Bill Clinton: “Ladies and gentlemen, today I am sending to Congress the implementing legislation for NAFTA. This will create the…”

“Ladies and gentlemen, today I am sending to Congress the implementing legislation for NAFTA. This will create the world's largest tariff-free zone, from the Canadian arc to the Mexican tropics, with more than 370 million consumers and over $6.5 trillion of production. It will clearly benefit America's workers. Mexican tariffs today are 2\1/2\ times United States tariffs. As the walls come down, we estimate that another 200,000 American jobs will be created by 1995. NAFTA will also enable us to operate in an unprecedented manner in other areas. It will improve environmental conditions on the U.S.- Mexican border, something that all Americans know we need to do and something that all Mexicans know we need to do. It will be the stimulus for economic growth beyond Mexico, enabling us to go into the rest of Latin America with similar agreements. And perhaps most important in the short run, it will give the United States access to the Mexican markets on terms more favorable than those available to many of our competitors who have also rapidly been expanding their sales into Mexico, whether from Europe or Japan or the rest of Asia. If we turn away from NAFTA, we risk losing the natural trade advantage that should come to the United States as Mexico and the rest of Latin America build market economies and stronger democracies. If we embrace NAFTA, it is one strong step to take this country into the 21st century with a revitalized economy. That is clearly in the forefront of the minds of all Americans, and that is why we are all pursuing it here in this bipartisan fashion. I want to thank the Democratic and the Republican leaders of the Congress who are here with me today, thank them for their tireless efforts, along with our administration, Ambassador Kantor, Mr. Daley, Mr. Frenzel, and others. We are working hard. We are making progress, and I hope when we send this bill up to the Congress today that it will reaffirm the clear interest of the United States in adopting this agreement. I'd like to sign it now, and then we'll take a couple of questions. [At this point, the President signed the message transmitting the proposed legislation to implement the North American Free Trade Agreement.]”