    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [April 18, 1998]
    [Pages 585-587]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Opening Session of the Summit of the Americas in
    Santiago, Chile
    April 18, 1998

        President Frei, distinguished heads of
    state, leaders of the Chilean Congress, Supreme Court, members of the
    diplomatic corps, President Wolfensohn,
    President Iglesias, Secretary General
    Gaviria, Secretary General Ruggiero, Director General Alleyne; 4 years ago in Miami, we, the democratic nations of this
    hemisphere, met in the historic Summit of the Americas and pledged
    ourselves to a common future rooted in shared values, shared burdens,
    shared progress, and embodied in our call for a free trade area of the
    Americas by 2005.
        I thank all my fellow leaders and their governments for their
    faithfulness to the summit process. I thank especially those who helped
    us to begin the Summit of the Americas in 1994.
        Now we come together in Santiago. What shall we do? First, we should
    celebrate a new

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    reality in the Americas, the march of freedom, prosperity, peace, and
    partnership among our nations. Second, we should recognize that in all
    our nations too many people have not felt this new reality, and we
    should resolve to continue to work together until they do.
        As we look back on the 3\1/2\ years since the Miami summit, there is
    much to be proud of, as our report, ``From Words to Deeds'' documents.
    The economy of the region has grown 15 percent. Last year average growth
    was 5 percent, and inflation was the lowest in 50 years. Chile and
    Uruguay have set the standard for poverty reduction and fiscal
    responsibility. Brazil and Argentina have slowed inflation to a crawl.
    Mexico has overcome adversity, transformed its economy, broadened its
    democracy. Bolivia has attracted new foreign investments and given its
    citizens a greater stake in their future. Venezuela's Apertura program
    is drawing investment to develop its energy resources. Peru and Ecuador,
    with a little help from their friends, are working towards a peaceful
    end to their decades-long border dispute. Central America, after years
    of strife, is well on the way to achieving its long-held vision of
    democracy and integration and growth. Caribbean nations are joining
    forces to expand their economies and to defend their shores against
    drugs and crime.
        Together we have begun to create the free trade area of the
    Americas, a thriving market of 800 million people invested in each
    other's future, enriching each other's lives, weaving a tapestry of
    interdependence that strengthens every nation. The Americas have set a
    new standard for the world in the defense of liberty and justice through
    our collective commitment to defend democracy wherever it is at risk in
    our hemisphere. Concerted action by neighbors and friends already has
    helped to restore or preserve democracy and human rights in Haiti,
    Guatemala, and Paraguay.
        Our cooperation in the fight against drugs has intensified, based on
    an understanding that drugs are a problem for all of us and all of us
    must work together to attack both demand and supply. We've adopted tough
    new measures against money laundering, forged the first multilateral
    treaty in the world to fight corruption, so that our societies will be
    governed by the rule of law. We have signed an historic convention to
    stop the illegal trade in guns in our hemisphere. We're working to
    advance the environment and public health.
        Our people are healthier, our water safer, our air cleaner than 4
    years ago. We are wiping measles off our hemisphere's map, dropping from
    more than 23,000 cases in 1994 to less than 500 so far this year. We're
    phasing out lead from gasoline. In 1996, 12 nations achieved this goal;
    by 2001, there will be 20. We're working together to promote a clean
    energy future and to meet the challenge of climate change.
        I thank the efforts of many people in this regard, the Vice President and our Government and many in
    other governments throughout this hemisphere.
        The Miami summit was a watershed in the history of our hemisphere,
    as the leaders of free people embraced a common vision of the future and
    a common strategy for achieving it. The journey from Miami to Santiago
    has been filled with progress toward our goals. Now, here, and on the
    road forward from here, we must do more to ensure that the path of
    reform and democracy and integration actually lifts the lives of
    ordinary people in all our nations.
        Poverty throughout the hemisphere is still too high; income
    disparity is too great; civil society too fragile; justice systems too
    weak; too many people still lack the education and skills necessary to
    succeed in the new economy. In short, too few feel change working for
    them. Therefore, with democracy and free markets now in place, we must
    vigorously launch a second generation of reforms for the next generation
    of Americans. No priority is more important than giving our children an
    excellent education.
        The fate of nations in the 21st century turns on what all citizens
    know and whether all citizens can quickly learn. Too often, resources
    are spent primarily on higher education for the few. We must all
    redirect our focus toward higher quality education for all. I especially
    thank Presidents Frei, Cardoso, Menem, and
    Zedillo for their leadership to give all our
    children a good education, with well-equipped classrooms, well-trained
    teachers, high standards, and accountability. This is a goal we must
    vigorously embrace and work hard to realize.
        We will also work here to deepen democracy and respect for human
    rights. We know free elections are democracy's first step, not the last.
    We'll support the Organization of American States special rapporteur for
    freedom of expression; launch a regional justice center to train

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    judges and prosecutors; strengthen local government institutions to
    bring power closer to people; and in its 50th year of the Universal
    Declaration of Human Rights, we will redouble our efforts to protect the
    human rights of all people.
        We will also do more to defend democracy against its enemies,
    corruption, terrorism, and drugs. The new hemispheric alliance against
    drugs we will launch here will encourage, support, and improve all our
    national efforts to fight this common threat as partners. We'll continue
    to promote our common prosperity by launching negotiations for a free
    trade area of the Americas.
        I want to underscore the importance we attach to a special civil
    society committee that will allow a broad array of stakeholders, within
    all our societies, the opportunity to make their voices heard. If
    economic integration in a global economy is to work for all people, we
    must demonstrate that we can have economic growth and lift labor
    standards for all our workers. We must demonstrate that we can grow the
    economy and preserve, indeed, even improve the environment. This civil
    society committee will give the peoples of our nations the chance to
    make that argument, and we must prove that we can make the argument
    work.
        Let me reaffirm to all my colleagues, the United States may not yet
    have fast-track legislation, but we will. And I assure you that our
    commitment to the free trade area of the Americas will be in the fast
    lane of our concerns.
        We must do that. After all, more than one-third of the United States
    growth in the last few years has come from expanded trade. More than 40
    percent of our exports go to our neighbors seated on this platform. We
    can only continue to grow and create jobs in the United States if we
    continue to reach out to our neighbors for more open markets and freer
    trade. That is the fundamental observation that all of us share. Your
    prosperity lifts ours; our prosperity lifts yours. As more good jobs are
    created in any nation, as economies grow and people thrive, they become
    better partners for each other and for others around the world. Finally,
    we must take further steps to lift people from poverty and spread the
    benefit of progress to every member of society, from supporting women's
    full participation in the lives of our countries to providing loans to
    microentrepreneurs to broadening property ownership.
        Now, this Santiago agenda is ambitious, but it is imperative. Again,
    let me applaud President Frei for his
    leadership, for bringing us all here together and for supporting such a
    broad and deep agenda. If we are to seize the opportunities and meet the
    challenges of our time, we must pursue this agenda, and we must do it
    together.
        The first broad meeting of representatives from our hemisphere took
    place in 1889 in Washington, DC. Times were different and slower then.
    The delegates met for more than 6 months and toured around our Nation by
    train. The only bad thing was they had to listen to even more speeches.
    But in that meeting our predecessors, drawing on Bolivar's vision of
    hemispheric unity, set a precedent for cooperation that grew over 50
    years later from that seed into the OAS.
        Four years ago at Miami, we planted the seed of a new partnership
    for a new century. Now we can and must do what is necessary for that
    seed to grow--to grow in freedom and opportunity and cooperation. The
    Americas can be a model for all the world in the 21st century. That is,
    after all, the spirit of the Summit of the Americas and the promise of
    Santiago.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:35 a.m. in the San Cristobol Room at the
    Sheraton Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to James D. Wolfensohn,
    President, World Bank; Enrique Iglesias, President, Inter-American
    Development Bank; Cesar Gaviria, Secretary General, Organization of
    American States; Renato Ruggiero, Secretary General, World Trade
    Organization; Sir George A.O. Alleyne, Director, Pan American Sanitary
    Bureau; President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil; President Carlos
    Saul Menem of Argentina; and President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico.