[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
[October 30, 2007]
[Pages 1394-1396]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Meeting With President Yoweri Kaguta 
Museveni of Uganda
October 30, 2007

    President Bush. Mr. President, thank you for coming. Second time we 
have met here in the Oval Office, and I told the President that I 
remember distinctly his description of what life was like in Uganda, 
particularly when it comes to his raising cows; he's a cattleman, and it 
gave us something to talk about.
    But we talked about other issues as well. I am very proud that the 
United States taxpayer has supported this President in his efforts to 
deal with HIV/AIDS. And Uganda is the epitome of the--of how one can 
implement a comprehensive ABC strategy to achieve concrete and specific 
results for the sake of humanity. And so, Mr. President, I assure you 
we'll continue to support you on HIV/AIDS, and equally important, we'll 
support you on fighting malaria.
    President Museveni. Thank you.
    President Bush. And I thank you for your determined efforts.
    We also talked about the benefit of trade between the United States 
and the continent of Africa, and the President reminded me how important 
AGOA is to promote better lives in our respective countries. And so, Mr. 
President, thank you for that vision.
    We talked about a lot of other subjects. We talked about the 
security in the region. The President has got good advice, and he's got 
good judgment when it comes to issues like Somalia and the Sudan. I 
assured him that we're committed to peace and stability. A matter of 
fact, I informed the President today that I spoke to the Secretary-
General of the United Nations about Sudan, how I 
think it is important to continue putting the pressure on respective 
parties to come up with an agreement that will help end the genocide, 
and that it's important for the United Nations to get moving those 
troops into this Darfur region as quickly as possible.
    And of course, we discussed about the peace between--the agreement 
between south and north of Sudan, and our desire

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is to make sure we implement that agreement.
    And finally, we talked about eligibility for Millennium Challenge. 
And I told the President this is a very important program. I hope that 
Congress fully funds Millennium Challenge, and that we'll work with 
Uganda on their eligibility.
    And so, Mr. President, thanks for coming. It's really good to see 
you again.
    President Museveni. Thank you.
    President Bush. I appreciate you taking time to visit with me here 
in the Oval Office.
    President Museveni. I thank President Bush for welcoming me here. As 
he told you, we are most pleased with AGOA, African Growth and 
Opportunity Act. This is where the United States opens their market for 
African value-added products, or products of all other types, for 6,500 
products.
    Now, this is a very big opportunity. As you know, the United States 
market is a big market, $11 trillion market. The whole of the African 
market today is about half a trillion dollars, if it was integrated. Of 
course, it will grow, it will grow. As the purchasing power of Africa 
grows, our whole market will also grow.
    However, in the short run, exporting to the U.S. market is a very 
good stimulus for our economies to grow fast. So we are very, very 
pleased with President Bush for sustaining this AGOA arrangement, which 
has helped our economies. Uganda is already exporting processed fish 
from Lake Victoria to the U.S. This is good also for the American 
consumers because this fish is very good for health. There's very little 
pollution in our part of the world, so it's very good for the American 
people also. So I thanked him for that.
    I also thanked him for the Millennium Challenge Account. That money 
will now be used to develop infrastructure in the country of Uganda. So 
you have access to big markets in Africa, in the United States, in the 
European Union; even China has opened their market partially to us. They 
have offered us 440 products, tariff free, quota free. But you need a 
good infrastructure within a country like Uganda, as well as other 
African countries, so that you can produce goods at low cost. And 
because you have got low transport costs, you have got low energy costs; 
therefore, the cost of doing business are low, are reasonable. 
Therefore, you can be competitive in the expanded markets and also in 
the regional markets. So I thanked him again for that Millennium 
Challenge Account.
    I thank him for the malaria and HIV fund. That one is very, very 
useful. We are working to get rid of the mosquito in Uganda. We are 
doing research to get rid of the mosquito larvae. And again, we have 
worked with the Center for Disease Control in the United States, whom 
you sent to us. There's a hope that we can get rid of the mosquito at 
the larvae stage because we have got some larvicide, which can kill it.
    Of course, we also talked about security issues, but most important, 
AGOA, Millennium Challenge Account, malaria, and HIV. That's what we 
talked about mainly.
    President Bush. Sir, thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:37 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of 
the United Nations.

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