Bill Clinton: “I would say that we will continue to have some economic disruption in this country if we don't adopt fast track. If we…”

“I would say that we will continue to have some economic disruption in this country if we don't adopt fast track. If we don't adopt fast track--our market is still the most open market in the world, the most competitive market in the world, and we have the most technological change, and we know that most job changes are caused by technology, not by trade--the vast majority--so if we don't adopt fast track and we just sit where we are, a lot of those people will still confront the same challenges. My argument is, adopt fast track, give me the power to create more jobs by opening markets, but also do more for those folks. Our programs were organized for a time when the economy didn't change as quickly as it does now. So Secretary Herman, for example, has worked very hard to radically accelerate our response time and to get all these programs working together the way we worked when a military base was closed. That's what we're trying to do. So my answer would be, we should invest more money to give you more training more quickly and to give you more support while you're going through it. We should put more money into those communities where no economic benefit or burden has been felt because there has been no new investment one way or the other. But that's not a reason not to continue to expand trade. What we should do is both. The way to preserve the social compact in America is to create more opportunity and then take more responsibility for preserving families and communities. Our policy is the right one. But we will not create or save jobs in the short run or the long run by refusing to open markets to our products. We will not raise labor and environmental standards abroad; we will lose our ability to do that. We will lose our leverage if we decline to open new markets for American products. This increases our political influence on labor and environmental and other issues, even as it opens up our economics. But the main thing is, I just ask the American people to give me the benefit of the doubt on this. We have worked for 5 years. We have created over 13 million jobs. We have reduced the deficit by over 90 percent before the balanced budget checks in. In the last 2 years, more than half our new jobs have come in high-wage categories and a third of the growth has come because of trade. This is our only strategy. We're only 4 percent of the world's economy; we're trying to hold on to 20 percent of its income. We've got to sell more to other people. There is not an option. And refusing to do it won't save jobs, won't keep incomes up, and won't help us help other people around the world. Thank you.”