    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 18, 2000]
    [Pages 963-965]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Trade and Development Act of 2000
    May 18, 2000

        The President.  I would like to, first of all, welcome all of you
    here to the South Lawn on this beautiful day for this important
    occasion. I thank the members of the Cabinet and the administration who
    are here. I thank the very large number of Members of Congress who are
    here from both parties, the mayors and other public officials who
    supported this legislation. I want to thank our Special Envoy for the
    Americas, Buddy MacKay, my point
    person on the Caribbean Basin Initiative, and our former and first
    Special Envoy to the Americas, Mack McLarty.
        I'd like to say a special word of appreciation to Senator Roth and Senator Moynihan, to Representative Rangel and Representative Archer, to
    Senator Lott and to Speaker Hastert, who supported this legislation, and to all the Members
    who worked so hard to get this bill passed, including Representatives
    Crane, Jefferson, McDermott, Payne, Royce, and so many others who
    are here, too numerous to mention. I want to thank the members of the
    diplomatic corps who are here, who also supported this initiative.
        The votes in the House and the Senate for the Trade and Development
    Act of 2000, what is commonly known as Africa-CBI, were bipartisan and
    overwhelming, because they reflect the judgment that the results of this
    legislation will be good for the United States, good for Africa, good
    for Central America, and the Caribbean.
        This day has been a long time coming, but it is here. It is clear
    that by breaking down barriers to trade, building new opportunities, and
    raising prosperity, we can lift lives in every country and on every
    continent. Nowhere is that more apparent than here in the United States,
    where our exports and our open markets have given us the longest
    expansion in our history with low inflation.
        This bill reaffirms that position. And I hope it will be reaffirmed
    next week when Congress votes on permanent normal trade relations with
    China. Congress will have another opportunity in considering the ``Trade
    Preference Act for the Balkans,'' another poor region of the world that
    is important to our future.
        Today I want to focus, though, on the areas that are affected by
    this legislation, on the Caribbean Basin and Africa.
        Sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 700 million people, one of
    our biggest potential

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    trade partners. I say potential because American exports now account for
    only 6 percent of the African market. This bill will surely change that
    as it expands Africa's access to our markets and improves the ability of
    African nations to ease poverty, increase growth, and heal the problems
    of their people. It promotes the kinds of economic reform that will make
    sub-Saharan nations, on the long run, better allies, better trade
    partners, and stronger nations.
        Closer to home, in the Caribbean Basin, we already have strong trade
    relations. Last year our exports to the region exceeded $19 billion,
    making it the sixth largest market for our goods, larger than France or
    Brazil. That is remarkable but not as remarkable as the transformation
    of Central America and the Caribbean as a whole.
        Despite the aftermath of war, the devastation of natural disasters,
    the region has made great strides toward recovery, democracy, peace, and
    prosperity. On all my visits to the region, I have marveled at these
    changes.
        Trade is one of the most powerful engines driving development in the
    region, and the Caribbean Basin Initiative has played a part. It's a key
    building block to a free trade area of the Americas, which I hope we
    will have in the next few years.
        What we see in the Caribbean Basin and in Africa is that trade can
    broaden the benefits of the global economy and lift the lives of people
    everywhere. But it is not enough, and our agenda for the developing
    world must be multifaceted, recognizing that trade must work for all
    people and that spirited competition should lift all nations. I am
    pleased, for example, that this bill contains important child labor
    protections authored by Senator Harkin.
        I'd also like to say that there's another big issue I hope we'll
    take up, as the Congress had been willing to do last year and again in a
    bipartisan fashion. Too many nations, developing nations, are still
    forced to choose between paying interest on their debts and meeting
    basic human needs for clean water, shelter, health, and education. Last
    year the wealthiest nations pledged faster and deeper debt relief to
    developing nations that make needed reforms, countries like Honduras,
    Nicaragua, many in sub-Saharan Africa. In September I pledged to go even
    further and make it possible to forgive all the debt of the poorest
    countries--that the poorest countries owe to the United States. And I am
    pleased that since then, every other wealthy nation has made the same
    commitment.
        Now, we're here today because so many Members of Congress and those
    who talk to them dedicated themselves to trade, to development, to the
    future of the Caribbean Basin and Africa. Today I ask that we apply that
    same energy to our debt relief efforts.
        I would also just like to take a few moments to remind you of what
    we all know, which is that there are enormous health challenges in the
    developing nations, which threaten their prosperity, their future, and
    could threaten their democracy. We know the massive human and economic
    costs the AIDS epidemic exacts in Africa, where every day 5,500 people
    die. Last week I took executive action, building on the work of Senator
    Feinstein, to make AIDS-related drugs more affordable there. I've asked
    the Congress to enact tax incentives to speed the development and
    delivery of vaccines for AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis and to
    contribute to a global fund for the purchase of such vaccines so that
    they will go where they're most needed. And I hope again we will have a
    strong bipartisan level of support for this.
        Finally, let me say that the legislation I sign today is about more
    than development and trade. It's about transforming our relationship
    with two regions full of good people trying to build good futures who
    are very important to our own future.
        During the cold war, to many Americans, Central America was a
    battleground and Africa was a backwater. All that has changed. We have
    worked hard the last few years to build genuine partnership with both
    regions, based on not what we can do for them, not what we can do about
    them but on what we can do with them to build democracy together.
        Let me finally say just a couple of words about Africa, because the
    good news this week comes against the backdrop of some tragic
    developments on the continent. Two of Africa's poorest but most
    promising nations, Ethiopia and Eritrea, resumed their senseless war.
    For over 2 years we've worked with the OAU to resolve that dispute. We
    won't abandon the effort. But Ethiopia and Eritrea must first see that
    backing away from self-destruction is not the same thing as backing
    down. Giving your people a future is not cowardice; it's common sense
    and courage.

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        We are also working with our African partners to support the people
    of Sierra Leone and the U.N. forces there, and we will do what is
    necessary to provide military transport and other support so the U.N.
    will get the reinforcement it needs.
        We need to see the problems of Africa plainly and do our best to
    meet them. But that must not obscure the promise of Africa, which is
    also profoundly clear. It is the home to three of the world's fastest
    growing economies--three of the four fastest growing economies in the
    world are African economies. The progress of democracy, from Nigeria to
    South Africa; the proof offered by countries like Uganda that AIDS and
    other diseases can be arrested and the rates can be reduced where the
    governments care to try and work with people to do the hard things; even
    in Sierra Leone, we see signs of hope, and we have been working with
    other nations in Africa to increase the capacity to meet the challenge
    there.
        We must not avoid our neighbors in Central America and the Caribbean
    or our friends half a world away in Africa. We must build a better
    future together with both. That's what this is all about. That's the
    ultimate message of this trade bill.
        I could not be prouder that over 70 percent of both Houses voted for
    this legislation, that majorities in both parties supported this
    legislation.
        Again, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank
    you and Senator Lott for the role you played. I
    want to thank the members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the
    Hispanic Caucus and the others whom I have just mentioned and everyone
    else who is here. This is a happy day for America. And 5 years from now,
    10 years from now, 15 years from now, as we grow closer and closer and
    closer to our neighbors in the Caribbean and Central America and to our
    friends in Africa, we will look back on this day and say this was a big
    part of how it all began.
        Thank you very much.
        And now I'd like to call up here a gentleman who worked very, very
    hard for this day, the minority leader of the Democrats on the House
    Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Charles Rangel from New York.

     [At this point, Representatives Charles B. Rangel and Bill Archer, Senators William
    V. Roth, Jr., and Daniel Patrick
    Moynihan, and U.S. Trade
    Representative Charlene Barshefsky made
    brief remarks.]

        The President.  I would like to invite all the Members of Congress
    who are here to please come up and join us on the stage for the signing,
    along with Ambassador MacKay,
    wherever he is. Come on up here.

     Note:  The President spoke at 3:08 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. H.R. 434, approved May 18, was assigned Public Law No. 106-200.
    The Executive order of May 10 on access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals and
    medical technologies is listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.