[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
[November 20, 2004]
[Pages 2987-2992]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at the Closing Session of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Summit in Santiago
November 20, 2004
Thank you very much. Sientese. Gracias. Thank you for the warm
welcome. It is such an honor to be in Chile. Who is ever responsible for
the weather, thank you very much. Laura and I are
delighted to be here. Chile is such a fabulous country. It's a great
place to talk about entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial spirit.
It's a country which shows the world what is possible when you create
the right conditions for economic vitality and economic growth. And
we're so honored to be here.
I want to thank my friend Ricardo Lagos
for organizing this summit. I appreciate the business leaders who are
here. I thank you for your interest in working collaboratively with
business leaders from around the world. And as a result of vision and
hard work, we meet today on the eastern rim of an incredibly dynamic
region.
In our lifetimes, we've seen the Asia-Pacific region grow in wealth
and freedom beyond many--beyond that which many thought was possible. If
you think back about 20 years ago, what people thought about the Asian-
Pacific region, they couldn't imagine such prosperity and such wealth
and such freedom. And that's what APEC is all about, as far as I'm
concerned. And that's why it's an honor to be here at this summit with
my fellow leaders.
Incredibly enough, APEC economies account for nearly half of all the
world trade and half of the world's economic output. For somebody who is
interested in prosperity for my own citizens, it's a good place to hang
out, with that much trade, commerce. And I believe that this new
century, with the right policies, can extend the prosperity even
further. And that's what we're here to discuss.
I believe we must increase the flow of trade and capital. I know our
societies must reward enterprise and open societies and open markets. I
know we've got to reject the blocks and barriers that divide economies
and people. And I believe, with the right policies, we can continue to
grow.
I'm honored to be here today with a man who has served our country
so well, a great United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Right after my speech, he's headed to the Middle
East. That's a heck of a retirement, Mr. Secretary. [Laughter] I look
forward to your report when you get back.
I want to thank the U.S. members of the APEC Business Advisory
Council. I want to thank you for your hard work. I want to thank you for
representing our country so well. I appreciate Gary Benanav and Mike Drucker--Mike Ducker
and Robert Prieto for your hard work in
organizing this summit and representing the business leaders who are
here.
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You know, what's interesting about our country is that for years, we
were isolated from the world by two great oceans, and for a while we got
a false sense of security as a result of that. We thought we were
protected forever from trade policy or terrorist attacks because oceans
protected us. What's interesting about today's world is that the oceans
now connect us. It didn't take all that long in the march of history for
that change to take place. And therefore, America must respect and value
the friendships that we're able to make as a result of our transatlantic
and transpacific ties. Right after I'm inaugurated, I'll go to Europe to
renew our transatlantic ties, to remind the people of Europe how
important my administration regards our vital Atlantic alliance.
And of course, our Nation is Pacific country as well. And that's why
the APEC* conferences are so important. Do you realize, the capital of
our 50th State is nearly as close to Sydney and Manila as it is to
Washington, DC? That's a Pacific Rim nation. More than 15 percent of
Americans claim Hispanic or Asian-Pacific heritage. Our APEC partners
account for nearly two-thirds of all American exports and imports.
America's future is inseparable from our friends in the Pacific. And by
working together and by continuing to foster reasonable progrowth
economic policies, the fellowship of Pacific nations will continue to be
strong. That's what I'm here to tell you.
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*White House correction.
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There is a different attitude in the world about foreign policies,
particularly if you happen to be an influential nation. In the past,
many powerful nations preferred others to remain underdeveloped and
therefore dependent. It was a cynical doctrine. And that doctrine is
unsuited for our times. In this century, countries benefit from healthy,
prosperous, confident partners. Weak and troubled nations export their
ills--problems like economic instability and illegal immigration and
crime and terrorism. America and others sitting around the table here at
APEC understand that healthy and prosperous nations export and import
goods and services that help to stabilize regions and add security to
every nation. So we've got three clear goals to help spread prosperity
and hope and to secure the peace.
We want to seek wider trade and broader freedom and greater security
for the benefit of our partners and for the benefit of all. That's what
I'm going to do over the next 4 years. The first goal is to lower
barriers to trade and investment and to promote sound fiscal policies
for all our governments. Free and fair trade combined with prudent
fiscal discipline are the foundation of the region's remarkable
prosperity, and I'm committed to staying on the path to progrowth--
proeconomic growth--economic growth by progrowth policies. We're doing
our part.
You know, we've overcome a lot in the U.S. economy. We faced a
recession, coupled with terrorist attacks, which affected our capacity
to grow. But we stimulated our economy by cutting taxes. And America is
growing again, and people are working. And the question ahead is, how do
we make sure we maintain growth?
We need legal reform in the United States. We got to make sure that
those who risk capital are rewarded for taking risk and not subject to
needless and frivolous lawsuits. We need regulatory reform in the United
States. Our Tax Code is too complex. So I'm going to work with members
of both political parties to simplify the Tax Code.
But I also understand there is concern about whether or not our
Government is dedicated to dealing with our deficits, both short term
and long term. I look forward to standing up in front of the Congress in
my State of the Union and telling them why I submitted a budget that
will help us deal with the short-term deficit of the United States, and
I will do that. And I'll also work with Members of Congress to
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deal with the unfunded liabilities of our entitlement systems, so that
we can say clearly to the world, the United States of America is
committed to deficit reduction, both short term and long term.
Overall, the economy of this part of the world is expected to grow
by nearly 5 percent this year. And that's good news, and the United
States wanted to be a part of that growth. We can add to that progress
by reducing trade barriers that I believe are an obstacle to economic
growth everywhere, especially in the developing world. And so this
Government and our country is strongly committed to the WTO's Doha round
of negotiations. And my trade minister will be strongly committed to
ensure the success of the WTO round. And we need your help in making
sure that nations around the APEC table are focused on the benefits of
global trade, that we put aside some differences that could prevent Doha
from going forward.
We will continue to assist our Asia-Pacific partners in meeting
their WTO obligations. We are encouraging Russia and Vietnam in their
efforts to join the WTO. The history between our countries has changed
dramatically between America and Vietnam and Russia. The tensions are no
longer existing. Conflict is behind us, and we have a chance to work
with those countries for the common good, and we will.
We're going to be aggressive about our bilateral trade agreements
and our regional trade agreements. We've completed trade agreements with
nations throughout Asia and the Americas, including Australia,
Singapore, Chile, the five nations of Central America, and the Dominican
Republic. We are working on new agreements with Thailand, Panama, the
Andean nations of South America. We're moving ahead with the enterprise
for the ASEAN initiative, which is lowering trade barriers and
strengthening economic ties in Southeast Asia. We're committed to the
Bogor goals, which call for free trade among developed nations of the
Asian-Pacific region by 2010 and free trade among all APEC economies by
2020. We seek free trade in the Americas, uniting the markets of all 34
free nations in the Western Hemisphere.
I think you can tell that I believe free trade is necessary for
economic development, that free trade is essential to prosperity. But it
is not sufficient, and we understand that. All governments in the region
must make the difficult choices needed to stabilize economies and to
keep public finances on foot. We have been impressed by the reform
programs in Chile and Colombia and Uruguay that have spurred growth and
investment in those countries and throughout the region.
My Nation and many others have acted to lift the crushing burden of
debt that limits the growth of developing economies and holds millions
of people in poverty, and we will continue to do so. We will continue
working to relieve the current debt of those highly indebted poor
countries that pursue sound fiscal policy. We will continue to encourage
our large trading partners to adopt flexible market-based exchange rates
for their currencies. Expanding prosperity has lifted millions in our
region out of poverty, has bound our nations closer together, and has
benefited all our people. And my administration will continue to promote
pro-growth, pro-trade economic policies for the good of all.
Our second goal is to spread the benefits of freedom and democracy
and good government across parts of the world. We've seen progress
toward these goals in the recent history of the Asia-Pacific region.
We've seen some interesting lessons of history as free markets take
hold: The demand for limited government and self-rule builds. That's why
it's important to promote free trade and open market policies.
In the long run, economic freedom and political liberty are
indivisible, and the advance of freedom is good for all, as free
societies are peaceful societies. My Government and many others are
working with
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countries to lay the foundations for democracy by helping them institute
the rule of law and independent courts and a free press and political
parties and trade unions. We have joined with other members of the
Organization of American States to create the Inter-American Democratic
Charter. This charter recognizes democracy as a fundamental right of all
peoples in the Americas and pledges our governments to promoting and
defending the institutions and habits of liberty.
Because political liberty and economic freedom go hand in hand,
America and many nations have changed the way we fight poverty, curb
corruption, and provide aid. In 2002, we created the Monterrey
Consensus, a bold approach that links new aid from developed nations to
real reform in developing ones. We created the Millennium Challenge
Account in America that says we'll increase aid and help to nations
which are willing to fight corruption, which are willing to educate
their people, which are willing to spend money on the health of their
citizens, and nations which are willing to expand economic freedom. We
owe that to the taxpayers of the United States, to promote the habits
necessary for free societies to develop. And we believe every nation is
capable of fighting corruption, is capable of putting good economic
policies in place, is capable of educating their people and helping
defeat the scourge of bad health care.
Developing nations have responded, and we appreciate that, but not
nearly as much as the people who live in their countries. They've
responded by fighting corruption, by building schools and hospitals, and
passing new laws that reward enterprise from their people.
The United Nations also has an important role, and America has
proposed a democracy fund to help countries lay the foundations of
democracy and help set up voter precincts and polling places and support
the work of election monitors.
The growth of free and hopeful societies depends on controlling the
spread of deadly diseases, especially AIDS and tuberculosis and malaria.
HIV/AIDS cases are growing in the Asian-Pacific region. It's an issue we
just discussed with the leaders around the table. Last year more than 1
million new HIV infections occurred in Asia, one out of every five
infections worldwide. My Nation is working to fight this disease through
a $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief--15 billion over 5 years,
which helps--provides help for 100 nations around the world. Earlier
this year, we expanded the focus of this effort by committing new
resources to Asia.
As part of this effort, the United States is supporting the United
Nations Global Fund, and other nations need to participate in that fund.
It's not the United States global fund; it is the world global fund. And
so I'm going to continue to urge nations here at this APEC Summit to
contribute to that fund, to help defeat this pandemic that has swept
across the continent of Africa and now threatens nations in Asia. It is
the greatest--AIDS is the greatest health crisis of our time, and all
nations must join in a united effort to turn the tide against this
terrible disease.
The spread of liberty is our most powerful weapon in the fight
against hatred and terror. And we've seen some amazing events take place
in the history of liberty. Perhaps the most amazing of all took place in
Afghanistan when millions of people showed up to vote for the President
of that country some 3 years after that country had been ruled by the
barbarians called the Taliban. And the most amazing moment of all in
this march of democracy was the fact that the first voter was a 19-year-
old woman. Freedom has taken place in parts
of the world where people never dreamt freedom is possible, and as a
result, the world is better for it.
Our third great goal is to help keep up the fight against the forces
of terror that threaten the success of our economies and
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the stability of the world. Every nation represented here has a stake in
this conflict. Terrorism is a threat not just to the West or to the
wealthy but to all of us. And all of us must do everything we can to
defeat the murderers.
We're determined to end the state sponsorship of terror. And my
Nation is grateful to all that participated in the liberation of
Afghanistan. We're determined to prevent the proliferation of deadly
weapons and materials and to enforce the just demands of the world. And
my Nation is grateful to the soldiers of those nations who've helped to
deliver the Iraqi people from an outlaw dictator. We're determined to destroy terrorist networks
wherever they operate, and the United States is grateful to every nation
that is helping to seize terrorist assets and to track down their
operatives and to disrupt their plans.
APEC nations are playing a crucial role in the war on terror, for
which we are very grateful. We'll continue to work with nations that
have the will to fight terror but need help in developing the means.
We're sharing intelligence and increasing our cooperation in customs and
law enforcement to stop terrorists before they can strike. We're moving
forward on the initiatives of last year's summit in Bangkok to
strengthen the security of our ports and transportation networks, to
defend our aircraft from the threat of portable missiles, and to end the
flow of terrorist finances.
America has joined with Singapore to found a new research institute,
which opened this year, dedicated to stopping the spread of deadly
diseases and combating the threat of bioterrorism. We're working to
ensure that the shores of the Pacific remain peaceful. In Santiago, APEC
leaders committed to signing by 2005 the additional protocol of the IAEA
safeguards agreements, which requires nations to declare a broad range
of nuclear activities and facilities and allows the International Atomic
Energy Agency to inspect those facilities. And I appreciate that
cooperation and that commitment.
We also agreed to further strengthen our Nation's export controls
and to develop a new system to track and stop the travel of suspected
terrorists using forged or stolen documents. Through the Proliferation
Security Initiative, many nations are also fighting the trade in deadly
weapons. And over the past years we've had notable successes, most
particularly the disruption of the A.Q. Khan network and its willingness and capacity to spread
deadly technology to nations that would like to inflict harm on the--to
inflict harm on nations like APEC members.
Five APEC members are working to convince North Korea to abandon its
pursuit of nuclear weapons, and I can report to you today, having
visited with the other nations involved in that collaborative effort,
that the will is strong, that the effort is united, and the message is
clear to Mr. Kim Chong-il: Get rid of your
nuclear weapons programs.
In all our efforts, we'll maintain and strengthen the alliance among
our nations that have served the peace so well. By making our countries
safer, these steps will also create a more secure business environment
and boost confidence in our economies. You know as well as I know that
terrorist attacks affect the capacity of people to make a living. We
discovered that firsthand in the United States of America when we lost
nearly a million jobs in the 3 months after the September the 11th
attacks. The people of Bali, Indonesia, know what I'm talking about when
it comes to terrorist attacks. We have an obligation as nations to work
together to stop terrorism.
And you in the private sector have an important role to play. The
new inspection technologies that you create can shorten delays and
reduce insurance costs and cut redtape. By working closely with customs
officials of APEC governments to establish
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better procedures, you can make the delivery of goods and services more
secure and more efficient.
These are great goals that I've just talked about: goals to advance
our common prosperity, goals to spread freedom and dignity, and goals to
strengthen our common security. And I have come here to Chile to tell my
colleagues and friends, the United States of America is committed to
achieving those goals for the next 4 years.
Thank you for your interest. Thank you for coming.
Note: The President spoke at 4:47 p.m. at the Casa Piedra. In his
remarks, he referred to President Ricardo Lagos of Chile; Gary Benanav,
Mike Ducker, and Robert Prieto, United States members, Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council (ABAC); A.Q. Khan, former
head of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program; and Chairman Kim Chong-il of
North Korea.