[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[February 11, 1992]
[Pages 226-227]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Multilateral Investment Fund Agreement Signing Ceremony

February 11, 1992
    Welcome, especially, excellencies. And may I single out President 
Iglesias of the IDB, thank him for being here; and of course, Secretary 
Brady, who has been so instrumental from the U.S. side in all of this.
    Today marks another milestone along the path of mutual progress for 
the United States and its friends and neighbors. And we move another 
step closer to fulfilling the vision of a free, peaceful, and prospering 
Western Hemisphere.
    As we sign the charter for the new Multilateral Investment Fund, we 
advance the far-sighted aims of Enterprise for the Americas Initiative. 
Our new fund is an exciting innovation. It will provide targeted support 
for Latin American countries as they transform lumbering, state-run 
industries into efficient private enterprises.
    This fund assures our neighbors that together we share a stake in a 
better future and that we will stand by them and help them as they carry 
out some very difficult reforms. In a neighborhood of free and growing 
economies, investment helps everyone. Our effort today will lift the 
tide of hope and freedom, and it will free up new resources so that the 
men and women throughout the Americas can carry their dreams and 
achievements as far as their God-given talents will take them.
    Make no mistake: The future growth of the United States economy 
depends on expanding mutual investment and trade with our neighbors in 
the Americas. Flourishing trade and investment throughout the hemisphere 
will create new jobs and raise the quality of life for people in 
Syracuse and St. Louis as well as Sao Paolo and Santiago.
    Right now, we earn $62 billion, one in every seven of our worldwide 
export dollars, from Latin America. Well over half of our foreign 
investment in developing countries goes to Latin America. And we're 
moving forward to create in this hemisphere a new free trade area of 360 
million consumers and $6 trillion in annual output, the North American 
free trade area of Mexico, Canada, and the United States.
    This commitment will endure because we're in this to stay. And I 
know the people of the United States. And I can assure you that we will 
say no to the gloomy spirits that want to make pessimism a self-
fulfilling prophecy. We embrace a future founded upon freedom, 
opportunity, and growth.
    Working Americans and those looking for work have common sense. And 
they know that when other countries develop their economies, that 
results in more sales for America's airplanes and computers and other 
capital goods. The world is buying U.S. products at a record pace. Over 
the past 5 years, nearly half of America's real economic growth has been 
in exports. During those same 5 years, U.S. exports to Latin America and 
the Caribbean increased by 12 percent annually, much faster than the 
exports to the rest of the world.
    Exports will carry us to rewarding new destinations in our future. 
And remember what exports do right here at home. Every billion dollar 
increase in exports generates 20,000 new jobs in the United States. And

[[Page 227]]

so, the long and short of it is, the prophets of American decline simply 
don't grasp the facts.
    The 21 countries represented here already have pledged more than 
$1.2 billion to this important fund for our future. The U.S. pledge 
alone is $500 million, one-third of the $1.5 billion goal; Japan 
pledging an equal amount. I urge the United States Congress to act 
without delay to provide the funds to fulfill our pledge. And I also 
urge Congress to support debt reduction under the broader Enterprise for 
the Americas Initiative which will provide further support for U.S. 
exports, investment, and jobs.
    Let me salute all of the representatives of the nations 
participating in this promising new effort. I want to commend the Inter-
American Development Bank, its president, Enrique Iglesias, who will 
administer the new fund. And I am confident, sir, that you will do an 
outstanding job with your new responsibility.
    This is a moment not so much for us but for future generations, 
really. It's they who will benefit from what's beginning here today. And 
it is for them that we invest in a new age of discovery and opportunity 
from Hudson Bay to the Straits of Magellan.
    And now I would like to invite all the signatories who are here 
today with us, those that have signed this agreement already, to come up 
here, and we can muster behind the two remaining, two final signatures.
    But thank you all for being here and for your constructive work on 
this wonderful project. Thank you.

                    Note: The President spoke at 2:33 p.m. in the 
                        Roosevelt Room at the White House. Following the 
                        President's remarks, Secretary of the Treasury 
                        Nicholas F. Brady and Enrique V. Iglesias, 
                        President of the Inter-American Development 
                        Bank, signed the agreement.