Bill Clinton: “Well, I disagree with him on that issue. There are other issues on which I think we are agreed. We've got a version of…”

“Well, I disagree with him on that issue. There are other issues on which I think we are agreed. We've got a version of the line-item veto in the United States Senate. I very much hope it will pass; I strongly support that. I'm pushing for campaign finance reform to reduce the influence of special interests in campaigns, something that he and I both talked about in the last campaign. We've got that out of the Senate; we need to pass it in the House. We're pushing for lobbying reform, something we both talked about last time. We passed a dramatic increase in the requirements for reporting of lobbyists in the Senate. I hope we can pass it in the House. But on NAFTA we just disagree. I believe that a country like ours, if we want to generate more jobs, we're going to have to increase the volume of trade. I understand what the concern is with Mexico, but I would say to everyone in California today two things: Number one, something you know perhaps better than other Americans, anyone who wants to shut a plant down and go to Mexico today for low wages can do it. And they'll be able to do it just as well today or tomorrow as they could after NAFTA is ratified. Number two, as you have seen in California, as long as incomes are very depressed in Mexico, you're going to have a bigger and bigger problem with immigration that goes beyond the legal limits of the law. And what I see happening with NAFTA is a Mexico that can buy more American products, where more Mexicans will want to stay home and be near their families because they'll be able to make a living. And Mexico will be the leader of a whole new wave of trading partners for the United States, going down past Mexico into Central America, into Chile, into Venezuela, into Argentina, into other countries. I believe it will create jobs for America. I wouldn't do it if I didn't think so. And let me also tell you that there's beginning to be a little bit of a chill in the wind of people who think that they ought to just automatically move their plants to Mexico to save money. There's a big story just in the last day or so about General Motors moving 1,000 jobs back from Mexico to the United States to Michigan, a high-cost State with very productive labor, to produce some of their small cars. So I'm very hopeful about this. And let me make one last point. About 4 years ago we had a $5 billion trade deficit with Mexico. Today, because of the trade barriers that Mexico has lowered, we have a $6 billion trade surplus, which means we've created more jobs because of trade with Mexico than we've lost because of jobs moving down there. So my view is that we can make it a winner. Now, we don't want to just have a trade agreement with no standards. The Mexican people are going to have to be willing to work with us on environmental standards and on labor standards so we don't just open the floodgates to move jobs to Mexico in ways that won't even raise incomes in Mexico. That would be a terrible thing to do. But if we do it right, it will create jobs for both countries. International Economy Mr. Jackson. Mr. President, things are pretty awful all over. I mean, Europe is in the worst recession since the 1930's; Japan has been hit, too. By contrast, aren't things beginning to get better here?”