George H.W. Bush: “July 14, 1992 President Salinas and I had an extremely constructive discussion of the status of negotiations among our…”

“July 14, 1992 President Salinas and I had an extremely constructive discussion of the status of negotiations among our two countries and Canada to create a North American free trade area (NAFTA). We reaffirmed our commitment to reaching a sound NAFTA agreement as soon as possible. Let me just say a word about the importance of this historic undertaking. We live in a global economy. The fastest growing sector of the American economy today is our export sector, and Mexico is the fastest growing market for U.S. exports in the world. U.S. merchandise exports to Mexico have increased 22 percent per year for each of the last 5 years, twice as fast as U.S. exports worldwide. Having added over 300,000 new jobs to our economy since 1986, we now have over 600,000 total U.S. jobs built on our exports to Mexico. California alone exported $5.5 billion in goods and services to Mexico last year. Virtually every State has shared in that growth, not just States on the border. Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania are among the top 10 exporters to Mexico along with California, Texas, and Arizona. By building together the largest free trading region in the world, Mexico, the United States, and Canada are working to ensure that the future will bring increased prosperity, trade, and new jobs for the citizens of each of our countries.…”