Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993 TAG: 9309150203
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Cox News Service and Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short
Clinton signed side agreements intended to strengthen the pact's environmental and labor protections in a ceremony that marked the beginning of his attempt to win congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement by Jan. 1.
A broad grass-roots campaign to defeat NAFTA - led by organized labor, many environmental groups and populist billionaire Ross Perot - has put its fate in doubt. Senate passage seems certain, but in the House, by some counts, up to two-thirds of Clinton's own party opposes the treaty.
With former Presidents George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford adding their support, Clinton said that in deciding NAFTA's fate, the United States would either embrace the opportunities of a changing world or sacrifice potential growth to preserve vestiges of its industrial past.
In a thinly veiled attack against Perot, Carter said: "Unfortunately in our country now, we have a demagogue who has unlimited financial resources and who is extremely careless with the truth, who is preying on the fears and the uncertainties of the American public."
Similarly, Bush said of NAFTA opponents: "Many are taking the cheap and easy way out on this one, appealing to demagoguery. . . . So let's not listen to those who would scare the American people, those demagogues who appeal to the worst instincts."
Clinton will take his pitch on the road today, traveling to New Orleans to talk up NAFTA, the centerpiece of his foreign trade agenda.
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by CNB