[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
[[Page 964]]
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.
[[Page 965]]
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.