Frans Timmermans Quotes

I want to go get trade agreements because if America walls itself up, if we address sort of an economic fortress America, we will lose.

How can we have 'freer' free trade? Let's get real, for God's sake.

I'm quite an advocate of free trade.

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

It must become a nation of free traders, which would throw open its ports to the world, and prove to European nations that the colonial system of restriction and monopoly was founded on delusion

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

We were able to sign free trade agreement with Europe at a time when people tend to be closing off.

We have to be vigilant against protectionism and be constantly making the argument for free trade.

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

The United States basically accepted protection abroad as the price of post-war recovery. Now, that these countries have caught up to our level of prosperity, it is time for them to catch up to our level of openness.

Before we move forward with new efforts to lower the barriers to international free trade, we must review the consequences of the policies of the past and address the problems of the present.

I have long been a vocal advocate of reciprocal free trade though that position did not endear me to my own political party. And I continue to strongly believe in free and fair international trade.

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

Demanding freedom of access to other markets isn't protectionism, it's free trade.

There has always been a temptation, at times of economic difficulty, to turn inward and put up the shutters. That is when we need free trade most.

In a complex and challenging time, the road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting — yet it ends in danger and decline.

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.

We have to work towards free trade because otherwise we will miss out on many opportunities for cooperation, and relations amongst countries will become much more difficult.

There are some who want to move us back to the days when we were protectionists and keep all goods off our shores.

No good libertarian I know wants us to completely isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. It's not even possible. I mean there are economic ties - there are trade routes that need to be secured. You know international trade can't happen if you don't have open oceans.

Free-trade enthusiasts fret that regional trade arrangements divert more trade than they create.

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.

We are in favor of free trade.

Trade has suddenly become massively unpopular. I think that's massively unjust. I think free trade has been wonderful for America on balance.