I am very glad to be here in Indonesia for this APEC meeting. As I said before I left the United States, I am here because this opportunity for me to meet with leaders throughout this region can lead to more economic opportunities for Americans and a reduced threat of nuclear proliferation.

Today, I had the opportunity to meet with President Jiang Zemin of China, Prime Minister Murayama of Japan, Prime Minister Keating of Australia, and President Kim of South Korea. The most important topic of our conversations was the situation on the Korean Peninsula. All the leaders indicated their strong support for the agreement we reached with North Korea to freeze and then to dismantle its ability to build nuclear weapons. All agreed on the importance of resuming the dialogue between North and South Korea. This agreement marks a historic step to freeze and, ultimately, to end the greatest security threat in this region.

Prime Minister Murayama of Japan and South Korean President Kim agreed that we must maintain our close cooperation as we begin to implement the agreement. The three of us plan to meet briefly again later this evening to follow up on our earlier conversations.

In all my meetings today, I made it clear that the fundamental interests of the United States and the Pacific remain unchanged. Each of the leaders welcomed the assurance that the United States will continue to exercise active leadership in the region.

In each of the meetings today, there was also strong agreement that the early ratification of GATT would be absolutely essential to maintaining the climate that promotes global economic growth and expanding trade. I told each of the leaders that I would do everything that I could to pass the GATT, that Congress would come back soon and that I thought it would pass. It was clear to me that the rest of the world is looking to the United States for leadership on this issue. It is also clear to me -- I will say again -- that it is very much in our interest to pass GATT because it means more high-wage jobs for Americans.

Finally, in each of the meetings we discussed the APEC Leaders' Meeting, which begins tonight. I expressed my strong support for the efforts of President Soeharto to build on the common vision of the Asia-Pacific community that we set forth at Seattle last year in the first of these Leaders' Meetings.

This week's discussions, I believe, will allow us to take a critical step forward toward free and open trade throughout the region. After all, this is very important to the United States. Already, one-third of our exports go to the Asia- Pacific region; already, 2 million American jobs are tied to this region. This is the fastest-growing part of the world. So, it is very important that we proceed first, with GATT and second, with APEC so that we can continue the economic recovery at home and continue to provide increasing opportunities for our people.

All these meetings today reinforced my beliefs that the United States is strong in the Asia-Pacific region; that we are getting stronger in this region; and that in so doing, we are strengthening Americans economically and in terms of our security. In short, we are moving in the right direction. This is a good investment; we need to make the most of it.

November 15, 1994

Good evening -- or good morning to the people who are watching this back in America. At our meeting in Bogor today, the Asia-Pacific leaders pledged to achieve free and fair trade and investment between our nations by the year 2020, with the industrialized countries reaching this goal by 2010. This agreement is good news for the countries of this region and, especially good news for the United States and our workers. I want to thank President Soeharto for hosting this meeting and for his leadership in crafting the agreement.

When the United States brought the APEC leaders together in Seattle for the very first time last year, we agreed on a common vision of a united, open trading system. At this year's meeting, we have committed to make that vision real through free and fair trade, and to do it by a date certain. We will meet again next year in Osaka. Meanwhile, we will develop a detailed action agenda -- a blueprint -- for achieving our goal of free and fair trade, which I hope and believe will be approved when we meet in Osaka.

APEC is primarily an economic organization, and today's talks focused on those issues. While I believe stronger trade ties also will lead to more open societies, I remain committed to pursuing our human rights agenda as I did in my individual meetings with the leaders this week. This is an agenda we must be willing to pursue with both patience and determination, and we will.

From the beginning of this Administration, we have worked to create high-wage jobs and a high-growth economy for the 20th century by expanding our ability to trade with and do business with other nations. The Asia-Pacific region is key to the success of this strategy because it is the fastest- growing region in the world, with rapidly expanding middle classes who are potential American customers. Already, one- third of our exports go to these nations with 2 million American jobs tied to them. We know that export-related jobs, on average, pay much higher than regular jobs in America.

These free and fair trade agreements will benefit Americans for a simple reason: Our nation already has the most open markets on earth. By opening other markets, our products and services become more competitive, and more sales abroad create more high-wage jobs at home.

Under this agreement, individual APEC nations will have to tear down trade barriers to reap trade benefits. No country will get more in benefits than it gives -- no free riders. Today's agreement will lower barriers even further than the historic GATT world trade agreement.

Let me just give you one example. Even after the GATT world trade agreement takes effect, tariffs on American automobiles in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines will still be between 30% and 60% -- lower than they are today but very high. By contrast, our tariffs on automobiles are 2.5%.

The market in just these four countries alone in six years will be as great as the total market in Canada and Mexico combined. This APEC agreement will knock down Asian tariffs even further, and American autos will, therefore, be more affordable. That means for an auto worker in Detroit or Toledo more secure jobs and factories with more workers -- factories that are growing, not shrinking.

I am proud of the leadership of the United States in creating a post-Cold War world that is both safer and more prosperous, a better place for Americans to live and work. Trade agreements like NAFTA, the GATT agreement, and now the Bogor Declaration, along with the Summit of the Americas next month, are important in their own way just as are the agreements we have made with the Russians and Ukraine on nuclear missiles, the North Korean nuclear agreement, and the agreement on missile deployments with China. I am convinced this declaration will prove to be of historic importance.

Americans may hear about this declaration and think that 2010 is a long time to wait for any benefits. That is -- let me emphasize -- the completion date for the process. The benefits will begin for America as soon as we begin to implement the blueprint, which we will develop in this coming year.

But, first things first. Our first meeting in Seattle last year created the conditions that helped make it possible to get agreement among the nations of the world on the GATT world trade agreement. Without the meeting in Seattle, we might well not have had a GATT agreement.

Now, when we return to Washington, our first order of business must be for Congress to pass the GATT. Every leader I spoke with here asked me about U.S. leadership on GATT and on world trade issues generally. America's opportunities and our responsibilities demand a spirit of bipartisanship -- especially when it comes to keeping our country strong abroad.

That cooperation was demonstrated in the historic NAFTA victory and in the encouragement I received from the Republican leaders before I left for this trip. Now, I call upon the Congress -- members of both parties -- to use this momentum from this trip to pass the GATT. The economic recovery going on in our country and taking hold in the world depends upon the passage of GATT and our continued leadership.

At the end of the Second World War, the United States had a bipartisan effort to create an enduring partnership with our allies that helped keep the peace and helped spawn an era of global prosperity that created enormous opportunities for the American people. Now, at the end of the Cold War, we are building a new framework for peace and prosperity that will take us into the future. It is imperative that the United States lead as we move toward this new century. That is our great opportunity, and that is the best way we can help all Americans toward a more prosperous future.