[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 24, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    NAFTA AND THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

                                 ______


                          HON. BILL RICHARDSON

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 24, 1994

  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with my colleagues 
the following excerpts from a speech made by Ambassador Abelardo L. 
Valdez. A graduate of Texas A&M University, Ambassador Valdez returned 
to A&M in May 1994 to deliver the commencement address. His ``From 
NAFTA to a Common Market of the Americas: A Dream to be Realized'' is a 
prophetic talk on where we were, where we are, and where we can go. 
NAFTA presents an opportunity for the hemisphere. Ambassador Valdez 
thoughtfully addresses the specific and broader issues that NAFTA 
raised. I invite my colleagues to read this excellent account.

    ``From NAFTA to a Common Market of the Americas: A Dream to be 
                               Realized''

                   (By Ambassador Abelardo L. Valdez)

       In every age, the world presents new and unique challenges 
     to the women and men who enter into it. The Twenty-First 
     Century--your century--will present realities different from 
     those of your parents. We are already witnesses to the 
     Cinderella-like transformation of the bi-polar world of the 
     last half-century. Former ``evil empires'' have been touched 
     by the magic wand of democratic elections and they are 
     dressing for the ball of free markets. The economic 
     nationalism of the past is giving way to the regional trading 
     blocs of the future. Countries of Europe and the Pacific Rim 
     have grouped to gain competitive advantage in global 
     competition. Other nations, originally hesitant to join in 
     this trend, are scrambling to position themselves within 
     economic communities.
       Our nation's new partnership with Mexico and Canada has 
     created the North American Free Trade Agreement. I believe 
     that NAFTA can lead, within a decade, to the creation of a 
     common market of the Americas with more than 800 million 
     consumers and including all the nations of the Western 
     Hemisphere.
       That goal is my dream. It is a dream which has sustained my 
     personal efforts to help bring it about over the past quarter 
     century. It took shape in 1967 when, as a young military 
     aide, I accompanied President Johnson to the Uruguay Summit 
     of the presidents of the Americas to consider the formation 
     of a Latin American free trade association. Why, I wondered, 
     just Latin America. Why not a trade pact for all of the 
     Americas, North, Central and South. Why not a charter that 
     would create a true Community of the Americas that would work 
     together to strengthen democracy, expand our economies and 
     provide for a better life for all our people--an idea which 
     no one was considering at that time.
       For such a dream to become a reality, I concluded U.S. 
     leadership was crucial. If our nation did not lead such an 
     effort, then which one would? For the idea to gain 
     credibility among North Americans, someone would need to 
     articulate its merits, but few seemed convinced. I wanted all 
     Americans to share in the dream of a hemisphere in which the 
     rising tide of prosperity would lift all boats, in which 
     trade and mutual advantage would replace suspicion and 
     rancor. Someone would need to speak out for that dream, but 
     no one would. Then the realization came that, if no one 
     would, then I should. If not me . . . then who?
       My subsequent study in the law, analysis of comparative 
     trade policies and public service in international 
     development brought home to me the complexities and 
     possibilities of a hemispheric common market. During that 
     time, I tried to sow the seeds of the dream to anyone willing 
     to listen--and to many who were not. I found that a few 
     shared the dream, but many, many more did not. In the process 
     I learned that, in the real world, dreams do not come 
     equipped with the magic wands of Cinderella stories. Their 
     fulfillment more responds to a lesson which I earlier learned 
     in the South Texas sun, ``You chop cotton one row at a 
     time.'' And I was looking at a mighty big cotton field.
       So, thirteen and one half years ago, at another A&M 
     commencement, I articulated my dream. At that time there were 
     few takers, north or south of the Rio Grande. Indeed many 
     laughed at the mere suggestion of the idea.
       I proposed in 1980 that this great goal could be achieved 
     through incremental steps. First, by establishing a 200-mile 
     free trade zone along the U.S.-Mexico border as a pilot 
     program for ten years and then expanding into a complete free 
     trade agreement among the nations of North America--and then 
     expanding to include all of the Americas.
       Within 18 months, events in Mexico and the United States 
     and the increased trade competition from Asia and Europe 
     confronting U.S. companies combined to create a mushrooming 
     maquiladora system with limited free trade, roughly in the 
     200-mile zone 1 had proposed as a first step. In the 
     following ten years, some 1,500 co-production ventures 
     mushroomed in the de facto zone on the Mexican side of the 
     border making it the largest source of new jobs in Mexico and 
     enabling U.S. companies to survive against the tremendous 
     competition from Asia and Europe.
       This experience of nearly 10 years convinced both countries 
     that expanded free trade and co-production presented 
     substantial mutual benefits to the people and economies of 
     both nations. This led to President Carlos Salinas' bold 
     initiative with President George Bush in 1990 to begin free 
     trade negotiations with the United States and Canada. These 
     long negotiations, augmented by side agreements at the 
     request of President Bill Clinton, resulted in the North 
     American Free Trade Agreement, which became effective on 
     January 1, 1994--thirteen years after I had proposed it from 
     this platform as the first critical building block for a 
     Western Hemispheric Common Market.
       As I speak to you today, plans are firming up for a meeting 
     of 34 elected leaders of our hemisphere, to be hosted by 
     President Clinton in Miami this December. In his announcement 
     of the event, the President said that this ``Summit of the 
     Americas'' will be ``a unique opportunity to build a 
     community of free nations diverse in culture and history but 
     bound together by a commitment to responsive and free 
     government, vibrant civil societies, open economies and 
     rising living standards for all our people.''
       Well, Mr. President . . . I could not have said it better 
     and I thank you for embracing the dream which I dreamed, in a 
     much different hemisphere, so many years--and so many rows of 
     cotton--ago.
       The upcoming summit will provide the forum for cooperation 
     among the nations of this hemisphere towards solving problems 
     of the environment, expanding human rights, promoting good 
     governance and greater social inclusion. It will also advance 
     the dialogue towards an expansion of NAFTA by the entry of 
     other individual countries or by the affiliation of already-
     forming regional trade groups.
       Regional trade groupings in the Americas are the order of 
     the day. In the southern cone, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay 
     and Uruguay are on the road to completing their common 
     market, ``MERCOSUR.'' Older groupings of the Andean, Central 
     American and Caribbean countries are modernizing. Chile and 
     Colombia are actively pursuing entry into NAFTA. The day is 
     dawning when a hemispheric common market, encompassing 
     countries from the north to the south poles will help the 
     Americas to better compete in the global marketplace.
       As this global marketplace changes, the workplaces that 
     supply it will undergo transformation. ``Aggie'' graduates 
     before you likely worked for a well-established firm and 
     likely stayed with it for most of a career. You will more 
     probably be employed by, or will create, a small firm, 
     established to meet a specialized objective. Your typical 
     employment span will average five years.
       This economic sea change will require courage and 
     flexibility and well-defined professional goals on your part. 
     You will be called upon to meet new and stronger competition 
     and to do so sensibly, maintaining and improving worker 
     training programs and other benefits for existing employees, 
     creating new jobs for the ever increasing number of 
     applicants and improving the social services for those who 
     cannot work or require assistance. Additionally, your 
     generation will be called upon to reduce the demand on our 
     non-renewable natural resources and to restore balance to a 
     physical environment burdened by population pressures and 
     unwise use.
       Your leadership, vision and hope will meet these 
     challenges, will overcome the obstacles and lead our nation 
     and our world to the frontiers of mankind's coming age. ``If 
     not you . . . then who?''

                          ____________________