Lawrence Summers Quotes

You cannot close down free trade. What you've got to do is open up markets.

Trade liberalization can be contagious, and the opening of markets regionally can spark progress multilaterally as well.

The establishment of free trade agreements can be a critical and progressive step towards greater economic integration, and continues to become more valuable in an increasingly global world.

I know something about trade agreements. I was proud to help President Clinton pass the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 and create what is still the world's largest free-trade area, linking 426 million people and more than $12 trillion of goods and services.

I believe in free trade. I don't support regulating trade prices between different regions. Our point of view is we don't want trade barriers between different countries.

NAFTA and GATT have about as much to do with free trade as the Patriot Act has to do with liberty.

The North American Free Trade Agreement marked a fundamental change in the global trade scheme.

Mexico is the only country in the world that has a trade agreement with United States and Canada, and at the same time has one with Europe. These are the two largest markets in the world. By the same token, Mexico has one of the most open economies.

I am utterly opposed to anything which will alter the Free Trade character of this country.

When you lower trade barriers and level the playing field, you create a mutual pool of wealth.

We could not get NAFTA passed today with the current Congress…. We’ve got to combine trade liberalization with a broad-based sharing of the fruits of our productivity.

In all free trade agreements there are winners and losers.

What we should do is promote trade in the world, not try to stifle it.

The idea that you could send agricultural products to Tokyo and Osaka and not pay tariffs, and you would have to pay tariffs sending them to Manchester, is quite hard to fathom in the modern world.

Protectionism has never been an answer, will never be an answer. We need trade. We need trade agreements worldwide.

If the two largest economies in the world don't show us a good example on trade liberalization, then you can't expect the smaller and weaker economies to take the risks. The initiative, the momentum and the drive really do have to come from Japan and the U.S.

More than any other issue, economists have kind of been boosters for trade.

Liberalized trade - in broadly multilateral, regional, or bilateral agreements - is a key ingredient in the recipe for prosperity... An absolute prerequisite for long-term economic growth is full participation in the global economy and trading system.

Free trade agreements are never for one sector alone.

NAFTA was much more popular among US corporations than GATT, because NAFTA is highly protectionist in ways that GATT is not.

I didn't know how we were going to get jobs out of NAFTA, but I tend to be suspicious of these things, like NAFTAs and WTOs and so on.

We have to resist, protectionism, other kinds of barriers to market access and to trade.

We were talking about really getting Europe on its feet. It was our hope that there would be a breakdown of trade barriers in Europe first, and then eventually a breakdown internationally, which would help increase trade with Europe.

Let me say at the outset that I do not reflexively oppose international trade.

If we want more trade in the world, we should establish bilateral trade agreements with other democratic countries. That way we can control the decision-making process. The major economic countries of the world will enter into those agreements.