Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 27, 1993 TAG: 9302270228
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
ECONOMIC ALLIANCE PROPOSED
President Clinton urged the world's major democracies Friday to join the United States in spurring global economic growth but said he would pursue a trade policy that protects U.S. interests."It is time for us to make trade a priority element of American security," Clinton told students at The American University. He called for a middle ground between protectionism and unfettered free trade, declaring, "We must compete, not retreat."
Clinton reiterated his support of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada but stressed the need to protect U.S. interests.
"We have a vested interest in a wealthier, stronger Mexico, but we need to do it on terms that are good for our people," he said. The president wants separate agreements to provide additional protection for U.S. jobs and the environment.
As the president outlined an activist-international economic policy that seeks to build on his administration's efforts at home, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen flew to London for today's meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial democracies.
"It is time for us to do our best to exercise leadership among the major financial powers to improve our coordination on behalf of global economic growth," Clinton said, expressing hope that enactment of his ambitious domestic-economic plan would pave the way for concerted international action.
"We simply cannot afford to work at cross-purposes with the other major industrial democracies," the president said. He singled out Germany and Japan in declaring that "our major partners must work harder and more closely with us to reduce interest rates, stimulate investment, reduce structural barriers to trade and to restore robust global growth."
At the London meeting, Bentsen and other Western finance ministers hope to persuade Germany to lower its interest rates and Japan to increase its public-works spending as a means of spurring their economies.
The president's comments on the U.S. economic role in the world came just days after he issued a technology policy that foresaw a stepped-up government role and talked of matching the help for industry that European nations provided in developing the Airbus aircraft.
On Thursday, Clinton called for reopening the 1992 agreements that regulate European government support in the long-simmering Airbus dispute. The president "believes that it's possible to improve them and to get more discipline in the agreements," said White House communications director George Stephanopoulos.
In Friday's speech, Clinton sought to strike a balance between those who say "government should build walls to protect firms from competition" and those who say "government should do nothing in the face of foreign competition."