Roberto Azevedo Quotes

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.

It certainly was difficult to sell NAFTA because it's always difficult to sell open markets.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Free trade agreements are never for one sector alone.

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.

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.

During the boom years of the 1990s, globalization emerged as the most significant development in our national life. With NAFTA and the Internet and big-box stores selling cheap goods from China, the line between national and international began to blur.

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

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.

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.

It is much harder for economies to prosper if they cannot sell to, buy from, invest with, and even transit their neighbors. Landlocked countries with failed or failing neighbors can lose access to the world economy.

America has a right to demand that the world’s markets are open to our products …

In all free trade agreements there are winners and losers.

International economic cooperation has delivered benefits to the United States and other countries that would have been impossible to attain otherwise.

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.

We want trade agreements that aid development and increase prosperity, growth and productivity at home and in our trade partner countries.

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

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

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

My grandfather was the architect behind NAFTA, and that has created so much economic opportunity, not only in our country, but in Latin America.