Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 9, 1993 TAG: 9310090044
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Newport News Daily Press
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Executives from some of the country's biggest companies, gathered as the Business Council, said they'd push harder for congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Opponents, including labor unions and 1992 presidential candidate Ross Perot, have said NAFTA would lead businesses to close plants in this country and replace them with facilities in Mexico, employing workers paid a fraction of what Americans earn.
Not so, the business executives said.
"We see an opportunity to make products in this country and export them to Mexico," said Walter E. Elisha, chairman and chief executive of Springs Industries Inc., a Fort Mill, S.C., textile company.
He said he expected that the opening of the Mexican market would generate 900 new jobs at his company's plants in the Carolinas and Georgia.
Lawrence A. Bossidy, chairman and chief executive of Allied-Signal Inc., a diversified manufacturer, said he had never seen the Business Council as united on a single issue as its members are on supporting NAFTA.
John F. Welch, chairman and chief executive of General Electric Co., dismissed NAFTA opponents' fears that the pact would lead U.S. companies to move operations south of the border.
"Anyone who's not already there has been asleep," Welch said. "The question now is whether we get product into Mexico."
U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, who participated in a closed-door Business Council session on trade Friday, said the Clinton administration was worried that delaying approval of NAFTA would kill the deal.
by CNB