[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[June 19, 1991]
[Page 700]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the Establishment of the 
Council on Trade and Investment
June 19, 1991

    The United States today signed a framework agreement with Argentina, 
Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay establishing a Council on Trade and 
Investment. The President, accompanied by Brazilian President Fernando 
Collor, participated in the Rose Garden ceremony. United States Trade 
Representative Carla A. Hills signed for the United States. The other 
signatories were Argentine Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella, Brazilian 
Foreign Minister Francisco Rezek, Paraguayan Foreign Minister Alexis 
Frutos Vaesken, and Uruguayan Foreign Minister Hector Gros Espiell.
    The framework agreement is the first signed with a regional group 
since the President announced the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative 
(EAI) on June 27, 1990. The United States has signed bilateral framework 
agreements with eight other countries of this hemisphere under the EAI.
    The objectives of this Council, established by this framework 
agreement, are to monitor trade and investment relations, identify 
opportunities for expanding trade and investment through liberalization 
and other appropriate means, and negotiate implementing agreements. It 
will also seek to consult on specific trade and investment matters of 
interest to both parties and identify and work to remove impediments to 
trade and investment flows. Under the agreement, the five countries 
agreed to seek the cooperation of the private sector in matters related 
to the work of the Council.
    In his remarks during the signing ceremony, the President praised 
the accord, noting that the proposal for a multilateral agreement had 
come from the four Latin American countries. He reaffirmed that the U.S. 
goal is for a hemispheric free trade area stretching from Alaska in the 
north to Tierra del Fuego in the south, and promised that the United 
States would implement this agreement with the same spirit of 
cooperation and innovation that produced it in the first place.
    At President Collor's suggestion, the parties have agreed to refer 
to this agreement as the Rose Garden Agreement.