From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:hes@REAGAN.AI.MIT.EDU  Thu Jun  3 19:27:03 1993
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 12:11-0400
From: The White House <75300.3115@compuserve.com>
To: Clinton-News-Distribution@campaign92.org,
Subject: Revised Mulroney Phot Op Transcript

                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    June 2, 1993

	     
                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
             AND PRIME MINISTER BRIAN MULRONEY OF CANADA
                         IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
	     
                           The Oval Office

8:49 A.M. EDT

	     Q	  Is this a hail and farewell visit?
	     
	     PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  I came down to see the 
President about NAFTA and some trade matters and Bosnia, where we 
have troops on the ground, and to work with him -- we agree with 
prudent and thoughtful course he's been pursuing there.  And I'd like 
to talk to him about further engagement at the United Nations.  And 
also to say good-bye -- and to you, Helen.  After a decade I thought 
I owed you a trip.
	     
	     Q	  Are you going to miss it?
	     
	     PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Pardon?
	     
	     Q	  Going to miss it, aren't you?
	     
	     PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Yeah.  All politicians suffer 
from decompression when they leave office.
	     
	     Q	  Do you agree with the Bosnia policy?
	     
	     PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Yes, I do.  I agree that --
	     
	     Q	  You don't think it should have been more aggressive 
on the allied part?
	     
	     PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Well, I've been astonished by 
some American commentators and observers asking for an American 
solution in Bosnia.  There's no such thing.  There is only a common 
solution, for all of us have to get into this together and accept our 
responsibilities.  It's unfair to say that, oh, why don't we have an 
American solution to this intractable problem that's gone on for 
hundreds of years.  It's not available.  But there is, perhaps, a 
better, as the President's pointed out, a better common approach that 
we can develop at the United Nations Security Council with everybody 
pulling his weight or her weight.  And that's what we're going to 
talk about today.
	     
	     Q	  Mr. President, Senator Boren says now that there 
can be no BTU tax -- no longer a compromise, it's now none.
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  I don't have any comment on that.  I had 
a good visit with him.  He called me the other day, said he was 
encouraged by where we were going, and he thought we would reach 
agreement.  I'm not going to get into a verbal war of words.  The 
Congress is out this week and we're going to meet next week and try 
to work it out.
	     
	     Q	  Have you decided to push a health care plan?  Have 
you decided to push a health care plan?
	     
	     Q	   Are you going to pull the nomination of Guinier?
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  No, there's been -- we're working ahead.  
As a matter of fact, I've got another meeting, a big meeting on the 
health care issue this week.  We are, you know, trying to -- we're 
trying to do two things.  We're trying to, first of all, to get as 
many of the kinks work out as we can before we go forward.  It's an 
enormously complicated issue.  And then we want to make sure that we 
have, you know, discussed it with as many people as possible -- many 
groups and everything -- after we've reached some final conclusions; 
and that when we present it to the Congress, it's presented at a time 
and in a way that both the Congress and the American people can focus 
on it.  But there's been no decision for a sustained delay here.  I'm 
focusing right now on passing the budget when the Senate comes back 
next week.
	     
	     Q	  Will it be released this month?
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  I don't want to get -- I'm not in a time 
-- I don't want to get --
	     
	     Q	  How about Guinier?  Are you pulling out the 
nomination of Guinier?
	     
	     PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  Bye, Helen.  (Laughter.)  On 
behalf of all Canadians, Helen, good-bye.
	     
	     Q	  Nothing ventured -- (laughter).
	     
                             * * * * * *
	     
	     Q	  Mr. President, are you as certain as the Prime 
Minister that NAFTA will pass?  And do you plan on calling on his 
considerable experience in dealing with the perils of unpopularity?
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, these things go up and down.  I 
mean, you know, the American people want something done about the 
deficit but very often don't want to -- you know, when the coverage 
gets negative, because of the pain of it, it's something no one wants 
to face.  I think what I have to do here is do more of what I did 
yesterday -- force -- force full coverage of --  
	     
	     What's happened in our country is that there has only 
been discussion about the tax increases in the budget plan.  So no 
Americans really know very much about all the budget cuts that are in 
there and all the tax incentives that are in there for investment for 
new jobs.  When they know the whole thing, and also when the middle 
class knows how small the burden is on them, then the support for the 
program and for the administration goes way up. So I'm laboring out 
there under a general perception that the administration has a tax 
plan that falls almost entirely on the middle class when, in fact, 
the administration has a plan for spending cuts, investment 
incentives to create jobs, and some taxes, which fall almost entirely 
on upper income people.  And that's my problem.  It's very difficult 
in the midst of a legislative debate to keep the public focus on that 
since the focus is always on controversy.  But that's my problem, and 
I'll fix it.
	     
	     Q	  Why have you not gone out and fought --
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  And I think we can pass it with a very 
concerted effort if the Congress has some assurances on the 
environmental and labor issues.  Keep in mind, the United States --as 
far as I know, no country has ever signed a trade agreement which -- 
also an investment agreement, which -- at least million of Americans 
feel is an investment agreement that would encourage people to invest 
in another country for production in our market, not in theirs.  And 
so that is the tension here that -- I keep arguing to the American 
people that that could happen anyway; that under our present law, 
people, if they choose, can go and produce in Mexico for 
the American market.  But that causes great tension here when we've 
had 20 years of virtually flat wages for middle class working people.
	     
	     I believe NAFTA will create jobs and raise incomes in 
both the United States and Mexico, and I think it will help Canada.  
I have always believed that over the long run, the integration of our 
three economies and the potential that gave us to continue to move 
south into other market economies in Chile and Argentina and 
Venezuela and others was enormous.  And I think eventually we'll get 
there.  But it is going to be a very tough fight.
	     
	     Q	  Why have you allowed Ross Perot to shape the debate 
on that --
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  I haven't.  I can't -- I haven't allowed 
it at all.  I don't agree with his position, I don't agree with his 
assertions, and I don't agree with the evidence that he offers.  But, 
you know, in this country we have a free press.  I can't control who 
gets what kind of press coverage.  That's what the First Amendment is 
all about.
	     
	     PRIME MINISTER MULRONEY:  On -- I saw Ross Perot's 
appearance on television the other night; and I've heard every single 
one of those arguments from the socialists and the protectionists in 
the Canadian House of Commons.  There's not a single word that was 
new.  The fact of the matter is that it's all contradicted by the 
facts.  Canada and the United States entered into a free trade 
agreement in 1988.  We've since been mired in a recession.  Even in 
those four difficult years for both countries, American exports to 
Canada have increased by approximately 25 percent, thereby creating 
1.4 million new jobs in the United States.  And Canadian exports to 
the United States have increased by a like amount.  Well, this is 
clear indication that prosperity comes through these lowering of 
trade barriers and the creating of new pools of common wealth.  
	     
	     What Mr. Perot's argument is -- I saw anyway, and I 
don't know him, and seems to be a fine fellow -- is that wage rates 
alone are a determinant of competitiveness.  Wage rates are one of 
many considerations of competitiveness -- cost of capital, 
infrastructure, education, technology.  And if wage rates alone 
determine the location of industry, Haiti would be the manufacturing 
capital of the world.  Our productivity is so far and ahead above 
that of Mexico that to make the argument simply on the basis of wages 
is misleading in the extreme.  
	     
	     I think the President's point of view is a very valid 
one.  It's one that we support.  And the evidence appears to be there 
-- that when you lower barriers to trade between and among friendly 
countries, you create new pools of wealth and you raise the living 
standards of everybody affected by it.  You don't lower standards.  
And so these arguments -- I have to tell you -- Mr. Perot may have 
some better days.  But I want to tell you that his arguments -- he 
might be surprised to find that he's been poaching those arguments 
from the socialists in the Canadian House of Commons, and they might 
sue him for copyright infringement.  (Laughter.)
	     
	     Q	  Mr. President, you that Mr. Mulroney is leaving 
office --
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  -- on NAFTA, let me say one other thing 
about NAFTA.  President Salinas when he took over in Mexico, 
unilaterally reduced a lot of very high Mexican tariffs with the 
consequence that the United States went from a $5 billion trade 
deficit with Mexico to a $6 billion trade surplus.  And last month, 
Mexico replaced Japan as the second largest purchaser of our 
manufacturing products.  So we are, in effect, opening our trade 
relationships anyway.  It's been, on balance, beneficial to the 
United States.  And I just -- if you look at where the world is going 
-- where Europe is going, where Asia is going -- there's no question 
that both Canada and the United States need more trading partners in 
our own backyard, and we need for them to be richer, to grow, to do 
more, so they can buy more from us.  And I feel very strongly that 
it's the right thing to do, and I'm going to keep plugging away and 
hope we can pass it.  I think we can.
	     
	     Q	  On Haiti -- On Haiti, Mr. President.  Is it time to 
show some muscle on Haiti if diplomacy doesn't work? 
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we thought we had an agreement on 
Haiti and, of course, it didn't work out, and I'm very disappointed.  
We worked very, very hard.  And I talked to the Prime Minister about 
this on several occasions.  It is time to reexamine our options and 
consider some others, and I expect the United States will do that.
	     
	     Q	  Mr. Clinton, any parting words for Mr. Mulroney now 
that he's going to be leaving office?
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  I wish him well.  He served well and for 
a long time and I wish him well.  And he's given me a lot of very 
good advice.  He's been very helpful.
	     
	     Q	  Thank you.

                                 END9:05 A.M. EDT