Bill Clinton: “Well, I'll tell you what I think will happen in steel. I think you're going to see a big increase in the number of steel…”

“Well, I'll tell you what I think will happen in steel. I think you're going to see a big increase in the number of steel jobs if we have flexibility and competitiveness and if two other things happen: if we move at the national level to bring health care costs under control and if we can continue the work we're doing now to bring tariffs down in worldwide manufacturing trade. And let me just mention those two things specifically. The most important thing for average Americans that happened at the Tokyo meeting of the G-7 was the agreement that we made among ourselves to try to drastically reduce tariffs on manufactured products and to eliminate them in whole classes of products with the view toward getting the other countries to agree to do that, because we were taking the lead by the end of the year and having a new world trade agreement. It's not like NAFTA. There's some difference of opinion, as you know, about NAFTA. And I'm for it, a lot of people aren't. But there's a difference. On the agreement we made at Tokyo everybody concedes that if we can make that a part of the world trade law, it will lead to hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs coming into the United States. Meanwhile, the steel companies I think will tell you that our administration has been much more vigorous in trying to protect them from unfair trade practices from other countries than any administration in a very long time. I think every steel executive, if you called him, would tell them that, that we have worked with them. We've tried to make sure that the investments they've made and the productivity they've achieved will result in more secure jobs by giving them a fair deal. Now, the second thing I want to say is this: steel and automobiles, among others, but they're really out there on the cutting edge, have enormous, enormous health care costs, spending often 15 percent or more of payroll on health care costs. The work that we have been doing to try to bring health costs in line with inflation and at the same time find the mechanism for all Americans to have health security will help heavy industry as much as any other section of our economy. It is very difficult for them to compete in a global economy where they're spending 35 or 40 percent more on health care than any of their competitors. So I can't promise anybody that's in a tough global economy job security. I can tell them that the things we're doing will make them more likely to succeed. NAFTA”