Read transcript, watch Estela Casas’ full interview with President Obama on proposed trade agreements

ABC-7’s Estela Casas was one of five journalists to interview President Barack Obama about the proposed international trade agreements – fast track authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. For ABC-7’s coverage of the proposed agreements and NAFTA, click on the links to the left of article under Related Content.

Below is a transcript of the interview and watch the full interview above.

Estela Casas: Mr. President, we are here with our eyes open – wide open.
We understand that presidents use the media to build consensus and shape
public opinion. Why are you turning to KVIA and El Paso?

President Barack Obama: Well, El Paso has a huge stake in the debate
around trade. You got $14 billion worth of computer and IT services
and products. It’s a major hub of the El Paso economy, partly because of
the outstanding university there, and my main message is to get out the
facts. Texas and the United States benefit from exports. About one third
of our economic growth during this recovery has been export driven and our
goal here is to make sure that other markets are open the same way ours
are. Folks are already selling stuff here. We want to make sure that
there’s a level playing field for U.S businesses and U.S workers and we
know that workers who are employed by exporting companies typically make
about 18 percent more in wages than folks who are just focusing on the
domestic market. So this gives me the authority to create higher
standards in countries that are part of the Asia Pacific rim that
includes, by the way, Mexico. And a lot of people have concerns about
NAFTA. Well, what this does is, it actually raises standards and
obligates Mexico in a way that it hasn’t before to raise labor standards
and working conditions on folks on the other side of the border. That
creates more of a level playing field for folks in the United States.

Casas: I saw that beautiful brochure, and you have campaigns, even mentioned
El Paso, but what do you tell El Pasoans who have a direct effect of NAFTA
since 1994? What do you tell them to reassure them that this is a good
thing for not only the Borderland, but for Texas?

Obama: Well, I think it’s important to recognize that there were real
problems with some past trade agreements because they didn’t have strong
enforceable labor and environmental provisions. Globilization and
technology has sometimes made it harder for workers to have leverage in
terms of getting raises and incomes, but the truth is that if a company is
looking for low wage labor they have already left. They are not here
anymore and if it hasn’t been because they’ve moved overseas, it’s because
technology replaced those jobs. The key now for us is to make sure that
the jobs we are now creating, the places where we have an advantage: high
skill, high value jobs – that we are able to compete on a world stage and
we are able to sell our products, made in America, all over the world.
And that’s what this trade authorization does so it has a lot of
safeguards that weren’t there before. But more importantly, we can’t just
shut ourselves off, if you are not happy with the fact that its real easy
to sell Japanese cars here, but a lot harder to sell U.S cars over in
Japan, then I don’t know why you should settle for the status quo, Let’s
make a better deal, and that’s what we’re trying to do.

Casas: Through fast track, I think there’s been a lot of concern, why the
secrecy?

Obama: You know, there really isn’t secrecy. The agreement isn’t done yet.
What we’re voting on now is the authority that every president previous to
me has had to negotiate. Now let’s say we get an agreement with all these
Pacific countries. That we’re negotiating with them for 60 days before I
even sign the agreement. We would have to post every term of the
agreement on a website. Everybody would be able to see it, then I sign
it, so they would have already 60 days to review it and then there would
be an entire debate afterwards before Congress has to vote on it. So by
the time we’re actually completed, and members of Congress are taking a
final vote on any particular agreement, probably 4, 5, 6 months of review
will have been taken place. All we’re talking about right now is the
authority for me to negotiate these agreements.

Casas: Now if the fast track doesn’t go through, is the agreement doomed? Is
TPP doomed?

Obama:Well, it’s hard to negotiate if you think about it. You’re
negotiating with ten other countries. If I don’t have the authority to be
able to just present an agreement that’s been negotiated before Congress,
it’s subject to all kinds of amendments and each member of Congress says,
“Well, I want a little more of this or I want a little more of that.” You
can imagine that you’d never actually get it done. So at some point
you’ve got to be able to say, “All right, here’s what we’ve been able to
negotiate. You get an up or down vote. If you don’t like it, if you
think it’s the wrong deal for the American worker, you can still vote
against it.” But I’m confident it will be a good deal because the truth
is, is that a third of our economic growth since the recovery has been
driven by exports. The future for us is in this part of the world where
you know you’ve got the biggest population, a fast growing market, they’re
becoming wealthier, they’re buying more stuff, they’re eating better food,
and they’re a right market for us. If we don’t get there, then I promise
you that China and other countries are going to dominate those markets and
we’re gonna be cut out, and 95 percent of the world’s markets are outside of the United States we gotta be in there competing.

Casas: OK.

Obama: Thank you so much.

Casas: Thank you very much. Muchas gracias.

Obama: Muchas gracias. Thank you.