Bush Says Free U.S.-Mexico Trade Would Create Jobs, Not Cost Them

President Bush said Friday that congressional support for his proposed free-trade agreement with Mexico is “critical--a highest priority” and that despite concerns from labor groups, the pact would actually create more jobs, not fewer.

Near the end of his two-day stay in Southern California, Bush was strongly encouraged to pursue the trade agreement by 16 Latino business leaders who met with him Friday afternoon and promised to start a national effort to seek congressional approval.

“I think it will be good for the United States of America, I think it will be good for jobs in this country and I think it will be darn good for Mexico as well,” Bush said at the start of the half-hour meeting in a top-floor suite at the Four Seasons Hotel here.

“Those that worry about the loss of jobs . . . take a look at history,” the President added. “When you get this kind of an agreement, it expands job opportunities.”

Harold H. Martinez, president of the Latin Business Assn. in Los Angeles, said after meeting with Bush: “This is going to be a win-win situation. The economies of both countries will benefit.”

Bush’s proposal would extend to Mexico--the nation’s third-largest trading partner--the same type of free-trade arrangements shared by the United States and Canada. It would eliminate tariffs and other barriers that exist now in both directions.

The President wants Congress to grant him so-called “fast-track authority” to negotiate the agreement with Mexico and bar federal lawmakers from amending it. Without the fast-track authority, many observers in Washington believe that a free-trade accord with Mexico is impossible. Congress is expected to vote on the issue before summer.

“The importance that I place on this fast-track negotiating authority is critical--a highest priority,” Bush said. “. . . And in this case, it also strengthens a friend, President Salinas of Mexico, who’s seen on his end relations between Mexico and the United States have never been better.”