Political Quotes

“On the trade agreement we are going to push very hard to get what we call Fast Track authority with the Congress. It is in the interest of the United States of America; it is in our own interest to go forward, say nothing about the interest of Mexico. In Mexico you have a courageous new President who's taken that country and gotten relations with the United States in the best shape they've ever been in. And in terms of this trade agreement Prime Minister Mulroney, President Salinas, and I all agree that this trilateral approach makes a great deal of sense for all three of our countries. So, it is priority, and we will push for it. We have no environmental agreements of this nature that I can think of--I'll have to ask Mr. Reilly--that are in the works here. But I can tell you that we are working very cooperatively, more cooperatively than ever--and again, I salute President Salinas--with Mexico on environmental questions. We're doing much, much better in that regard. The Prime Minister. Perhaps a word on the proposed trilateral agreement which would make North America the largest and richest trading bloc in the world, substantially more so than Europe. But I find we have already entered into a bilateral free-trade agreement with the United States. And we know it's productive, and we know it's going to be progressively so over the years. And that's because liberalized trade throws off new wealth. What I am astonished by from time to time are the protectionists whom I can understand but who, for example, in looking at Mexico--which is a developing country, and Mexico can achieve new prosperity either by aid or through trade. And trade ought to be the preferred route. If you're going to lift people up to a new dimension of prosperity then you have to liberalize trading opportunities for that country. And the advantages work both ways. That is why President Bush's statement was so visionary: because while Canada and the United States had economies of equivalent degrees of maturity and compatibility, that of Mexico is in some areas less so. And it is an important step towards the integration of a developing country into a vast developed economy. And that is not only good for business, it's good for democracy because it gives individuals an opportunity to prosper through the ennobling means of trade, rather than through the instruments of aid and assistance which are a lot less noble than the opportunities that we can develop together. And that's why I hope that the trilateral measure that the President has outlined will get approval from the United States Senate and House and go ahead.”