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Since exports have accounted for 55% of U.S. economic growth since 1987, tariff reductions of the kind ensured by NAFTA are certain to make American industry even more trade-oriented. Bill Clinton's effort to promote freer trade along the Pacific Rim also comes at a time when demand for consumer items -- everything from sports equipment to kitchen appliances -- is rising in Asian nations that have long given priority to savings over spending. "With Asia growing through the creation of domestic demand, we can jump in," says Lawrence Chimerine of the Economic Strategy Institute, a think tank in Washington...
...after the NAFTA vote, Clinton flew to Seattle, where his victory strengthened his hand considerably at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council meeting. The four-day gathering marks the first time the 17 Pacific Rim leaders have ever met as a group as well as the first time an American President has met with a Chinese leader since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The President hoped to use the conference to encourage the opening of new markets...
John Hay, Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of State, once called the Pacific the "ocean of the future." Bill Clinton hopes the future starts this week. Just two days after Congress votes up or down on NAFTA, the President plans to meet in Seattle with leaders from 14 other Pacific Rim nations. With an expanding middle class and huge construction projects ranging from airports to mass-transit systems, the booming region should be in a spending mood for years to come. The Seattle gathering is a significant step in White House efforts to widen the pipeline for American exports to Asia...
...nations and the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. At this point, it amounts to little more than a trade-issues study group. Though Washington has avoided taking any position on the matter for now, the U.S. might eventually prefer to see APEC become a mechanism to bind Pacific Rim nations into a NAFTA-style trade family, especially in the face of sentiment building among some Asian nations in favor of regional trade arrangements that exclude the U.S. "The U.S. has at long last started to look seriously at its trade interests in the Pacific," says Kwon Byong Hyon, South...
...developed Pacific nations are averse to any trade pact that might compel them to lower tariffs protecting fledgling industries. If Clinton shows up in Seattle without a win on NAFTA, Asian nations will also be under less pressure to deal; one reason for them even to consider a Pacific Rim trade group is to ensure themselves a defensive base in the event that GATT should fail or NAFTA take a protectionist turn. Thus the White House has been playing down this week's gathering as merely a gesture in favor of more regional cooperation. "The meeting is the message," says...