George H.W. Bush: “Sit down, please, and welcome, welcome. Let me just make a couple of comments and then try, with the assistance of our…”

“Sit down, please, and welcome, welcome. Let me just make a couple of comments and then try, with the assistance of our able Secretary of Agriculture, my friend and yours, too, Ed Madigan, to respond to your questions. But in the first place, I'm delighted that Ed is here. I was very high on Clayton Yeutter--moved over to a new and very difficult and very different assignment. Ed stepped into the breach. He's doing a fantastic job for our country. And I understand that he's rapidly making believers out of those in ag business that didn't know him. Those that did I think already were believers, as I have been. But anyway, we are the most agriculturally productive nation the world has ever known. And I want to be sure that we continue to be that. I'm still convinced that we can compete with anybody, provided we remove some of the barriers to trade. And that's one of the reasons that the Secretary and I are as committed to the successful conclusion of the GATT round; also why I believe that a Mexico free trade agreement would be in our own best interests. As a matter of fact, we've got a new one with Canada. It's been in effect for 2 years, and agricultural exports have gone up by 35 percent. So, those that want to criticize ought to take a look at the reality, and I think then they'd understand why we are committed--because we think it's good for American agriculture as well as good for--I think it's good for jobs, too. Just across the labor frontier there. There are three important trade agreements. You're all familiar with them. The Uruguay round--the GATT talks; the trade component of our Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, which is, I think, a bold new program that must succeed in terms of helping these democracies-- fledgling democracies, many of them--in South America and thus building new markets for our own goods. But in any event, that's the second one. And then the third one, of course, is the North American free trade agreement that I mentioned earlier that, in this instance, features Mexico. Now, there are some questions about whether these would be of benefit to the American farmers. Let me just give you a couple--click off a couple of little numbers here. Free trade in North America would give our farmers a freely accessible market of 365 million people with a GNP of $6 trillion. And that's a market that's larger than the European Community. And likewise, the negotiation of a successful GATT agreement would decrease the trade barriers worldwide, offering potentially unlimited export opportunities. We're not there yet. We've had some difficulties getting our friends in Europe--and they are friends--to understand this. But the Secretary and I and our USTR, Ambassador Carla Hills, and the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce--all of us are working on this important agreement. But we think that it would be a boon to American agriculture when we're successful. The success, obviously, hinges on what you know and I know as Fast Track negotiating authority. It is simply not right to--you can't negotiate an agreement if the people you're negotiating with think that it will be amended in many, many ways. The Congress will, though-- there's a misunderstanding because some think that when we ask for Fast Track, that we're asking Congress to yield their right to vote on it. And that simply isn't--I found that hard to believe, but I think there's been some confusion on that. We are going to--they obviously would vote up and down. And if they didn't like it, they'd vote it down. If they liked it, they'd vote for it. But you can't have 25,000 amendments to an agreement and expect your trading partners to negotiate seriously. So, the Congress--and I'm very respectful of Congress' role in this. They have a constitutional role on international trade, and some forget that. So, we're sensitive to that role. We've had extensive consultations. I don't believe I've seen an initiative that's had more consultation with Congress than this one. And I think we're going to be all right on it, but we're going to continue to work very hard to get Fast Track approval. New applications for agricultural products, like the alternative fuels, fuels blended with ethanol, and biodegradable plastics, and some not so modern uses like food and clothing, provide farmers with exciting opportunities. I understand that there's some differences in the ag community. I was just talking to the Secretary about this. But generally speaking, we're committed to alternative fuels. I believe that the Clean Air Act alone is going to create tremendous opportunities for alternative fuel. So I haven't lost my enthusiasm for this at all. The Fast Track assures our trading partners that we will go through with our agreement. We will vote on what they and we negotiate, and I mentioned that point earlier. New applications for agricultural products is important. And we're talking about some fuels blended with ethanol and biodegradable plastics. And all of these kinds of things I think have a brilliant future for agriculture. It's been a little slower than I had hoped, frankly, but I think there's a big market and big future out there. And so I would say to farmers, do not despair because you haven't yet reached the full potential of these new markets for your products. I'm going to be asking agriculture over and over again for support on this Fast Track extension, and I think that the bottom line is, they will enjoy more export opportunity if we're successful here. And I think it will be a boon for the rural economy as well as--well, obviously it would if we continue to sell more abroad. So, these were just a couple of the points, and now I'd be glad to respond to some questions.”