Clinton Insists on New Accords in Trade Treaty

Gov. Bill Clinton announced Sunday that he would sign a North American Free Trade Agreement “if and only if” the United States could reach agreement with Canada and Mexico on three additional accords designed to protect the environment, jobs, and the economy.

The new stance, outlined by Clinton in a long awaited address here, represents an even more qualified endorsement of the pact than advisers previously had signaled.

The Arkansas governor insisted that his plan would not require renegotiation of the treaty itself. But if Clinton is elected, the additional standards he set forth, which are aimed primarily at Mexico, would almost certainly delay approval of a treaty the Bush Administration has urged be implemented as soon as possible.

Clinton’s remarks were carefully hewn to avoid offense both to proponents of the agreement and to its critics. But his insistence that new agreements be reached before the treaty goes into effect will sharpen the focus of an election-year debate over the controversial accord, which President Bush is scheduled to initial this week.

“We don’t have to reopen the agreement,” Clinton said in a 55-minute address at North Carolina State University, “but we do have to insist that protection for our workers and for the environment proceed on parallel tracks. We should do it all at once.”

Of three new accords Clinton demanded as preconditions for signing the treaty, the most important would give the United States broader latitude to erect barriers to protect the economy if the free-trade agreement led to unexpected surges in imports.

Two others would create powerful trilateral watchdog commissions to oversee and attempt to enforce each nation’s compliance with environmental and labor standards that Clinton said would be left at risk under the current accord.

In addition, to resolve what he called the treaty’s “most glaring omission,” Clinton pledged to seek passage of an unspecified new measure to provide job training to workers displaced by the accord. He called a five-year, $10-billion measure that Bush has proposed “way too little, too late” and said he would “do better.”

In an interview, U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills insisted that the Bush Administration has addressed each of the issues adequately, either in the current treaty or in separate negotiations with Canada and Mexico. “It sounds to me like the governor hasn’t been fully briefed,” she said.

But aides to Clinton dismissed those Administration proposals as far too weak to provide the necessary protection for American workers and the environment. And Clinton sought at times in his speech to move beyond the specifics of the free-trade debate and restore a focus on the core economic issues he regards as his strength.

“I’m convinced that I will do it right,” he said, “and I’m equally convinced that Mr. Bush won’t.”

The Mexican government has shown little enthusiasm for measures as strong as those advocated by Clinton. Some of the Arkansas governor’s foreign policy advisers had even warned that adding new conditions to the free-trade accord could have adverse diplomatic consequences.

But Clinton aides said they believe Mexico’s desire for freer trade would outweigh its concern about the new provisions. And Clinton, in explaining that firmer stand, used it as a signal of solidarity with labor unions and other leading Democrats who have opposed the pact.

“I don’t want to give up all our leverage,” he said, warning against a Bush Administration plan that calls on Congress to implement the treaty by early next year and add new safeguards later if necessary.

Although Bush will initial the treaty symbolically on Wednesday during an appearance in San Antonio, he cannot formally sign the accord until Dec. 17. Under the “fast-track” provisions now in place, the pact could take effect 90 days after the President submits legislation to Congress implementing the accord.

But Clinton aides said that, if he is elected, he would not submit that legislation until the United States, Canada and Mexico can reach agreement on the three additional pacts.

In addition to those proposed new accords, the Arkansas governor also outlined five unilateral steps that he said he would take to ease the burden of the free-trade accord. But he offered few details about those measures and the Clinton campaign declined to provide reporters with a written summary of his proposals.

Clinton himself, who complained against overly simplistic analyses of the free-trade debate, alternated throughout his speech between words of support and criticism of the accord.

At the outset of the address, he advised the audience that he intended to discuss “why I support the North American Free Trade Agreement.” But he quickly warned that if the treaty is not “done right,” then “the blessings of the agreement are far less apparent and the burdens can be significant.”

And he sought to shift the focus of public scrutiny from the details he had proposed to basic questions of economic credibility. “It is clear what the benefits of trade are; it’s clear what the hazards of investing across national lines are,” he said near the conclusion of the marathon address. “And the issue you have to face is who do you trust to protect our workers, our communities and our environment.”

“It’s classic Clinton,” said Torie Clarke, the Bush campaign spokeswoman. “It’s hedge your bets, it’s try to make every audience believe you’re with him. That is not what being President is about.”

Clinton delivered the address as he began a two-day Southern swing through North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. In delivering a formal policy address, he reinforced the impression of seriousness that he has sought to convey in recent days to set himself apart from Bush’s increasingly free-wheeling attacks.

Asked to respond to those broadsides, Clinton has spent the weekend affecting an almost paternal demeanor as he expresses sorrow for the President and his plight.

“I felt bad for him yesterday,” he said Sunday morning, a day after Bush had reminded voters of Clinton’s experimentation with marijuana and suggested that his rival suffered from a faulty memory. “You know, a President of the United States really shouldn’t be talking like that. It was sort of sad.”

After his speech on the trade agreement, Clinton focused on other domestic issues, criticizing Bush as an essentially passive President who has refused to face the nation’s most pressing problems.

“We never got anywhere in this country’s history by denying our problems or saying, ‘We can’t,’ ” Clinton told several thousand North Carolina State students gathered in the school’s basketball arena after his speech.

“Magic Johnson resigned from the AIDS commission and endorsed me because he got tired of denying the problem of AIDS. I’ll face it; I’ll deal with it.”

Johnson was appointed to the President’s AIDS commission shortly after his announcement last fall that he had contracted the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Johnson resigned from the commission late last month with a sharp jab at Bush for allegedly ignoring the commission’s recommendations.

Clinton also scored Bush for vetoing the family leave bill, which would have granted unpaid leave to workers when they have illnesses or family difficulties.

“Seventy-two nations have a family leave law--seventy two!--and this fellow in the White House says we can’t do that, that there’s 72 countries that can do something and we can’t,” he said.

Clinton also turned his attention to Ross Perot, who has rejoined the presidential race as an independent candidate.

“I believe in controlling spending, but you can’t reduce the deficit with a big middle-class tax increase that will drive unemployment up and drive the economy down,” Clinton said. “Let’s increase investment and bring the deficit down--that’s the best way to do it.”

The budget plan announced by Perot after he initially dropped out of the race in July would invoke a series of taxes on the middle class to drive down the deficit. Clinton emphasizes spending to spur the economy. Under his plan, the deficit would be reduced over a longer period of time, but middle-class taxes would not be increased.

Meanwhile, Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.), Clinton’s running mate, lectured a large crowd of University of Washington students in Seattle on the evils of another four years of Republican control of the White House.

“We (he and Clinton) can do for the economy what the Washington Huskies (ranked No. 1 among the nation’s college teams) have done for football,” Gore said to resounding cheers. The vice presidential hopeful assailed Bush for his vetoes of the family leave bill and another measure that would regulate cable television rates. Gore plans to break off his campaign schedule to return to Washington today to cast his vote to override the cable TV veto.

Times staff writers Cathleen Decker in Raleigh and James Bornemeier in Seattle contributed to this story.