The United States has supported trade expansion, not only through the GATT, but also through complementary regional, subregional, and bilateral arrangements. It will create the largest free trade market in the world, one that will stimulate North American growth, that will benefit all nations. Bilateral efforts, such as the Japan Economic Framework and the Korean Dialogue for Economic Cooperation supplement the global trading system by helping to reduce barriers that open markets to international competition. As the President has stated, a trade policy premised on opening markets can also serve to buttress important foreign policy objectives. Countries receiving the economic benefits of increased global trade learn quickly that the confidence borne of economic prosperity, however incremental, can contribute to political stability.
Trade fosters economic growth and interdependence, and both are essential to our foreign policy.
Increasing trade means more global prosperity - and greater stability. Both U.S. economic prosperity and global prosperity are linked to the Pacific. Asia and the Pacific, as defined by APEC's 15 member economies, is the most economically powerful and dynamic region in the world. Reflecting this dynamism, U.S. exports to every APEC country grew by at least 50 percent in the five years from 1987 to 1992. This has been good for the United States.