Excerpt from Secretary of State Rice Interview
with Mark Haines and Erin Burnett of CNBC
New York City, New York

QUESTION: Are you concerned that - you know, when we hear just the rhetoric out of Washington from either side of the political aisle on these deals or on any issue involving foreign countries, whether it be a currency issue with China or deals, that we are simply becoming too protectionist and frankly, too xenophobic in this country?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I do worry that we really have to keep the strength of our economy in mind, and the strength of this economy is that it is open. It's the most open economy in the world. We do attract foreign investment. And by the way, there are elements of this that go together. We have to guard against protectionism. I'm very concerned about free trade. We are going to have some very important free trade agreements coming before the Congress with Latin America in our neighborhood, free trade agreements with Peru and Panama and Colombia, some of our strongest friends in Latin America that have really made difficult choices about opening their economies, about being friends with the United States despite the pressures of populist governments like Venezuela's government.

I am concerned that the consensus on free trade is very hard to maintain at this point. Free trade is good for America, good for American workers. We work to help with trade adjustment assistance for countries and for American workers who might be hurt by trade agreements. But we need to keep a focus on our economic openness and, by the way, I think on our openness to people who also want to come to the United States to make a better life.

For the full transcript of the interview, please visit:

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2007/09/92636.htm