TRANSCRIPT: GORE 3/27 REMARKS AT SHANGHAI AMCHAM RECEPTION
(Pledges to continue efforts to remove trade barriers)

Shanghai -- Vice President Gore's mission to China is part of President Clinton's effort to establish a high-level dialogue that will enable the United States and China build a new era of cooperation across a full range of issues including non-proliferation, the environment, APEC, the Korean peninsula, trade and human rights.

In remarks to the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai March 27, Gore said: "While the fabled China market has held the imagination of Western traders since the great European voyagers sailed to Asia in the 15th century, the truth is that it's always been kind of a tough nut to crack."

Nevertheless, Gore said, "We will continue to use our bilateral negotiations and other means to remove the trade barriers that so many (American firms) face in this market."

Touching economic issues that he discussed with President Jiang and Premier Li and Zhu Rongji during his visit, Gore said: "The United States strongly supports China's entry into the World Trade Organization on terms that are commercially meaningful. And by that we mean China must not only abide by basic WTO principles, but it must also further open its markets to foreign goods and services, including the ones that you're selling. And while negotiations have progressed in the last six months, I think everyone understands that China must still do more and improve its offers, but I'm optimistic about the success of the negotiations."

"Our expanded access to China's markets will also help to address the problem of our bilateral trade deficit," Gore said. "Although that deficit is still large, its rate of growth has slowed, and in remedying the deficit, we do not seek to limit our imports of Chinese products, but instead, we seek to increase our exports to China."

Following is the official transcript of the Vice President's remarks:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
For Immediate Release March 27, 1997

VICE PRESIDENT ALBERT GORE

REMARKS AT THE RECEPTION BY THE
AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
FOR THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY

SHANGHAI, CHINA
MARCH 27, 1997

JOHN AIROLA: Welcome everybody. On behalf the of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, it's my pleasure to welcome our distinguish guests, Mr. and Mrs. Gore and their children. I'm not sure I've met them but I think they're in here somewhere tonight, so welcome we're glad to have you here in Shanghai. (applause) It's my pleasure to now introduce Ambassador Sasser, who has been the U.S. Ambassador to China since mid-1996. Mr. Sasser is the former U.S. Senator from Tennessee, which is the same state as the Vice President. Ambassador Sasser and his wife have been in Shanghai several times and I'd like to welcome them back to Shanghai and say that you're always welcome to visit us.

AMBASSADOR SASSER: Well, John, thank you very much. It's wonderful to be back here and get a wonderful welcome from the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce. Mary and I are both very pleased to be back. John, you're right, I am from Tennessee and there are a lot of very distinguished and famous Tennesseans. I hasten to add that I'm not among them. But, we do have one of those among us here today and he has with him, his lovely wife that Mary and I have known -- gosh, really we met her first when she was a teenager and she was keeping company with a young man who had just graduated from Harvard University on his way to Vietnam. And we were attracted by her wonderful charm and warmth, her personality, her infectious laughter and all of that is still here with us today. We're delighted to have Tipper Gore traveling with her husband. She is now not a teenager anymore, but she still looks like a teenager and she's now a distinguished author in her own right. A very talented photographer, mother of four wonderful children, the wife of the Vice President of the United States but still maintains that warm spontaneity and charm that we knew so long ago. Well, not so long ago really, but a few years ago. So it's my great pleasure to present to you the first lady in mine and Mary's heart, Tipper Gore.

MRS. GORE: Thank you very much. It's nice to have friends like Ambassador Sasser, isn't it? Just wonderful.

We are so very happy to be here among all of you and mainly because you represent the American community in Shanghai and we have not had the pleasure of being to China before so we are very excited to be here and to start off our visit in this city by visiting with you. I'd like to tell you that our whole family, we have three of our children with us -- because they were on spring break and could come -- are having a wonderful, inspirational and very educational time. We have done as much as we could in every city. We've seen the Great Wall and we just visited Xian and saw the Terra-cotta soldiers which were absolutely amazing. I hope you all get a chance to go there. And, now to be here in Shanghai is just terrific.

It's wonderful to see all the Americans here together and I want to let you know that we realize that you create a formidable and talented and skillful community, not only in the business enterprise, but in the volunteerism that I understand that so many of your partake in, with many spouses working in orphanages, Project Hope and some many other areas of community life here. It's so indicative of the American spirit of becoming friends with those we live among whether at home or abroad, so I want to compliment you on that leadership and on that spirit of giving.

I'm particularly pleased that the students and the teachers from the American School are here this evening. Thank you for coming and good luck with all of your studies. I do want to say a special word about the families. Mary and I know what it's like to be a spouse, although Mary has been ... is a successful and still is a businesswoman in her own right. But, we also understand the importance of support of families and spouses and we want to say a special word of gratitude to all of you who are in that particular category because your commitment and your sacrifice and your willingness to get involved in the community is appreciated by all of us who know what it means in our relationship. So now I would like to thank you very much for the warm welcome and introduce to you a man that I'm certainly proud to be seeing Shanghai with, the Vice President of the United States and my husband, Al Gore.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Thank you very much. Thank you for that standing ovation. I'm very grateful. And to John Airola, Chairman of the American Chamber, thank you so much for the hospitality, John, and all the hard work that you and your staff did to set up this event. It's great to be with Jim and Mary Sasser. He mentioned that they've known Tipper for a long time. I've known Jim and Mary Sasser for almost forty years and I can't tell you what fun it is for Tipper and me to be able to join them in Shanghai, China. Mary was my sister's college roommate when they were just starting off at Vanderbilt. When the two of them started dating, I knew them. I was so much younger that they baby-sat sometimes. (laughter)

No, I've known them for almost 40 years. We entered public service on the same day when Jim went into the Senate and I went into the House of Representatives. We've had a chance to do all kinds of things together and it really has been a great thrill this week to visit different cities in China with such close friends and they're doing a great job for the United States of America including for the American business community in China. We appreciate what you're doing, Jim and Mary, keep it up, please.

I, too, want to acknowledge the Shanghai American School students, teachers and staff and the Fudan University students, faculty and staff also, board members of the Chamber. We just had a real frank give-and-take session in the other room with the selected group describing some of the things that need more attention and some of the policies that we need to really focus on and I appreciated that frank exchange. I've got a few words to say to you here. But, I want to begin by telling you that this is kind of a sobering time for me as Vice President because I'm especially aware now that I'm only one kneecap away from the Presidency. It's a burden but I am carrying it, I think, well.

I've actually had a taste of that top job. Many of you may not be aware of what happened on Inauguration Day, January 20, but some constitutional legal experts have pointed out that the President's term of office under the Constitution ends precisely at noon on January 20. I was sworn in as is customary at 11:58 a.m. Jessye Norman sang beautifully following my oath of office. And the singing, much to everyone's enjoyment, nevertheless extended past noon to 12:05 p.m. It was an important five minutes for me, for my family, and if I may be so bold, for America. I believe that historians will remember the Gore administration as a time when America was at peace at home and abroad. Our economy was booming with low inflation. We created 3.1 jobs. They will also record that there were fewer crimes committed during my Presidency than in any other, Democratic or Republican. Partly because we continued to put new community police officers on American streets, two of them, Eddie and Dwayne.

But what's probably most important to me is that partisan bickering, so often the bane of Washington, gave way for the entirety of my administration to bipartisan harmony. Indeed, patriotic hymns burst forth from the Capitol steps. I think it's partly for that reason that the chant began in Washington and swept westward across the nation -- five more minutes, five more minutes. I've selected my Presidential library for my papers, it's a shoe box in Nashville. I must say that this trip has greatly impressed me and earlier I was reminded in Xian -- any of you been there to see that -- well, someone asked how can you tell Al Gore from a tomb full of terra-cotta soldiers? -- he's the stiff one. Thank you very much.

I really am happy to be in this wonderful, vibrant American business community in Shanghai -- almost 900 American companies here now from a standing start of zero less than a decade ago. That's a real tribute to the individual efforts that men and women in this room have made. And I know it hasn't been easy; I know there have been tremendous challenges, but I also know that this is an exciting time as China is opening up, welcoming more American investment, rewriting some of the old outdated rules. And, of course, we are encouraging some more innovations and rewriting of obsolete rules. We're doing that in our country too. (laughter)

But here in the United States Delegation to Shanghai, I want you to know we're going to push hard to see it done here as much as we can. You play a critical role in bringing the message that the United States needs to have heard here in China and the message that folks back home need to hear from those of you who are on the front lines here in Shanghai and working throughout China. You serve collectively as a source of invaluable advice to our country on what works and what doesn't, what needs to be pursued and what needs to be changed. This city is, as Orville Schell has written, on commercial fire. It is really exciting.

When the Mayor of Shanghai visited Washington and came to the White House last fall, I talked with him and he described all the developments to me at that time, but to see them firsthand even on the drive in from the airport, you see all these building cranes, skyscrapers, factories, airports, harbors, bridges, freeways, subways, tunnels. It really is impressive. And along Nanjing Road the beautiful shops, filled with first class Chinese and foreign goods, really have come to rival those on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, and as New Yorkers know well, great wealth spawns great art and learning. The new Shanghai Museum has recently opened to rave reviews by art critics from around the world, and incidentally, the Guggenheim is looking forward to this fabulous exhibit of Chinese art in the United States in February of next year. I'm told that in the future there will be a new opera house as well as a new concert hall, theaters and libraries.

So all of you are in for a lot of continuing excitement participating in the great transformation now under way in China. While I have no illusions about the daily challenges that you must face on a daily basis in opening up this market to your trade and investment, you do at least have it better than some of your predecessors because you have the wind at your backs now. For while the fabled China market has held the imagination of Western traders since the great European voyagers sailed to Asia in the 15th century, the truth is that it's always been kind of a tough nut to crack. Well, this mission here this week is part of President Clinton's effort to establish a high level dialogue that will enable our two nations to build a new era of cooperation for a new century.

In my meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing, I discussed the entire agenda of Sino-American relations, including global issues such as non-proliferation and the environment, regional issues such as APEC and the Korean peninsula, and bilateral issues such as trade and human rights. We have had full and vigorous discussions, very productive discussions. And I'm optimistic that in the coming months, we will make significant progress on many of these issues.

I'd like to just briefly touch before closing on a few economic issues that I know you're concerned about and that I discussed with President Jiang and Premier Li and Zhu Rongji and others. First of all, the United States strongly supports China's entry into the World Trade Organization on terms that are commercially meaningful. And by that we mean China must not only abide by basic WTO principles, but it must also further open its markets to foreign goods and services, including the ones that you're selling. And while negotiations have progressed in the last six months, I think everyone understands that China must still do more and improve its offers, but I'm optimistic about the success of the negotiations.

Our expanded access to China's markets will also help to address the problem of our bilateral trade deficit. Although that deficit is still large, its rate of growth has slowed, and in remedying the deficit, we do not seek to limit our imports of Chinese products, but instead, we seek to increase our exports to China. We will continue to use our bilateral negotiations and other means to remove the trade barriers that so many of you face in this market.

Well, finally in closing, I would like to remind you that the excellent staff of the American Consulate here is always ready to help. They are doing a good job, and our Embassy in Beijing, under Jim Sasser's able leadership, is too. And back in Washington, President Clinton is fighting to secure the resources our nations needs to preserve world class American diplomacy. When you have a chance to put in a word with the many visiting members of the House and Senate who come here in behalf of adequate attention paid to this effort we're making, you can be of real help there. And may I close by saying we certainly appreciate your far-sighted support for our diplomats and for our continuing efforts to open markets for American businesses around the globe. Tipper and I look forward to the rest of the day today, and tomorrow here in Shanghai. We look forward to meeting many of you personally this evening and thank you so much for the hospitality you've extended to us. Thank you.

(end transcript)