both countries. Second, these agreements must show that just as the United States takes seriously the enforcement of its standards in these areas, so does Mexico. We also must consider the relationship between NAFTA and illegal immigration. President Salinas has said that "more jobs will mean higher wages in Mexico, and this in turn will mean fewer migrants to the United States and Canada." Let me be clear with respect to immigration. People who have emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico have immeasurably enriched our country. Legal migration from Mexico and other nations will continue to make an important contribution to American diversity and democracy. At the same time, the U.S. is committed to reducing illegal immigration. A growing Mexican economy will reduce that pressure. Our partnership with Mexico is also dedicated to the collective defense of democracy and human rights. Just two weeks ago, Mexico and the United States together took the lead in calling for immediate action by the OAS to stand by democracy in Guatemala. Our cooperation made a difference -- and today Guatemala is standing firm as a free and democratic nation. Mexico and the United States came together in the same spirit of trust and friendship to support a successful, negotiated conclusion to the war in El Salvador. NAFTA will further solidify our cooperation on these vital issues of concern to our two nations and the entire hemisphere. Throughout this hemisphere, we are working in an atmosphere of mutual respect on the great challenges of the Nineties. We are working to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. We are combatting narco- trafficking. The Clinton Administration is making a new commitment to join with our neighbors to protect the environment and address population growth. On all these issues, the United States and the nations of Latin America can make real progress if we work in partnership. President Clinton strongly endorses the goal of linking the democracies of the Americas through free trade. From the Caribbean to Cape Horn, nation after nation is removing barriers to foreign investment and trade. Free markets and free trade do far more than any aid program to create real growth and upward mobility -- and the prosperity that is vital to the strength and success of democracy. Let me emphasize that the vote of the Congress on NAFTA will be the most important signal the United States sends to Mexico and all of Latin America in this decade. In domestic terms, NAFTA is a test of our confidence. It will measure whether Americans believe in our ability to compete in open markets -- or whether we will shrink from that challenge and be passive in the face of a changing global economy. In foreign policy terms, NAFTA is the opportunity of a generation. It is a test of America's willingness to cooperate across a diverse range of issues with Mexico -- and with our other democratic neighbors to the south. Given a clear choice, the American people will choose to compete in the international economy, not cower from it. They will support the cause of democracy in the Americas, not turn away from it. I am confident that when this Commission meets next year, NAFTA will be in force in the United States, Mexico and Canada. And I am confident that we will be on the way to building a Western Hemisphere community of nations linked by democratic values and open markets. Thank you very much. (###)