President Bush and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, meeting privately at Camp David, ordered negotiators of a U.S.-Mexico free-trade pact to complete the controversial accord "as soon as possible," the White House said Saturday.
By expressing their "strong commitment" to the North American Free Trade Agreement, the two leaders appeared eager to demonstrate that election-year politics would not slow progress on the issue of trade between the two nations.Widespread concern about the potential impact of the proposed trade agreement on American jobs has raised doubts that it would be completed and sent to Congress for ratification before the 1992 presidential election.
In defending the proposed pact, the White House said that it would stimulate economic growth and create new employment opportunities on both sides of the border, including an estimated 44,000 to 64,000 U.S. jobs over 10 years.
American labor leaders and some prominent Democrats have countered that a free-trade agreement with Mexico would result in the flight of American manufacturing jobs south of the border, where labor costs are lower and safety standards less stringent.
U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills, while conceding that some politicians were "unalterably opposed" to an accord, told reporters on Friday that she does not think the negotiations would become "a political football" in next year's presidential campaign.
In their first face-to-face meeting since April 1991, Bush and Salinas also discussed the illegal narcotics trade, a subject that has strained U.S.-Mexican relations since a fouled drug bust last month resulted in the shooting deaths of several Mexican federal officers.
A White House statement on the meeting said both leaders pledged "to continue vigorous efforts against the scourge of narcotics trafficking." While both countries are making progress in reducing border violence, the statement said more would be done "to ensure the safety of both countries' citizens in the border area."
Once completed and ratified, the free-trade pact would remove existing trade and tariff barriers between the United States and Mexico. The United States already has concluded such an agreement with Canada. The addition of Mexico to the North American free trade area would create a three-nation market with 360 million consumers and combined output of more than $6 trillion, according to U.S. government figures.
For the 3-year-old Salinas government, the political stakes have become enormous. In anticipation of the accord, the Mexican president has instituted unpopular environmental reforms.