    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [December 9, 1994]
    [Pages 2164-2168]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 2164]]

    Remarks on Goals of the Summit of the Americas in Miami
    December 9, 1994

        Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. Thank you, ladies and
    gentlemen, for that warm welcome. Hillary and I and Vice President and
    Mrs. Gore are delighted to be here.
        We thank Governor Chiles and Mrs. Chiles, the Lieutenant Governor
    and Mrs. MacKay, the members of the Florida congressional delegation,
    Senator Graham, Senator Mack, the distinguished Members of Congress who
    have come from all over the United States to be here. I want to say a
    special word of thanks to Dante Fascell, the honorary cochair of this
    summit and a great man. I thank the mayors of Miami Beach and Miami, all
    the people who are involved in the metro Dade government, all the people
    who have worked so hard on this summit.
        You know, when we first announced the plans to hold the Summit of
    the Americas here in Miami, it seemed that it was a natural choice. This
    city, after all, has been variously described as the hub, the melting
    pot, the gateway, the crossroads of the Americas. But in the end we
    chose Miami because of the commitment of the people who live and work
    here to make this summit a success, led as the Vice President said by
    the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor.
        I won't dwell on all the subtle and not-so-subtle details of our
    many conversations about this. But let me say that they persuaded me
    that this was the reverse of that wonderful line in the movie ``Field of
    Dreams,'' where they said to us, ``If you come, we will build it.'' And
    you have, and I thank you.
        Your efforts have been extraordinary, and we are grateful for them.
    I have just been amazed at the energy that has come out of this
    community and this State over the last several months, the kind of
    energy that's supposed to be generated only by the Florida Sun. You
    promised that the citizens of Miami would do it right, and it's clear
    that you have delivered. I think I can say for all of those who have
    come from around America to be here, we knew we would need to be warm in
    December, and now we are, in more ways than one. And we thank you very,
    very much.
        History has given the people of the Americas a dazzling opportunity
    to build a community of nations committed to the values of liberty and
    the promise of prosperity. Now, over the next 3 days, the 34
    democratically elected leaders of our hemisphere will gather to begin to
    seize this opportunity.
        I convened this Summit of the Americas with three clear goals in
    mind: First, to open new markets and create a free trade area throughout
    our hemisphere; second, to strengthen this remarkable movement to
    democracy; and third, to bring together our nations to improve the
    quality of life for all of our people. If we're successful, the summit
    will lead to more jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for our children and
    for generations to come. We will have launched a new partnership for
    prosperity.
        Today we gather in Miami to mark a quiet revolution and to launch a
    new era, for here in the Americas, as all of us know, nation after
    nation has freed itself from dictatorship and debt and embraced
    democracy and development. When historians look back on our times, they
    will marvel at the speed with which democracy has swept across the
    entire Americas. Consider this: At the time of the last hemispheric
    summit in 1967, 10 countries suffered under authoritarian rule, and
    there were fewer here. But today, 34 of the hemisphere's leaders have
    won their posts through ballots, not bullets.
        This weekend we will welcome leaders like President Aristide of
    Haiti. We have all seen his commitment to reconciliation and the rule of
    law and how it is now moving his people from fear to freedom. And I hope
    I can take a moment of pride to salute the brave American men and women
    in uniform and their partners from around the world who helped to
    restore that democracy and freedom to Haiti. We are very proud of them.
    [Applause]
        Here at the Summit of the Americas, the people of the United States
    will meet a whole new generation of leaders, a generation no longer
    subject to the dictates of military juntas who stifle liberties and loot
    their nation, a generation that has proved in Central America that
    bloody regional conflicts can be peacefully concluded through
    negotiation and reform and reconciliation, a generation which has
    pledged to support democracy collectively wherever it is im-

    [[Page 2165]]

    periled in this hemisphere. That's a commitment no other region in the
    world has made.
        These leaders are here in Miami because they have tapped what Simon
    Bolivar, the Liberator of Latin America, called ``the most sacred
    spring,'' ``the will of the people.'' Today, just a day before the
    anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
    Rights, we honor them, all of them. And we must also honor the brave men
    and women who dedicated themselves to the cause of freedom and liberty
    and who today lie all across this hemisphere in unmarked graves. This
    summit is also a tribute to their astonishing sacrifice. And it is their
    triumph as well.
        Only one nation in our hemisphere is not represented here. It's the
    only one where democracy is still denied. We support the Cuban people's
    desire for peaceful, democratic change, and we hope that the next time
    we have one of these summits and the people of all the Western
    Hemisphere send their leaders here, a leader of a democratic Cuba will
    take its place at the table of nations. [Applause] Thank you.
        The wave of political freedom that has swept across the Americas has
    also been matched by unprecedented economic reform. In these times of
    very great stress, farsighted leaders in nation after nation have
    adopted sound policies to tame inflation, to restore economic growth.
    They've cut tariffs, stabilized currencies, opened their economies to
    foreign investment. They have worked together to shrink mountains of
    debt. They've privatized; they've decentralized.
        Argentina has cut its central government by 60 percent in 4 years.
    Bolivia has given back to local communities more responsibility for
    health, for education, for agriculture. Brazil has slashed its inflation
    rate. The so-called lost decade in Latin America is a fading memory.
    These reforms are working wonders. Investment is growing. The middle
    class is again on the rise. The Western Hemisphere now boasts the second
    fastest growing economies in the world. And if current trends continue,
    within just a decade our hemisphere will be the biggest market in the
    world, more than 850 million consumers buying $3 trillion worth of goods
    and services. These are remarkable, hopeful times.
        Here in the United States, we, too, have developed a comprehensive
    economic strategy to reap the rewards of this moment. We had a lot of
    work to do just to put our economic house in order. We've made deep cuts
    in our deficit, in Federal spending, in the size of the Federal
    Government. For the first time since Harry Truman was President, this
    year we will have 3 years of reduction in our deficit in a row. We are
    already taking our Federal Government down to its smallest size since
    John Kennedy was President. We have made major steps toward deregulation
    in banking and trucking and deregulating the States in the areas of
    welfare, health, and education. And we have just begun to move in this
    direction.
        Our country has produced over 5 million new jobs in the last 22
    months. We've got the lowest unemployment rate in 4 years and have been
    voted by the annual panel of international economists as the world's
    most productive economy for the first time in 9 years. But the thing
    that gives me the most hope, after all the years--nearly two decades--in
    America of American families working longer workweeks for stagnant wages
    and more fragile benefits, is that this year more high-wage jobs have
    come into our economy than in the previous 5 years combined. We hope
    that we are seeing the beginning of the end of a 20-year trend in
    stagnant wages, and the beginning of the restoration of the American
    dream by reaching out to the world and into our hearts.
        Still, we know that millions of Americans have not felt this
    economic recovery. Millions of Americans are still working harder for
    less and feeling very uncertain, even as they read all the good
    statistics in the newspaper. We have a lot of work to do. But the truth
    is that the United States has never been in a stronger economic position
    to compete and win in the world.
        We're also taking bold steps to open new markets and to make the
    global economy work for our people. For 40 years, our markets have been
    more open than those of any other nations. We led the restoration of
    economic hope and opportunity after the Second World War. But now that
    competition is everywhere and productivity is growing and the lessons of
    management, technology, and investment are readily apparent to
    hardworking people all across the world, we cannot allow that to
    continue. We simply must be able to export more of our goods and our
    services if we are going to create more high-wage jobs.
        Just a year ago yesterday, I signed into law NAFTA, the North
    American Free Trade Agreement. You can clap for that. [Applause] When
    Congress voted for NAFTA, that event commit-

    [[Page 2166]]

    ted the United States to continuing leadership and engagement in the
    post-cold-war world. It marked a new era in world trade relations for
    America, and it gave birth to this summit, which could not have occurred
    if that hadn't happened.
        In the first 9 months of this year, our exports to Mexico jumped 22
    percent. Increased exports to Mexico and Canada have helped us to create
    more than 100,000 new jobs in America in this year alone. Auto exports
    to Mexico are up 500 percent. And I might say, Mexican exports to the
    United States are also up. It's been a good deal for us, a good deal for
    them. There has been no ``giant sucking sound,'' except for American
    goods going across the border.
        Last month in Indonesia, we agreed with 17 other Asian-Pacific
    nations, including Mexico and Chile, two countries represented here, to
    achieve free trade in the Asian-Pacific region by the year 2020. The
    tariffs will begin to fall and give us new access to new markets in the
    fastest growing economies of the world far before then.
        And just yesterday I signed into law the bill implementing the
    General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the largest agreement ever for
    free and fair trade. And GATT, like NAFTA before it, passed because we
    had strong bipartisan support in Congress. That is a pattern that must
    prevail as we continue to pursue open markets and prosperity in this
    hemisphere and around the world. And I strongly urge all the nations in
    our hemisphere who have not yet done so to follow what America has done
    and implement this agreement now. It is an important thing for our
    future growth.
        Finally, let me emphasize that our economic strategy seeks to
    prepare our own people to fill the high-wage jobs of the future. For too
    many people, as I said earlier, these times are ones of great
    uncertainty. Pressures of the global economy have held down wages and
    increased job turnover for people who are not in a position to take
    advantage of the developments now occurring.
        We owe it to those Americans to provide the kind of lifetime
    education and training that will give them a chance to win in this
    economy as well. And we must ensure that basic labor standards are
    preserved and promoted so that freer trade means better working
    conditions for all. After all, in America, our people, our workers, are
    the most important asset we have. And that is true in every other nation
    as well. That's why democracy and free trade go hand-in-hand. More free
    trade is worthwhile only if its benefits actually change the lives of
    real people for the better.
        But as I have said over the last 2 years, that does not mean that we
    can repeal the laws of change, repeal the sweeping changes taking place
    in the global economy. If we do nothing to reach out to other countries
    than to expand trade, if we had walked away from NAFTA, if we had walked
    away from GATT, if we don't reach out here and throughout the world, the
    United States will still continue to suffer the burdens of trade, for we
    can't walk away. But if we reach out, as we are with NAFTA, with GATT,
    with the Summit of the Americas, if we act wisely, then we can make this
    new world work for us. Trade can be a benefit to our people. When we
    have the opportunity to sell American products and services around the
    world, we know we can compete, and we know that means new jobs and a
    rising standard of living, the core of the American dream.
        I will say again, we must in the United States not only create jobs
    but raise incomes. And we can only do that if we train people for higher
    wage jobs and if we create those jobs. One of the only ways we can
    create those jobs is to expand trade, especially in this hemisphere. So
    that's why every American worker in every part of the United States
    should be glad we are all here today at the Summit of the Americas.
        Now, I hope I've established why that is my primary goal for this
    summit. We have a real opportunity here to build on the momentum of
    NAFTA and GATT. That's what this new partnership of prosperity is all
    about, creating a free trade area that stretches from Alaska to
    Argentina. Let no one underestimate the significance of this--
    [applause]--someday I'll learn to coordinate my speech lines and the
    applause. [Laughter]
        Let me tell you, though--think about it--from Alaska to Argentina.
    People have talked about free trade in this hemisphere for years. It's
    been talked about and talked about. The difference is, here in Miami we
    have the chance to act, and we're going to take it.
        Let me try to describe in graphic terms what this means. Latin
    America is already the fastest growing region in the world for American
    exports. Of every dollar Latin Americans spend on exports, 44 cents buy
    goods made in the

    [[Page 2167]]

    U.S.A. Despite trade barriers that are, on average, 4 times higher than
    ours, Florida alone sold almost $9 billion worth of goods in the
    Americas in last year alone. And by the year 2005, if current trends
    continue, our country will sell more to Latin America than to Western
    Europe or Japan. That's why we're here. That's an investment worth
    making. Creating a free trade area would be good news throughout the
    Americas. Here in the United States, our exports to Latin America could
    literally double by the year 2005. That would create over one million
    new jobs.
        Exports also create good-paying jobs. On average, export-related
    jobs pay 17 percent more than average wages in America. They're the kind
    of jobs that guarantee the families that we are concerned about a fair
    shot at the American dream. And that is why we must succeed here.
        But trade is not the only goal of this meeting; there are two
    others. The second goal of our summit must be to preserve and strengthen
    our community of democracies. Continued economic prosperity clearly
    depends upon keeping the democracies alive and stronger. And we can only
    do that if we address the dangers to democracy that face all nations.
        Many of the dangers we face--consider them: international crime,
    narcotics trafficking, terrorism, environmental degradation--these
    things can only be overcome if we act in harmony. So in the days ahead
    we will discuss ways to seize the assets of money launderers, to explore
    new ways like those developed in Chile to prevent corruption from
    corroding our democracies, to move forward on all of these fronts.
        We must also keep our democracies healthy and open. Our hemisphere
    has come too far and the cost has been too great to return to the days
    of repression and dictatorship. So at the summit we will discuss how the
    Organization of American States can help to reconcile political disputes
    and ensure that democratic constitutions actually live and breathe.
        Here in the United States we know that democracy is hard work. We've
    been at it over 200 years, and we know we still have to defend it every
    day. We have to continually review how well our governments perform and
    even whether they should be doing some things at all. Our own efforts to
    cut the size and cost and improve the performance of Government, led by
    the Vice President and his reinventing Government team, demonstrates the
    immense importance and the great rewards of this undertaking. And we,
    too, have only just begun.
        The third goal of the summit is to bring our nations together to
    pursue sustainable development. That is far more than a buzzword. Our
    democracies and our prosperity will be short-lived if we do not figure
    out how to deal with the things that enable us to grow and come together
    and maintain our quality of life over the long run. Improving the basic
    health and education of our peoples is a key part of that sustainable
    development strategy.
        Consider our common efforts to eradicate polio, banished from our
    hemisphere since 1991. That shows you what cooperation can bring. So at
    this summit we will discuss ways that we can combat poverty, combat
    disease, increase health care, increase education, remove threats from
    millions and millions of our fellow citizens.
        Our summit agenda also calls for important talks aimed at making our
    environmental and trade policies mutually supportive. Threats to our
    environment respect no border and ultimately can undermine our
    economies. We must discuss initiatives that will make progress. We're
    going to talk about things like banning lead from gasoline in every
    country, conserving nature's diversities, spreading innovative
    environmental technologies. We will be doing the kinds of things that
    will permit us to sustain the remarkable trends of the last few years.
        At the summit, in support of expanding trade and democracy and
    sustainable development, we will consider more than 20 initiatives, all
    told, to plot a course for the future. And I am convinced that we will
    succeed as long as we recognize that the bonds that unite us are
    stronger than the forces that divide us.
        Once the United States and our neighbors were clearly divided by
    seemingly unbridgeable cultural and economic gulfs. But today,
    superhighways, satellite dishes, and enlightened self-interest draw us
    together as never before. Our economies are increasingly interwoven. And
    Latin American and Caribbean contributions to American culture, in great
    novels, fine foods, spirited music, free television networks, and many
    other ways, grow every day. By the year 2020, the United States of
    America may well boast a Spanish-speaking population second only in size
    to Mexico's. The connections between north and south in the Americas
    are, in short, a source of great energy. We have to strengthen

    [[Page 2168]]

    these bonds. We've got to make them work for the benefit of all of our
    people.
        On this very day, 170 years ago, the foot soldiers of Bolivar's army
    won the Battle of Ayacucho, the last battle for liberation between the
    people of the New World and colonial Spain. With that triumph, Peru
    proclaimed its independence, and a new era began in our hemisphere. It
    was an era that Bolivar hoped would produce greater unity among the pan-
    American states. Well, his dream was not realized in his lifetime, and
    generation after generation has struggled without success to make it
    real.
        In our own century, President Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy, as
    Vice President Gore said, sought to unite the hemisphere by urging
    mutual respect among all and recognizing even then, long ago, the
    importance of our interdependence. Three decades later, President
    Kennedy's Alliance for Progress inspired the peoples of the Americas
    with its vision of social justice and economic growth.
        Today, we can build on those foundations and do what could not be
    done in former times. We can create a partnership for prosperity where
    freedom and trade and economic opportunity become the common property of
    the people of the Americas. Just imagine it: a hemisphere where disputes
    among and within nations are peacefully and honorably resolved, where
    cultures and nations are universally and mutually respected, where no
    person's rights are denied and labor is not abused, where ideas and
    trade flow freely across borders, where work is rewarded and families
    and communities are strong. Just imagine it.
        My fellow Americans, this is a magic moment. Let us seize it.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:30 p.m. at the Jackie Gleason Theater
    for the Performing Arts. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Lawton
    Chiles of Florida and his wife, Rhea; Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay and his
    wife, Anne; Mayor Seymour Gelber of Miami Beach; and Mayor Steve Clark
    of Miami.