[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book II)]
[July 15, 2005]
[Pages 1222-1229]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks on the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free
Trade Agreement in Dallas, North Carolina
July 15, 2005
Thank you. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. It's great
to be back in North Carolina. It's always good to get outside the
beltway and into NASCAR country. [Laughter]
Laura called me--she was in Africa for the
past week. She called me. She's fixing
[[Page 1223]]
to arrive in Washington this evening, but yesterday she said, ``Where
are you going on Friday?'' I said, ``I'm going to North Carolina.'' I
said, ``I'll be down there in that area where the Lowe's Motor Speedway
is.'' She said, ``Don't get any ideas.'' [Laughter] ``You're having
enough trouble staying on your mountain bike.'' [Laughter] She sends her
very best to you all. She's doing great. I'm a lucky man when she said
yes, when I asked her to marry me.
I appreciate the chance to stand with some of the finest workers in
America, the men and women of Stowe Mills. I appreciate you all being
here. And I thank you for giving me the chance to come and discuss an
important topic, and that is, how do we make sure our job creation
continues. And one way to do so is to make sure the trade we have is
fair trade. That's what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about
making sure that people treat us the way we treat them. I want to talk
to you about what they call CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade
Agreement.
CAFTA is important for job creation. It's important for your jobs.
CAFTA is important to help secure the democracies in our own
neighborhood. And so, for the sake of our economic security and for the
sake of national security, the United States House of Representatives
should follow the lead of the United States Senate and pass CAFTA and
get that bill to my desk.
I appreciate our Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, flying with me today. You know, I love America. I
love the fact that people--a person like Carlos, born in Cuba, worked
hard all his life, was able to succeed and is now sitting in the Cabinet
with the President. What a fantastic country we have, where opportunity
is open to all people.
I want to thank Congresswoman Sue Myrick for
her leadership, for her strength of character, for working hard on
textile customs enforcement activity. She has been a leader in making
sure the North Carolina and the United States textile industry is
treated fairly. I appreciate you, Sue.
You've got two fine United States Senators from North Carolina--that
would be Senator Dole and Senator Burr. I enjoy working with them, and I appreciate both
Members of the United States Senate from North Carolina voting for the
CAFTA agreement. They understand this is good for working people here in
this State.
I want to thank Dr. Pat Skinner, the
president of Gaston College. Thanks for having me. I am a big believer
in the community college system. I think--and I appreciate the good work
the community college system does here in North Carolina. This isn't the
first time I have ever been to a community college in your State. I've
been to a lot of community colleges. And one reason why is because your
State is on the leading edge of helping people find new skills, the
skills necessary for the jobs of the 21st century. And this is a good
place and an important place. And so, Dr. Skinner, thanks for having me.
I want to thank the Stowe boys--[laughter]--that would be
Robert, Harding, and Richmond. Now, I
don't know which one of you all is the boss, but I'm interested in
figuring out how you figured out who was the boss. I've got a lot of
brothers, myself. [Laughter] But I appreciate their entrepreneurial
spirit. I thank you for having me. I know they care a lot about the
people who work in their mills. And they're--I would call them
``employee-friendly.'' They're people who care about the people who work
with them. And so I want to thank them for coming. Thanks for letting me
go by the plant.
I want to thank the mayor, Rick Coleman, of
the town of Dallas. That would be Dallas, North Carolina. [Laughter] And
I want to thank Mayor Billy Joye of
Belmont. Where's Billy? Billy, you here? Billy, yes. See, Billy, they
don't know our connection, do they? Billy and I flew F-102s at Ellington
Air Force Base in Houston, Texas. Thank you, Billy. As we used to
[[Page 1224]]
say, ``He was a heck of a stick''--[laughter]--which means you're
probably a heck of a mayor, Billy. Thanks for coming. Appreciate you
being here.
I want to thank Allen Gant, chairman
of the National--I'm not talking State--I'm talking National Council of
Textile Organizations. He's here because the National Council of Textile
Organizations has analyzed the CAFTA legislation and realized that this
piece of legislation is good for American textile industry. And so I
want to thank you for coming, Allen.
And finally, I flew down on the airplane today with one heck of an
entrepreneur, somebody who has made Carolina a place of business
interest, and he tells me he's slowly but surely falling in love with
Charlotte, and that is Bob Johnson, head
of the Charlotte Bobcats NBA basketball team. Thank you for coming, Bob.
How about that story--from being raised in Mississippi to getting a good
education to building his own business and now the owner of a sports
team that means a lot to the people. And by the way, I think he's pretty
wise. He drafted--or his club drafted, I'm sure at his insistence, two
University of North Carolina Tarheels.
I met Janice Bozardt at Air Force One.
She is a volunteer at Moore's Chapel United Methodist Church in
Charlotte. She's been volunteering for 40 years. She leads a team of
volunteers that delivers meals to families within the church and the
local community. The reason I bring up Janice is because I want to
remind you all that the strength of the United States of America lies in
the hearts and souls of our citizens, that if you really want to--if you
analyze our country to determine our greatest strength, you'll find that
it exists because people hear a universal call to love a neighbor just
like they'd like to be loved themselves and take time out of their lives
to volunteer. Janice represents millions of people across the United
States of America who are helping to change our country, one heart and
one soul and one conscience at a time.
For those of you who might be listening and are interesting in
serving our country, find somebody who hurts and surround them with
love. Feed the hungry. Find shelter for the homeless. Teach a child to
read. Love somebody like you'd like to be loved yourself, and you'll be
making a significant contribution to our country. Janice, thank you for coming. Thanks for volunteering.
My most solemn obligation is to protect the American people. That's
my most important duty as your President. Today, we are fighting in a
global war on terror. We didn't ask for it. It came to our shores, and
we're responding. We're doing our duty to not only protect our country
but to put the conditions in place that will protect generations from--
come. We're fighting against people who celebrate the suffering of the
innocent.
I thought it was really interesting that the terrorists chose to
attack in London, England, at the same time that the United States and
other nations were trying to figure out how to help alleve [alleviate]*
HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa or how to help people that are
starving to death or how to help make sure young girls get educated
around the world.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*White House correction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
We were talking about a society of compassion. And these killers
killed indiscriminately, men and women. They didn't care who they were.
They didn't care about their religion. They murdered in the name of a
totalitarian ideology. These are ideologues. They hate freedom. They
reject tolerance. They despise all dissent. They have objectives. Their
aim is to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny.
They want to topple governments. They want to export terror. They want
to force free nations to retreat.
These people will not be stopped by negotiations. They're not going
to be--they
[[Page 1225]]
won't change their mind because of concessions. There is no appeal to
their reason. There is only one course of action. We will take the fight
to the enemy, and we will stay in the fight until this enemy is
defeated. [Applause] Thank you all.
We have a comprehensive strategy in place. First, we're doing a lot
to protect the homeland. There's a lot of really good folks at the
State, local, and Federal level who are working long hours to protect
us. We're improving our intelligence gathering, and the only way to deal
with and find people that are willing to hide in caves or in the shadows
of our cities is to have as good of intelligence as possible. So
intelligence sharing within our Government is getting better, and
intelligence sharing with other governments is getting better.
And we're going to stay on the offense. And we can do all we can to
protect the homeland. As I like to tell people, we have to be right 100
percent of the time, and they've got to be right once. And so therefore,
you do everything you can to protect the home, but you stay on the
offense against them, and you stay on the hunt. And you call people to
account, free nations to account, say, ``Join us in this cause of
protecting ourselves.''
And we are on the hunt. And we've helped change societies for the
better. Iraq is a central part of this war on terror. People are heading
into Iraq to try to defeat us. They can't win, militarily. The only
thing they can do is to try to shake our will, is to murder in such
horrific terms--like killing all those kids the other day--that the
United States will say, ``Well, you know, let's get out of there,''
before we complete our mission. They're going to fail. They don't
understand the United States of America. We will not be driven out of
Iraq by a bunch of thugs and assassins. We will complete the mission.
And our mission--just like in Afghanistan, our mission is to help a
democracy flourish. This August you'll see the Iraqis write a
constitution. And then they'll ratify the constitution. And then there
will be elections for a permanent government in December. See, democracy
is taking hold. A lot of people said it couldn't happen. A lot of people
said, ``There's no way democracy is going to take place in a place like
Iraq.'' But the Iraqis defied the cynics, didn't they? Given a chance to
vote, millions showed up to the polls. Millions defied the suiciders.
It just reminds me how universal the fuel of freedom is. See, I
don't believe--I do not believe that freedom is America's gift to the
world. I believe that freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and
woman in this world, and if given a chance, people choose freedom over
tyranny, hope over despair.
The second part of our mission is to train these Iraqi troops so
they can do the fighting. The way I put it is this: As the Iraqis stand
up, America will stand down. I know a lot of you have got relatives--
who've had a loved one in Iraq. And I want to thank you on behalf of a
grateful nation. You thank them on behalf of our Nation too. The
American people are standing with our troops, and our troops understand
what they're doing in Iraq. They're helping lay what I call the
foundation of peace, because in the long run, the long run, the best way
to secure the peace for generations to come is to spread freedom, and
that's exactly the policy of this Government.
Here at home, we've got reason to be optimistic. This economy of
ours is growing faster than any other major industrialized nation in the
world. We've now had 25 consecutive months of job gains. We've recovered
from the shocks of the attack and the recession and the market
correction. Our unemployment rate in the United States of America is now
5 percent. That's the lowest since September of 2001, and that's lower
than the average rate of the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. More
Americans are working today than ever before in our Nation's history.
[[Page 1226]]
That's good progress. But there's more we can do. We've got to keep
your taxes low. If you want to keep this economy growing, we've got to
make sure that the Government doesn't run up your taxes. We've got to
make sure we're wise about how we're spending your money. I don't know
if you noticed the news the other day, but it turns out that when you
cut taxes, the economy grows. When the economy grows, it yields more tax
revenues. Over the past 5 months, the revenues have increased $94
billion greater than anticipated, which means our deficit will be $94
billion less, so long as Congress is wise about how they spend your
money. And part of my job is to make sure they are wise about how we
spend your money.
This economy is strong. And so the fundamental question is, what do
we do to make it stronger? And that's why I'm here to talk about the
Central American-Dominican Republican Free Trade Agreement. See, I think
this presents us with an historic opportunity to keep this economy
growing, and I'll tell you why.
First, Central American businesses and farmers can ship most of
their products to America without paying any tariffs. In other words,
over the past years, the Congress has decided to say, ``Okay, if you
grow something or make something in a Central American country, you can
ship it to America duty-free.'' But guess what? We don't have the same
rights. We can't do the same thing. We can't grow or manufacture many
goods here in the United States and ship our goods to their countries
duty-free. That doesn't make any sense to me. That's what I would call
a--not a level playing field.
See, I told the people when I was running, ``I am for free trade,
but I'm also for a level playing field.'' And so I took a look, as did
Members of the Senate and now Members of the House, at the playing
field. It's not level. It's not fair to say to a farmer here in North
Carolina, ``You can't sell what you grow, in Central America duty-free,
but they may be able to sell what they grow, here duty-free.''
Last year we exported more than $15 billion--$15 billion--of goods
to Central America. That's--but products are facing a heavy tariff.
That's--in other words, that's what they've done; they've slapped a tax
on our goods coming in.
For example, Costa Rica has a 15-percent tax on dump trucks and
mobile cranes. If you're a dump truck manufacturer and a worker in a
dump truck manufacturing plant, the product you're manufacturing is at a
competitive disadvantage because they put a tax on it when it comes into
the country.
Guatemala has a 20-percent tax on luggage. El Salvador has a 20-
percent tax on polyester fabric. Nicaragua has a 10-percent tax on
shrimp. Those are just some of the examples of where there is a barrier
to entry. These foreign taxes on American-made products sold in the
region hurt businesses, which really means they hurt jobs.
See, it makes it harder to have a job when these countries have
tariffs. And yet, we don't have the tariffs in our country. And so one
of the things CAFTA would do will eliminate these one-way tariffs on
American products and open up a market of 44 million consumers to
America's goods, services, and crops. That's what the American people
have got to understand.
This deal is a good deal for workers. This basically says, ``If you
make a good product, it's going to be easier to sell your product to 44
million new customers.'' By eliminating these tariffs, CAFTA will keep
this economy going. CAFTA helps American textile workers by keeping
textile jobs in the U.S., and here is how: Central America is the second
largest market in the world for our textile products. I don't know if
people here in North Carolina know that. Think about what I just said:
It is the second largest market for textile products. So if you're a
textile worker, it seems like to me that one of the questions you ask,
``Where do we sell our products? And if
[[Page 1227]]
we sell our products, are we being treated fairly for the products we
manufacture?''
Garment factories in Central America buy yarn and fabric. That's how
they operate. They buy the yarn and--I just saw some yarn and fabric
made. You do a fine job, by the way. And they buy that yarn and fabric.
But it's taxed before it gets into the country. In other words, it makes
the product made in your plant less competitive with products made in
other plants. These Central American factories are competing with Asian
garment workers. And Asian--generally, they use Asian materials. See, so
Central American companies need to have an incentive to continue to buy
our product, and the best way to do it is to get rid of those tariffs on
U.S.-made yarn, the yarn right--made in your plant.
If we can get rid of the tariffs, it is more competitive, which
makes it more likely that we'll be able to--in our neighborhood--compete
with Asian manufacturers. That's why it's a good deal for textile
workers. It means the products you produce will be cheaper, less
expensive in a part of the world--the second largest place where we--the
second largest market for our products. And that means jobs here in
America. CAFTA is good for U.S. jobs. CAFTA means textile jobs will stay
right here in the United States of America.
In 2004, North Carolina exported more than $1.7 billion worth of
manufactured goods to CAFTA nations, most of it textiles and apparel.
Without CAFTA, the market for these textiles in Central America would
likely disappear and so would thousands of jobs here.
This bill is important for North Carolina. It's important for every
State. But it's--see, one of the reasons why we asked the workers to sit
up here is because I want people to connect this legislation with jobs.
That's what we're talking about, really. People at Stowe Mills
understand this. That's why the CEO, Harding Stowe, one of the Stowe boys, and other textile
manufacturers are urging Congress to pass CAFTA. That's a pretty
interesting observation, isn't it, by people who know the business
pretty well. In other words, they've analyzed this piece of legislation.
They understand the significance. They understand that when you drop
tariffs, it will help increase exports. And when you increase exports,
that means more sales, which means more jobs. They know this. These are
the people who have a vested interest in this piece of legislation--
those are the textile manufacturers. And the textile manufacturers agree
with me that the United States House of Representatives, for the good of
American workers, ought to pass CAFTA legislation. And I want to thank
them for being here today.
Eighty percent--80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and
industrial products will become duty-free--80 percent of what we produce
here going down there. CAFTA nations bought a million dollars of
American goods, including semiconductors, electronic components from
Oregon, petroleum and coal from Texas, plastics from Colorado, cars
trucks and autoparts from Michigan. In other words, this bill is going
to have effect beyond textiles. It's going to help people who are
working in manufacturing facilities all over the country.
The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that the
elimination of tariffs on these goods will result in an extra billion
dollars worth of U.S. manufactured exports to the region each year.
That's a billion dollars more goods going into those markets, which
means somebody's more likely to keep a job, or maybe somebody is more
likely to find a job. In other words, this is a jobs program we're
talking about.
The increase of sales is important all across our country. It
provides additional opportunity. And I'm going to tell you something,
this bill helps our farmers, and that's important for people to
understand. Fortunately, we don't have a national security issue when it
comes to agriculture. We produce more than we consume, and I want to
thank our farmers for that.
[[Page 1228]]
I can't say the same about energy, by the way, which--that means we
have a national security problem, when you're importing more energy than
you produce. That's why Congress is going to get me an energy bill. I
want to warn you, by signing that bill, it's not going to drop your
gasoline prices, but it's finally going to put in place a strategy that
will help us diversify away from foreign sources of energy, which we
need to do.
But if you produce more than you consume, therefore, you've got to
figure out ways to sell what you produce to somebody else. In other
words, exports are really important for our farm community, and so we
ought to be working to open up markets for the farmers. That's how you
avoid surplus here at home.
Today, our agriculture trade with CAFTA is nearly $1.8 billion a
year. That's a lot. And the American Farm Bureau Federation, they got
their economists on this deal. They looked at the CAFTA agreement, and
they think it would increase farm exports by additional $1.5 billion a
year. If you're selling 1.8 now, and you get rid of those tariffs on
your farm products, which means you're more likely to sell more product,
and it goes up to 1.5 billion, that's a hefty increase, by signing this
agreement. Feed grains and wheat and rice and soybeans and poultry and
beef and pork and dairy and fruits and vegetables are all going to
benefit from this agreement.
You mentioned--you heard me--you did hear me say pork. [Laughter] In
North Carolina, the leading farm product is pork. You grow a lot of hogs
here. [Laughter] And you're good at it; you're really good at it. And
you grow more than we eat. Do you realize in CAFTA nations, pork now
faces duties as high as 47 percent? If you're a pork producer here in
North Carolina and you're looking for a place to sell your product, you
want to get rid of that 47 percent tariff. You want to reduce tariffs.
You want your product to be able to go into countries duty-free. You
want to be treated just like we treat other nations. That's what you
want, and the CAFTA bill will do just that. CAFTA is going to be good
for American agriculture.
And I happen to be a person who believes that it's important to have
a strong agricultural sector. And if it's good for our America
agriculture, it's good for America.
I want to tell you something else about CAFTA. It will help advance
a key part of our foreign policy. In the seventies and eighties, most of
the CAFTA nations suffered under military dictatorships. The region was
not stable. There was a lot of turmoil. And then those nations began to
embrace freedom and democracy. And so we've got some young democracies
right in our own neighborhood. And it's in our interest that those
democracies be strong and viable.
But there's still forces that oppose democratic government there and
who seek to limit economic freedom. And there are forces in the
neighborhood who are hostile to our interests. Now, these small nations
of CAFTA--I just met--by the way, met with the President of El
Salvador today--they have made a
big commitment for CAFTA. They say, ``We want to do CAFTA. We'll lower
our tariffs.''
By the way, it makes sense for them to lower their tariffs. After
all, it will help their people. It will mean that North Carolina pork
will be less expensive at the stores for somebody trying to feed their
family. But they've made this commitment. They said, ``We want to stand
with America through the CAFTA agreement.'' And it's really important we
pass that agreement to help stabilize those countries.
We got to help the young democracies develop--deliver a better life
to their own citizens. That's what this agreement means for them. It
means products are less expensive. It means their businesspeople will be
more likely to be able to buy plant and equipment at a better price,
which will mean more jobs for the people there living in Central
America. That's what that means.
[[Page 1229]]
It will improve--boost demand for our goods. It will help them
reduce poverty. See, as wealth spreads out through the neighborhood, it
will help create a vibrant middle class, and that's important. That's
important. It will mean somebody is more likely to find a job close to
home than trying to sneak into the United States of America to find a
job. CAFTA is important foreign policy. It will help stabilize
democracies, and it will help our friends grown and prosper, and that's
good. That's in our interests that we do just that.
And so I'm calling on the Congress to pass CAFTA. It's a pro-jobs
bill. It's a pro-growth bill. It's a pro-democracy bill. We cannot turn
our backs on our friends. We cannot say to them, ``For pure political
reasons, we're not going to support a treaty that will not only help our
own businesses, but that will help stabilize young democracies.''
And so I want to thank you for giving me a chance to come by and
visit with you about an important piece of legislation. I can't tell you
what an honor it is to come down to North Carolina, and it's a huge
honor to be the President of the United States of America.
May God bless you, and may God bless our people.
Note: The President spoke at 1:01 p.m. at Gaston College. In his
remarks, he referred to Robert L. Stowe III, chairman, D. Harding Stowe,
president and chief executive officer, and Richmond H. Stowe, secretary
and treasurer, R.L. Stowe Mills, Inc.; Robert L. Johnson, owner and
governor, National Basketball Association's Charlotte Bobcats; and
President Elias Antonio Saca Gonzalez of El Salvador.