Bill Clinton: “Good morning. Today we received more good news for America's workers and their families: real wages continue to rise…”

“Good morning. Today we received more good news for America's workers and their families: real wages continue to rise, the American economy added another 280,000 jobs in October alone, and unemployment dropped to 4.7 percent. The American economy has now added 13\1/2\ million new jobs since 1993, while inflation has remained low and stable. All this proves further evidence that our economy is the strongest it's been in a generation. This also shows we have to move forward with the strategy that is working, the strategy of balancing the budget, investing in our people, and expanding American exports. That has brought us to this place of prosperity. The choice before Congress is clear. I think it is imperative that we understand that a key reason more people are working and that wages are rising and that unemployment is down to the lowest level in more than two decades is that we have opened new markets and won new customers for American goods and services. The vote by the House of Representatives on fast track will determine whether we continue to move ahead confidently with the strategy that has brought us 13\1/2\ million new jobs and the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 25 years. Every time there is a trade agreement, we hear dire predictions of the consequences for American workers. The opponents of fast track would have you believe that if we hadn't done these trade agreements in the last 5 years, we'd still have all the good new jobs we have, and we wouldn't have lost any jobs. That is simply not true. We wouldn't have nearly as many of these good new jobs, and most of our job losses are due to changes in technology and consumer buying choices. Today, with 4.7 percent unemployment, we see that America's trade policy creates good new jobs, it does not lose them; it boosts incomes, rather than undercutting them. It would be a folly to turn back now. The right answer is to give us the authority to break down more trade barriers and to do more, more quickly, to help those who are displaced by economic changes and to do more to raise labor and environmental standards in other nations. That is our policy. If America is restricted in its ability to make trade agreements, then our national interest in creating good jobs, protecting the environment, advancing worker rights will be restricted as well. We must not give other nations a boost in the global economic competition so vital to our own economic strength. The question is not whether we are going to have a system of world trade but whether we have one that works for America, whether we have a level playing field or one tilted against us. Let me just give you one example. Now that Canada has negotiated a trade agreement with Chile, every major economy in the hemisphere has duty-free access to Chile's markets but one, the United States. And just yesterday Canada signed a comprehensive agreement with Argentina, Brazil, and other nations, ahead of the United States. That's a strategy of ``America last.'' It is unacceptable. Again I say, the choice before Congress is clear: We can rise to the challenge of the future, write the trade rules on our terms, spur further economic growth and more jobs; or we can turn our back on the world and fail to compete for new markets, new contracts, new jobs. More than ever, our economic security is also the foundation of our national security. Our strength depends upon our economic allies, our trading partners, and our economy. It affects our ability to get other nations to cooperate with us militarily and against the new threats of terrorism and drugs, organized crime and weapons proliferation. If we want to keep our leadership strong and our economy on the right track, Congress simply must give our Nation the power to negotiate pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-American trade agreements, to maintain the momentum and confidence our economy enjoys. A Member of Congress who votes for fast track is doing the right thing for America. Iraq”