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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release June 10, 1993
                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                         AT BILL SIGNING OF 
          NATIONAL COOPERATIVE PRODUCTION AMENDMENT OF 1993

The Oval Office

5:15 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank Senator Leahy, Senator Biden, Congressman Brooks, and Congressman Fish for being here today and for their leadership in helping to enact into law the bill I am about to sign. I want to thank the Attorney General for her presence here and for the work that the Justice Department did on this bill, HR-1313, called the National Cooperative Production Amendment of 1993.

This bill was the embodiment of the concept that the Vice President, who has just come in -- come on up. Good to see you -- he's magical. I uttered his name and he appeared (Laughter.) This bill is the embodiment of the concept that the Vice President and I strongly espoused during our campaign last year. It will allow American companies, large and small, to pool their resources to compete and win in the international marketplace.

Our nation leads the world in basic research; we also have to be second to none in moving new technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace. We have to unleash the creativeness and the inventive prowess of both corporate giants and start-up enterprises in order to spur economic growth and new jobs.

The cooperative arrangements envisioned by this legislation will become increasing necessary as the costs and skills required to develop and manufacture new products exceed the resources of any single company. These alliances will also help our businesses reduce the time required to bring new products to market, which frequently determines who wins and who losses in today's competitive marketplace. Successful companies, in turn, will create high-wage, high-skill jobs that will help to revitalize our economy.

By clarifying and eliminating misapprehensions about antitrust risk, this legislation will allow joint ventures that can increase efficiency, facilitate entry into markets, and create new productive capacity that otherwise would simply not be achieved.

I'm confident this legislation will benefit both the consumers and the workers in the United States by strengthening our industrial base while maintaining a sound antitrust oversight to prevent improper collusion. Now is the time to strip away outdated impediments to economic growth and to our potential. And to begin real movement in this last decade of the 20th century.

I'm pleased that the committee report stresses that this legislation is consistent with our international obligations. Our administration will implement this legislation in a way that honors the commitments as set forth in our treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation, bilateral investment treaties, and free trade agreements and various organization for economic cooperation and development.

Again, I want to commend Chairman Brooks, Senator Leahy, Senator Biden, Congressman Fish, and all the other members of the Congress who worked so hard to make this bill a reality. And the leadership of both the House and the Senate. This is an example of how you can have a real bipartisan coalition to make America work again; to help our business and our working people to move forward in the global economy. And I am very excited about it. And I know that the Vice President joins me in thanking the congressional sponsors for their strong leadership.

And I want to thank all the people here around me who helped to make the bill a reality -- members of the congressional staffs and of the high-tech community.

(The bill is signed.)

END5:19 P.M. EDT