Bill Clinton: “Everyone knows that Mexico is a country that has a lower per capita income than the United States. And everyone knows…”

“Everyone knows that Mexico is a country that has a lower per capita income than the United States. And everyone knows that American business interests have moved plants to Mexico to produce for the American market. That's very different from investing in Mexico to hire Mexicans to produce for the Mexican market. That's a good thing. We should support that because the more Mexicans who have good jobs, the more they can buy American products. That symbolizes, those plants along the Rio Grande River symbolize the loss of America's industrial base to many people and the fact that literally millions of Americans, over half of American wage earners have worked harder for the same or lower wages for more than a decade. So NAFTA, the reason that so many people are against it is it's the symbol for so many people of their accumulated resentments of the last 10 to 15 years. Now, that's why there are so many people against it. And then there are a lot of people who say, ``Well, I don't like this, that, or the other thing.'' There's no such thing as a perfect agreement that satisfies 100 percent of everybody's concerns. But again, I would say, what I've found and what I thought Al Gore did so well in his television appearance--you have to be able to say to people, ``Look, you can't vote on your emotions alone. You also have to vote on your head; you have to think through this. Look at what this agreement does. This makes the problems of the last 12 to 15 years better, not worse.'' But I understand those fears. I mean, I have never questioned the integrity of anybody's anxiety. I got elected President because most people were working harder for less. That's the only reason I won the election and because people thought the society was coming apart and because there was no clear sense of where we were going. And when I ran for President, I said I like NAFTA, but I want to try to have a side agreement on the environment, side agreement on labor standards, and protection. This is another issue I want to emphasize: protection for unforeseen consequences. And there are two protections in there that I want to mention. One is that we can, either of us, anybody can get out in 6 months notice. So if it turns out we're wrong, we can walk away from it. And if I thought it were hurting America, I would do so. It would be my duty to do so, and I would do so. The second thing deals with the more likely problem, which is suppose this turns out to be basically a good thing for us and basically a good thing for them, but there's some totally unforeseen consequence in one sector of the economy. We wouldn't want to withdraw, because it's basically a good thing. There is also a provision in here, the so-called surge provision, which allows us to identify some sector that's being decimated--it gives the Mexicans the same right, as it should--that no one ever thought about and to put the brakes on this agreement for 3 years while we try to work it out as it applies to that specific sector. So those are two protections that I would say to your friend in Charlotte.”