Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993 TAG: 9311020107
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Opening the final two-week crusade to get NAFTA approved by the House on Nov. 17, Clinton spoke at a televised "town hall" meeting sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Washington event was broadcast to more than 600 satellite sites, including 250 chambers of commerce and hundreds of companies.
Clinton acknowledged he was "preaching to the saved," and most questions from the decidedly pro-NAFTA business audience were softballs.
"You all have to be missionaries," Clinton said. "We only have 17 days or so. We need you to go out and make sure that your members of Congress, every man and woman in the Congress that you can reach, is contacted by real people who say, `My life will be better.' "
Besides prodding members of Congress himself over the next two weeks, Clinton plans to travel Thursday to Lexington, Ky., to tour a high-tech plant to promote NAFTA, White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said.
High-profile endorsements - from Nobel Prize-winning economists to former secretaries of state - are expected to come today. The NAFTA legislation is expected to be sent to Congress this week.
The controversial free-trade pact would eliminate trade barriers among the United States, Mexico and Canada over 15 years.
Opponents, mostly labor unions and many House Democrats, say it will cost U.S. jobs as companies move their plants to Mexico for cheaper labor.
Supporters, including businesses and many economists, say it will create U.S. jobs as global markets expand. Clinton estimates the treaty will create 200,000 U.S. jobs by 1995.
"I would never knowingly do anything that would cost an American a job," Clinton said.
Another House Democrat, John Dingell of Michigan, declared his opposition to NAFTA Monday. Still, Clinton predicted a close victory, claiming he would win a "secret vote" in Congress, if one were held today.
"In order to win by a vote or two or three or four, you have to be close so that there is a magnet leading people to take the right decision," Clinton said. "If the members of Congress who are under so much pressure from organized groups, whether it's the Perot crowd or the labor groups, if they sense that it's not close, they might run away from it in great numbers, which is why your efforts are so important."
Clinton said if NAFTA is not approved, the big winners will be Europe and Japan and the big loser will be the United States. If it is rejected, the president said, Mexico will do the deal with Europe and Japan, meaning U.S. businesses will face a disadvantage if they want to sell products to Mexico.
The real bonus from NAFTA, the president said, is applying the treaty to South American countries and opening up a market of more than 700 million consumers and eventually getting a worldwide trade agreement.
"This is a good deal for this country; and not doing it, conversely, is a very, very dangerous strategy," he said. "It's a dangerous strategy economically. It's dangerous politically. It will hurt us in the short run, and it will hurt us for 20 years."
by CNB