Political Quotes

Bill Clinton: Yes. Absolutely. And I might say a related thing, since you're calling me from Chicago and we've got a lot of teamsters…

On the recordNovember 5, 1993
Yes. Absolutely. And I might say a related thing, since you're calling me from Chicago and we've got a lot of teamsters in the upper Middle West and a lot of trucking enterprises: If a Mexican truck driver under this agreement stays with a load of produce, agricultural produce, or an industrial product or anything else, crossing from Mexico into the United States, then that truck driver must meet all the same standards that an American driver would have to meet on an American highway. Our standards control, whether it's on the safety of food or on the safety on our highways. And that's very important. That's one of the things that we worked hard--and the flip side is true, too. We have to comply with their standards when operating in their country or when selling food into their country. And one of the biggest problems we had, one of the reasons that I insisted on these side agreements before I would agree to present this trade agreement to Congress is that Mexico, historically, has had some good laws on the books that weren't vigorously enforced. And so what we wanted to make sure of was that, not only would our laws be observed on food coming into our country but that they would observe their own laws, just as we have to observe ours. So I think that, overall, the quality of all of these operations will go up if we honor that.
Said by
Bill Clinton
Democratic · Arkansas

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