Interview with Estela Casas of ABC-7 KVIA

Estela Casas. Mr. President we're here with our eyes open, wide open, we understand that presidents use the media to build consensus and shape public opinion, why are you turning to KVIA and El Paso?

The President. Well, El Paso has a huge stack in the debate around trade. You know you've got 14 billion dollars worth of computer and IT services and products. It's a major hub of the El Paso economy, partly because of an outstanding University there. And my main message is just to get out the facts: Texas and the United States benefit from exports. About a third of our economic growth during this recovery have been export driven. And our goal here is to make sure that other markets are open, the same way ours are. Folks are already selling stuff here, we want to make sure that there is a level playing field for US businesses and US workers. And we know that workers who are employed by exporting companies typically make about 18% more in wages than folks who are just focusing on the domestic market. So this gives me the authority to create higher standards in countries that are a part of the Asia Pacific Rim, that includes by the way Mexico. And a lot of people have concerns about NAFTA, well what this does is it actually raises standards and obligates Mexico in a way that it hasn't before to raise labor standards and working conditions for folks on the other side of the border that creates more of a level playing field for folks—folks here in the United States.

Estela Casas. I saw that beautiful brochure, and you have campaigns, even mentioned El Paso, but what do you tell El Pasoens who have a direct effect of NAFTA since 1994? What do you tell them to reassure them that this is a good thing for not only the border land but for Texas?

The President. Well I think it's important to recognize that there were real problems with some past trade agreements because they didn't have strong enforceable labor and environmental provisions. Globalization and technology has sometimes made it harder for workers to have leverage in terms of getting raises and incomes. But the truth is that if a company is looking for low wage labor, they've already left, they're not here anymore. And if it hasn't been because they've moved overseas, its because technology replaced those jobs. The key now for us is to make sure that the jobs we are creating, the place were we have the advantage, in high skill, high value jobs, that we are able to compete on a world stage and we are able to sell our products made in America anywhere in the world. And that's what this trade authorization does. So it has a lot of safe guards that weren't there before, but more importantly we can't just shut ourselves off. If you are not happy with the fact that it's real easy to sell Japanese cars here,but a lot hard to sell them—to sell US cars over in Japan, then I don't know why you'd just settle for the status quo, let's get a better deal. And that's what we are trying to do.

Estela Casas. Through fast track, I think there's been a lot of concern. Why the secrecy?

The President. You know, there really isn't secrecy, the agreement isn't done yet. What we are voting on now is the authority, that every president previous to me has had, to negotiate. Now, lets say we get an agreement with all these specific countries that we are negotiating with, then for 60 days before I even sign the agreement, we will have to post every term of the agreement on a website. Everybody will be able to see it. Then I sign it. So they've already had 60 days to review it, and then there will be an entire debate afterwords before Congress has to vote on it. So by the time we're actually completed and members of Congress are taking a final vote on any particular agreement, probably four, five, six months of review will have been taken place. All we're taking about right now is the authority for me to negotiate these agreements.

Estela Casas. Now if the fast track doesn't go through, is the agreement doomed? Is TPP doomed?

The President. Well it's hard to negotiated, if you think about it, you're negotiating with ten other countries. If I don't have the authority to be able to just present an agreement that has been negotiated before congress, if it's subject to all kinds of amendments and each member of congress says "Well I want a little more of this or I want a little more of that," you can imagine that you'd never actually get it done. So at some point you've got to be able to say "Alright here's what we've been able to negotiate, you get an up or down vote, if you don't like it, if you think its the wrong deal for the american worker, you can still vote against it." But I'm confident that it will be a good deal, because the truth is is that a third of our economic growth since the recovery has been driven by exports. The future for us is in this part of the world where, you know you've got the biggest population, a fast growing market, they're becoming wealthier, they are buying more stuff, they're eating better food, and they're a right market for us. If we don't get there, then I promise you that China and other countries are going to dominate those markets and we're going to be cut out. And 95% of the worlds markets are outside of the United States, we've got to be in there competing.

Estela Casas. Ok.

The President. Thank you so much.

Estela Casas. Thank you very much, muchas gracias.

The President. Muchas gracias, thank you.

Estela Casas. Thank you.