[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[May 10, 1997]
[Pages 588-594]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's News Conference With Caribbean Leaders in Bridgetown
May 10, 1997

    Prime Minister Arthur. Mr. Chairman, President of the United States 
of America, fellow Caribbean heads of state and government, Secretary 
General of CARICOM, distinguished delegates, members of the press. 
First, I should like to say that my wife and I are pleased that you 
could find it possible to come to share the residence with us. It is my 
pleasure to inform you that the just concluded Caribbean-United States 
summit has been a great success.
    The signing of the Bridgetown Declaration of Principles is tangible 
expression of the new partnership between the Caribbean States and the 
Government and the people of the United States of America. Equally 
important is a plan of action which gives concrete expression to the 
commitment of the Caribbean States and the United States of America to 
cooperate on trade, development, finance, the environment, as well as on 
justice and security.
    The summit has afforded our region the opportunity to present as one 
its perspectives on several concerns which we share with the United 
States of America. History and shared traditions already unite us. As 
technology and globalization bring us closer together, it is inevitable 
that meetings of this type will be necessary to share perspectives, 
coordinate actions, and to find solutions to common problems.
    On this historic occasion, we have been able to undertake a detailed 
review and analysis of critical aspects of the relationship between the 
Caribbean nations and the United States of America. We have also been 
able to lay the foundations for future cooperation and consultation.
    This summit is but the first step in a process of reaffirming and 
redefining a partnership between our two societies. We have come a long 
way in a short time from our first meeting at Sam Lord's castle through 
the meeting of the working groups and subcommittee in Tobago and St. 
Lucia, to a just concluded summit at Sherbourne and here at Ilaro Court.
    Through these discussions, Mr. President, your Special Envoy, Mr. 
Richard Clark, has been a valuable and critical advocate in advancing 
our discussions. The need for an accessible contact between us cannot be 
overstated. It is my hope that any arrangement of this type will not end 
with the summit activities but will continue to allow future 
consultations between the Governments of the Caribbean and United States 
to prosper.
    In the preparatory stages for the summit, the States of the 
Caribbean have been ably represented by the Foreign Minister Ralph Maraj 
of Trinidad and Tobago; Foreign Minister, Mr. Rohee of Guyana; Attorney 
General David Simmons of Barbados; and Ambassador Richard Bernal of 
Jamaica. I wish to place on record as well our appreciation for the 
magnificent contribution of the Secretary General of CARICOM and his 
staff and the advisers.
    Barbados is proud and honored to host this summit, the first of its 
kind between the Caribbean States and the Government of the United 
States of America. I am confident that history will recall this summit 
as having forged a new and a lasting bond between the people of our 
nations and those of the United States of America. It is in this spirit, 
therefore, that I now have the greatest pleasure in introducing the 
Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Right Honorable P.J. Patterson, Chairman 
of the Conference of Heads of Governments of the Caribbean Community to 
address you. I thank you.
    Prime Minister Patterson. Presidents of the United States of 
America, Haiti, Suriname, and Guyana, colleague heads of government, 
ladies and gentlemen. In the closest of families, difficulties are bound 
to arise from time to time in their relationships. For those 
relationships to endure, it is essential that they must have the 
capacity from time to time to meet within the bosom of the family and to 
sort out whatever difficulties may have arisen.
    Today is one such occasion. And as a result of the family meeting we 
have had among all the nations that are a part of the Caribbean, 
including the United States, we have agreed to chart a course that will 
enable us to move forward and together in the days ahead. We have 
discussed matters relating to democracy, development, and security, 
recognizing the considerable interlinkages which necessarily exist 
between all these important subjects.

[[Page 589]]

    Today we have signed the Bridgetown declaration and a plan of action 
which charts a course for progress and for unity and for integrated 
development within our region. We were very pleased at the firm and 
unequivocal commitment given by the President of the United States and 
his administration of the priority which is to be attached to the 
question of NAFTA parity. And we are pleased at the prospect of that 
legislation being presented to the consideration of the Congress of the 
United States and will do everything in our power to make 
representations that will ensure its favorable consideration and early 
passage.
    Not surprisingly, we spent some time on the issue of bananas. And I 
have the authority of the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Dr. Vaughn Lewis, 
to quote something he said to us today: ``For many of our countries, 
bananas is to us what cars are to Detroit.''
    Here in Bridgetown, we have reaffirmed our resolve to fight crime, 
violence, corruption, trafficking in drugs and illegal weapons by a 
seamless alliance between the United States of America and the sovereign 
nations of the Caribbean. We cannot allow the drug cartels and 
international criminal organizations operating in or across our borders 
to threaten our democratic institutions, to pervert our system of 
justice, and destroy the health and well-being of our citizens, young or 
old.
    We have also raised the need, if we are to be engaged in 
partnership, for there to be a process of collective evaluation and 
decisionmaking, rather than unilateral assessments. And we have 
established some machinery that will enable us to facilitate this.
    We are committed to the notion of a trans-Caribbean community which 
would embrace all the countries washed by the Caribbean Sea. This we see 
as a major plank in the new partnership which today's summit is intended 
to forge between the sovereign nations of the Caribbean and the United 
States.
    We see here in Bridgetown the opening of a new chapter, the start of 
a meaningful dialog. It was good for us to be here, and together we 
intend to do it the Caribbean way.
    President Clinton. Good afternoon. Prime Minister Arthur, Prime 
Minister Patterson, fellow Caribbean leaders, let me begin by thanking 
our Barbadian hosts for their hospitality and all the leaders for their 
hard work in making this summit a success.
    I'm honored to be here with the Secretary of State and several 
members of my Cabinet, as well as a distinguished delegation interested 
in the Caribbeans from the Congress: Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the 
Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus; Congressman Carlos Romero-
Barcelo, the delegate from Puerto Rico; and Governor Roy Schneider from 
the Virgin Islands.
    The partnership for prosperity and security in the Caribbean that we 
signed today is a broad and ambitious plan of action. It can make a real 
difference for our people's lives and livelihoods, promoting open and 
fair trade, protecting the environment, strengthening education, 
spreading telecommunications, extending loans to small businesses, and 
combating international crime and drug trafficking.
    Just as important as the commitments we've made is our determination 
to see them through with an ongoing, intensified process of Caribbean 
cooperation. The followup structures we've put in place, including an 
annual meeting among our foreign ministers and high-level working groups 
on justice and security and on development, finance, and the 
environment, will help us to turn our action plan into actions.
    I want to highlight two areas where our cooperation is especially 
important: helping our people to thrive in the global economy and 
fighting crime and drugs. The move toward open and competitive trade 
around the world and in our hemisphere is bringing new opportunities for 
people to prosper. But rapid change is disruptive as well, as people 
struggle to acquire new skills and nations strive to compete. The United 
States is working to ensure that the transition to free trade in our 
hemisphere is fair to our Caribbean partners.
    When I return to Washington, I will submit a Caribbean Basin trade 
enhancement act to Congress. When passed, this legislation will increase 
trade for all the Caribbean nations and help them to prepare to take 
part in a free-trade area of the Americas.
    We're also committed to help the Caribbean nations diversify their 
economies and become more competitive. I discussed with my fellow 
leaders their concern for the Caribbean banana industry. In pursuing and 
winning our case at the World Trade Organization, our target was a 
discriminatory European system, not the Caribbean nations. I made it 
clear that as we work toward a solution with our European partners,

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we will continue to support duty-free access for Caribbean bananas in 
the European market, and we will seek ways to promote diversification of 
the Caribbean economies.
    When economies are strong, they can better resist the pressures of 
organized crime, the drugpushers, the gunrunners, the alien smugglers, 
the criminal gangs. But to truly conquer them, we must work together. 
That's why I'm pleased we've been able to conclude agreements for 
maritime law enforcement cooperation with more countries in the region, 
including most recently Jamaica and Barbados. Today the United States 
committed to help our Caribbean partners strengthen their fight against 
drug trafficking, providing aircraft and Coast Guard cutters to patrol 
the sky and the sea. We will participate in international negotiations 
to outlaw and prevent traffic in illegal arms, and we will help to 
establish a Caribbean institute to train investigators and prosecutors 
to combat money laundering so that criminals will no longer be able to 
scrub the fingerprints off their profits.
    Working together, we can build a future of prosperity and security 
for our people. But the scope is broad, and a commitment is deep as the 
waters that link our shores.
    Thank you very much.

Cuba and Caribbean-U.S. Relations

    Q. Mr. President, I wonder, first of all, if you could comment on 
the tone of your discussions and your reception here today, given the 
admitted lack of U.S. attention to the region in the past. And 
specifically, given the political baggage that accompanies U.S. policy 
toward Cuba, were the Caribbean leaders able to offer you any 
constructive suggestions on how you could shift your handling of Havana 
more from the negative to the positive? And I'd also like to extend that 
question to any Caribbean leader who would like to take it.
     President Clinton. Well, first of all, we did not discuss Cuba. We 
talked about what those who are represented here could do together. And 
secondly, I believe that I have demonstrated my good faith and the good 
faith of this administration toward the Caribbean in many ways. We have 
already been together in Washington, right before our operation to 
restore democracy in Haiti. Most of us were gathered in Haiti when we 
celebrated that restoration. And I think it is well-known that at the 
time we fought for and succeeded in passing NAFTA in Congress, I made a 
strong plea that we make sure that the Caribbean nations not be 
discriminated against.
    I think we have now found a formula that will permit us to do that, 
that I believe has a good chance of passing in the Congress, and it is 
included in my budget. And so I feel quite good about the legislation 
I'm going to introduce, and I'm going to work hard to pass it and to 
establish a closer, more ongoing relations with all these nations.
    Do you want one of them to reply?
    Prime Minister Patterson. Our working sessions included a business 
session this morning, which we have just concluded, and a working lunch, 
to which we will now embark. There are a number of matters that could 
not be covered in the business session, and the opportunity of a working 
lunch among the heads will afford us an opportunity of discussing those 
subjects in the intimacy of that setting.
    The views of the Caribbean leaders are well known, insofar as Cuba 
is concerned. Cuba is a Caribbean territory. We would like to see steps 
taken that would integrate Cuba fully not only in the Caribbean family 
but into the hemispheric family of nations. And we would certainly want 
to use the opportunity to indicate to the President over lunch the steps 
which we think would be possible to secure that objective.
    Prime Minister Arthur. If I may, quickly. It should not escape your 
attention that this is the first-ever summit between the Government of 
the United States of America and the Caribbean that has ever been held 
on Caribbean soil. And that, in and of itself, should represent the 
sense of partnership that we are trying to build on matters of crucial 
importance to the two sets of societies. This spirit has not only been 
parlayed in the diplomatic sense of the word but has been constructive 
to the extent that it has sought to address matters of immediate 
consequence, as well as to lay a framework for the long-term development 
of the relationships between the two sets of societies.
    We have approached this summit with a sense of pragmatic optimism. 
We do not believe that all of the concerns between our two sets of 
societies will be dealt with in one swoop. But we feel that the putting 
in place of a partnership and a mechanism for the followup of actions 
will allow us to be able to redress some of

[[Page 591]]

the imbalances in the relationship of the past and chart new directions 
for the future.

Haiti

    Q. In the just-signed document, partner for prosperity, the chief of 
states and government at the summit pledged to give priority 
consideration to technologies such as the Internet. President Clinton, 
if asked by President Preval, will your administration tangibly support 
a plan to link all public schools in Haiti to the Internet by the year 
2004, on the 200-year anniversary of Haiti's independence?
    President Clinton. Well, this is the first I have heard about this 
specific proposal, so I hate to answer a question ``yes'' when I don't 
know whether I can do it or not. But let me say, you may know that we 
are attempting to link all of our classrooms and libraries to the 
Internet in the United States by the year 2000, and then we want to move 
aggressively to try to establish those kinds of interconnections with 
our allies elsewhere. And I believe that with Haiti struggling to both 
preserve democracy and overcome economic adversity, the nation and the 
children would benefit immensely if that could be done.
    So I would certainly be willing to try to help. If I know I can do 
it, I will tell you, yes, I can do it. But I haven't had time to be 
briefed on it. But I am very open to the suggestion, trying to help.

U.S. Arms Embargo Against Latin America and Whitewater Investigation

    Q. Thank you very much, Prime Minister Arthur--Wolf Blitzer from 
CNN. I wonder if all of you would be interested in reacting to the open 
letter from Oscar Arias that was written to President Clinton while he 
was in Costa Rica, appealing to him not to lift the U.S. arms embargo to 
sell sophisticated warplanes to countries in Latin America, which is on 
the agenda right now.
    And President Clinton, I wonder if you've made up your mind whether 
or not you're going to sell F-16's and other sophisticated warplanes and 
hardware to these countries, at a time when he says--former President 
Arias--that they need their money for more productive purposes as 
opposed to weaponry. And with the indulgence of your host, I wonder if I 
could ask you a parochial question. Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater 
independent counsel, at this hour is scheduled to be delivering a speech 
in which he says the White House is an impediment to his investigation, 
and I wonder if you have any reaction to his comment. Thank you.
    President Clinton. I don't object to the Prime Ministers commenting 
on--is this on? Now can you hear? I'll just speak up. I don't object to 
the Prime Ministers commenting on the arms decision, but on that I can 
tell you that no decision has been made yet.
    The United States will not knowingly do anything that will spark a 
new arms race or divert funds from defense to--from nondefense to 
defense areas in Latin America. The real question is whether or not the 
armies in question, where the militaries have discussed this with our 
country, are going to upgrade their militaries anyway and whether it 
would be better in fending off future conflicts and controlling defense 
spending for the United States, their hemispheric partner, to be the 
main supplier or someone else to be the main supplier.
    We have no interest in doing this for purely economic reasons, and 
we have no interest in promoting an arms race in Latin America. So the 
judgment that I'm trying to make--and I haven't received a final 
recommendation on it from my administration top personnel--is whether or 
not, given the facts in the various countries, it would be better for 
them and better for us and better for peace over the long run in Latin 
America for these airplanes essentially to be supplied by the United 
States as opposed to someone else.
    Now, on the other issue, I think that Mr. Starr must be--I haven't 
seen the speech, but I think he must be referring to the eighth circuit 
case, the facts of which have now been made public, and I don't have 
anything to add to what my counsel said. I think that it's obvious that 
for several years now we've been quite cooperative, and we'll continue 
to be. The White House Counsel made his statement, and I think it's 
clear and self-evident what he said and why.
    Would you like to say anything about the arms issue, either one of 
you?
    Prime Minister Patterson. I would say very simply that I have 
participated in a gathering at the conference center a few weeks ago at 
which the proposal conveyed by former President Arias to President 
Clinton was fully discussed and endorsed. Jamaica as a government 
supports the appeal.

[[Page 592]]

Immigration

    Q. President Clinton, what guarantees can you give us here in the 
Caribbean that your new immigration laws won't lead to mass repatriation 
of illegal Caribbean immigrants in the United States?
    And my second question is for Mr. Patterson. Can you tell us if 
you've got any assurance from the President that criminals in the 
United--Caribbean criminals in the United States won't be sent back home 
without any information being conveyed to you, without any mechanisms 
being put in place to deal with them when they arrive here?
    President Clinton. First of all, let me point out that I believe the 
United States has the most generous immigration policy of any large 
nation in the world. Last year, over 900,000 legal immigrants were 
admitted to the United States.
    In order to sustain a policy that generous, it also has to have some 
integrity. And looking at it, I suppose you could say we had two 
choices. We could just lower the legal immigration target dramatically 
to take account of all those who are entering illegally, or instead we 
could reward those who wait, play by the rules, and obey the law, and 
try to strengthen our capacity to stop illegal immigrants from coming 
into the country, which we propose to do by stiffening our controls 
primarily at the border, in the workplace, and when people get into the 
criminal justice system.
    Now, having said that, I can assure you, as I told the leaders of 
the Central American countries, no one nation or region will be 
targeted, and there will be no mass deportations. We are increasing our 
capacity to deal with people we find in the workplace, at the borders, 
in the criminal justice system.
    Finally--Prime Minister Patterson and Prime Minister Arthur might 
want to comment on this--I do not believe it is right for the United 
States to send people back to their native lands, who have been in our 
criminal justice system, without appropriate advance warning and notice. 
And I pledged to them that I would set up such a system. It is not right 
for us to do it otherwise.
    Would you like to say something?
    Prime Minister Patterson. By recognizing the right of each state to 
determine its policies on deportation, subject to international law, the 
plan of action to which we agreed set out a number of specific measures 
that should be put in place. The President has referred to one of them, 
the provision of adequate advance notice to designated authorities prior 
to the deportation of anyone. We also think that adequate information 
should be provided regarding the persons to be deported and, of course, 
it must be established that the person being deported is a national of 
the receiving state.
    Let me say very frankly why the problem is so acute. We have found 
in several cases people being deported who have lived in the United 
States not only for all their adult life, but have gone there from the 
days of early childhood with their entire families, and they have no 
family connection back in the Caribbean and no social contact to the 
communities to which they are being returned. And we, therefore, think 
if it is not to fuel the criminal problem, it is a matter that we have 
to address within the gambit of the cooperation to which we have pledged 
ourselves.
    Prime Minister Arthur. I wish to add, please, that on the matter of 
the possible effects of U.S. law on Caribbean immigrants was a matter 
that was frankly discussed at our summit today. We represented the 
concerns of our nationals, and we have impressed on the President the 
need for any legislation to be applied in a manner that is not 
discriminatory, nor is unfair, and nor that--undue--put at risk the 
security and prosperity of legal immigrants in the United States of 
America.
    And I just want to add on the second matter that as regards the 
matter of deportees, Barbados has managed to work out a comprehensive 
framework with United States of America on all matters pertaining to the 
fight against drugs. And I'm pleased to say that I'm advised by my 
Attorney General that included in that comprehensive framework is a 
protocol establishing the rules that will be applied in the return of 
Barbadians to Barbados. And we regard this as a substantial advance. And 
I'm also pleased that our plan of action sets out a multilateral 
approach to dealing with this potentially vexatious issue.

Immigration and Trade

    Q. You promised--on every stop of this trip, including today, you 
have promised to try to soften the new immigration law and try to extend 
trade preferences. But you can't get any

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of that done without congressional approval and, in the case of bananas, 
without cooperation with the European Union. What happens to these 
relationships here in Central America and in Mexico if you can't deliver 
on your rhetoric?
    President Clinton. Well, first of all, with regard to the 
immigration law, the only thing that I was attempting to change in the 
immigration law, the congressional leadership has agreed to change. 
They've agreed to restore benefits to legal immigrants, which I thought 
was important.
    We can, under the existing law, have the kind of protocols that 
Prime Minister Arthur discussed, where we pledge not to violate the 
human rights of any particular group of people, we pledge not to target 
any particular group, we pledge not to engage in mass deportations. That 
is not required under our law, nor was it contemplated.
    To say that a country should and must have the capacity to enforce 
its immigration law is not the same thing as saying that there's going 
to be some huge roundup here. We just want to be able to enforce the law 
when we come in contact with people who have plainly violated it. So I 
don't agree that we need congressional cooperation there, although I 
believe it's consistent with what Congress intended when they passed the 
law.
    Now, on this trade issue and on the question of getting fast-track 
authority from Congress, generally, I think that everyone understands, 
and I made it clear in our meetings, that all I could do was ask the 
Congress for its support, that there was opposition in both parties to 
expanded trade, but there was strong support in both parties to expanded 
trade. We've been through these arguments before in the last few years, 
but I would say the last time we had the debate back in '93, the 
American economy was not in nearly the shape it's in now and the 
Congress did the right thing for the future of America and the future of 
the Americas, and I believe it will be inclined to do so again.

Haiti

    Q. My question is directed to President Clinton. To fight the high 
cost of living, the Government of Haiti has put in place a program of 
agrarian reform to provide Haitian farmers with technical means and 
rural credit to increase their capacity of production. I would like to 
know if the United States is ready to help in realizing this agrarian 
reform in Haiti, because it is important for agriculture and for the 
people to find something to eat. That's number one.
    But number two, I would like to mention that in Haiti, there is a 
sense of profound gratitude toward you, personally, President Clinton, 
and toward the U.S.A. for the role played in the restoration of 
constitutional order in Haiti after the military coup d'etat that 
overthrew the first democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-
Bertrand Aristide. And following that, there were a lot of promises that 
gave hope to the Haitian people. But since then, except for some very 
limited contributions, there is a sense that the American 
administration, under your leadership, has not done enough to help meet 
the expectations and the most crucial needs of the Haitian people. My 
question is, what are the next steps that the United States intends to 
take to show that democracy can bring prosperity as promised in Haiti?
    President Clinton. Well, first of all, that is a complicated 
question because it requires significant actions on behalf of the 
Haitian people as well as those around the world who wish to support 
Haiti.
    I am going to have a meeting with President Preval later this 
afternoon, after lunch, and we are going to discuss that, and I will 
have some other examples of specific things the United States intends to 
do. But I can tell you that I believe that we should be involved, over 
the long run, in trying to help to restore the economy and to restore 
the environment of Haiti--without which the economy cannot be 
sustained--and to maintain the integrity of the democracy. So we will be 
working hard on all those issues within the limits of our ability to do 
it. We will do as much as we can. It's very important to me.

Whitewater Investigation

    Q. I know you answered Wolf's [Wolf Blitzer, Cable News Network] 
question, but you didn't go very far, and Ken Starr really came out 
quite strongly today. I wonder if you have begun to take this a little 
bit personally. And also today he said very strongly that he believes 
that White House lawyers are paid by the Federal Government, they 
represent the Federal Government, and as such, they are duty-bound to 
disclose relevant information to a Federal grand jury. As President, do 
you agree with that? And again,

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as I asked before, do you feel that this has become a little personal?
    President Clinton. Well, not on my part. Perhaps on--you know, you 
said he's the one that came out strongly. I'm just over here doing my 
job in the Caribbean. [Laughter]
    I can only say what I have said before. Chuck Ruff, whom I believe 
has a reputation as a lawyer of impeccable integrity and who is an 
expert in these kinds of processes, came to me and said that the effect 
of the decision would be not confined to the President, the First Lady, 
the Chief of Staff at the White House, any group of people, that the 
position that the Special Counsel was arguing for would, in effect, 
abolish the lawyer-client privilege between a Federal Government lawyer 
and a Federal employee at any level under any circumstances.
    Now, the law firms in America might be ecstatic about that because 
it would certainly make a lot more private business for lawyers. But he 
came to me and said, ``I cannot tell you how emphatically I believe that 
this case must be appealed.'' He said, ``I'm your lawyer; I know you 
haven't done anything wrong, I know you've made all the evidence 
available to them. This is a major constitutional question, and Mr. 
President, you do not have the right to go along with saying that every 
Federal employee in America should lose the attorney-client privilege 
under these circumstances if the Federal employee has a lawyer in the 
Federal Government.'' Now, that's what he said to me. I cannot enlighten 
you any more. If you want to know any more about it, you've got to ask 
him.

Note: The President's 145th news conference with Prime Minister Owen 
Arthur of Barbados and Prime Minister Percival James (P.J.) Patterson of 
Jamaica began at 1:33 p.m. at Prime Minister Arthur's residence, 
following the signing of the Bridgetown Declaration of Principles. In 
his remarks, President Clinton referred to Counsel to the President 
Charles F. Ruff and President Rene Preval of Haiti. Prime Minister 
Patterson referred to former President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.