*EPF304 03/28/01
Excerpt: Bush Supports Free Trade, Faults Protectionism
(Also reiterates opposition to energy price controls) (560)

President Bush has reiterated his administration's support for unfettered free trade, even in the face of protectionist pressure as the U.S. economy slows down.

In March 27 remarks in Michigan, the president said trade generates innovation, jobs and prosperity.

"If our trading partners trade unfairly, they'll hear from us," Bush said. "But free and open trade is in our national interest."

On another issue, the president also reiterated that his administration opposes any energy price controls.

Following is an excerpt from the White House transcript of Bush's remarks:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

March 27, 2001

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN FIRST COALITION/ KALAMAZOO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOINT EVENT ON THE ECONOMY

Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan

THE PRESIDENT: I directed Vice President Cheney to lead a task force that will produce the comprehensive energy strategy this nation needs and has lacked for many years. The energy problem wasn't created overnight, and we won't solve the problem overnight. But we will at last start down the right road, so that the shortages we face today will not recur year after year.

We'll not solve the energy problem by running the energy market from out of Washington, D.C. We will solve the energy problem by freeing the creativity of the American people to find new sources of energy and to develop the new technologies that use energy better, more efficiently and more cleanly. (Applause.)

The tests for any energy policy are simple: Does it increase supply, and do its incentives encourage conservation? A policy that fails to meet these tests is bad public policy. And that is why this administration does not, and will not, support energy price controls. (Applause.) Price controls do not increase supply, and they do not encourage conservation. Price controls contributed to the gas lines of the 1970s. And the United States will not repeat the mistake again.

And there's another mistake we won't repeat -- the mistake of putting artificial barriers in the way of world trade. When economy slows down, protectionist pressures tend to develop. We've seen this happen before, and it could happen again. So I want to say this as clearly as I can: Trade spurs innovation; trade creates jobs; trade will bring prosperity.

If our trading partners trade unfairly, they'll hear from us. This administration will always speak for American interests. But free and open trade is in our national interest. (Applause.) The world will know this, that I strongly, and my administration strongly supports free trade.

Twenty years ago, hundreds of millions of human beings were walled off from the global economy by the policies of their own governments. And those walls are coming down. And people in Mexico and the Americas and Asia and Africa and Eastern and Central Europe are being set free to join the world, to understand the promise of market-oriented systems. It's a big change, and change isn't always easy. But trade lifts lives and trade furthers political freedom around the world. And it will build the wealth of our nation.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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