WASHINGTON-Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor, touting economic accomplishments of the Clinton administration and laying out his own agenda, said America must continue to invest in high technology and press for free trade while protecting U.S. markets closed overseas.
“We are and will be the pre-eminent economic power in a changing global economy,” said Kantor. “However, we can do this only if we continue to pursue President Clinton’s policies that spur investments in technology and education, that enforce fair and open trade, that balance the budget and offer tax relief for the middle class, and that look to create opportunity in every community in our country.”
Kantor’s address at the National Press Club last week, while not breaking new ground, appeared designed to give Kantor a big stage to define his new role as Commerce secretary and to stump for Clinton as sparring between the president and presumptive GOP nominee Robert Dole of Kansas heats up in advance of the fall election.
Kantor was U.S. trade representative for the first three years of the administration, racking up an impressive record of 200 trade pacts that have helped open wireless opportunities in Japan and elsewhere, before moving to Commerce in the aftermath of the plane crash that killed former Secretary Ron Brown in April.
Taking a swipe at the GOP-led Congress, Kantor said, “Proposals to eliminate funding for science and technology, to short-change our ability to generate world-class information, or to cut research and development are not only short-sighted, they are a threat to our nation’s future.
“We have no choice, but to invest-privately as well as publicly-in technology, information and the skills of the American people if we are to stay ahead of our competitors,” said Kantor.
When questioned how he felt about filling the shoes of Brown, Kantor responded the late Commerce secretary was “a person we miss very much; a person I can’t replace, but only succeed.
“There are many different things we need to do, but let’s make something very clear here,” said Kantor. “Ron Brown and I work for this president of the United States. The policies haven’t changed. The priorities haven’t changed. Therefore, in that respect, there are no shoes to be filled; there’s a job to be done.”
Kantor is going to Bosnia early next month with a group of business people. A U.S. team was sent three weeks ago to prepare for the Kantor mission.
On another front, Larry Irving, chief of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said he is not worried that QuestCom Inc.’s default on its $37 million down payment for 17 C-block personal communications services licenses portends coming failures for other digital pocket phone operators. Irving added that he believes the Federal Communications Commission is adequately apprising applicants of the risks involved in auctions and is not over promoting wireless license bidding.
The NTIA head, however, is concerned that a Republican proposal to offset a tax repeal with spectrum auction revenues and one by President Clinton to use license sale proceeds to help fund a college tuition tax credit could impact public safety and national security spectrum requirements.
