Political Quotes

“Authority March 5, 1991 One interrupts Carla at their own risk. [Laughter] But that gives me a good lead-in to express my confidence in our USTR, in our Trade Representative. Certainly, also, in our very able Secretary of Commerce, Bob Mosbacher, who is behind me; Michael Boskin, upon whom I rely for so much in the economic field; and Fred McClure, without whom we could not operate in terms of working with the Congress. So, you have four of our best here, and I hope that you've been able to glean from them how important we feel this Fast Track is. Obviously, the attention has been focused by the whole country-- indeed, the whole world--on the Persian Gulf. But I wanted to come over and talk about economic growth because I am optimistic about the economic future of this country. And frankly, one of the things that's going to lead us out of the recovery [recession] is this vital export segment of our economy. I'm confident that we can expand exports, and I'm confident that we can expand economic growth generally, but we've got to do it through opening world markets and not through throwing up barriers--not through protection that we might think, short run, will help somebody here at home but, long run, inevitably results in a diminishing of the worth of this country. As these four have told you, our economic growth depends on free markets, and our trade agreements have got to open up these markets and provide rules for fair and free trade.…”