[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 35 (Monday, September 6, 1993)]
[Pages 1661-1664]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters Following Discussions With 
Caribbean Leaders

 August 30, 1993

    President Clinton. Good afternoon. Today I had the great honor of 
welcoming five outstanding leaders from the English- 

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speaking Caribbean to the White House: President Cheddi Jagan of Guyana, 
Prime Minister Erskine Sandiford of Barbados, Prime Minister Patrick 
Manning of Trinidad and Tobago--Tobago, excuse me; I'm still hoarse from 
our luncheon--Prime Minister P.J. Patterson of Jamaica, and Prime 
Minister Hubert Ingraham of the Bahamas. I'm impressed by the 
intelligence, the dynamism, and the dedication of the Caribbean 
leadership.
    The end of the cold war has altered the nature but not the depth of 
our interest in the Caribbean. Our concern for the region is firmly 
rooted in geographic proximity, the resultant flows of people, of 
commodities and culture, and in our shared interest in fighting drug 
trafficking and projecting our economic interests and in protecting 
fragile ecosystems.
    As with U.S.-Mexican relations, U.S.-Caribbean relations 
dramatically demonstrate the absolute inseparability of foreign and 
domestic issues. More than ever before, our Nation is a Caribbean 
nation. In our discussions, we recognize the concerns that NAFTA may 
adversely affect the Caribbean and Central American nations by diverting 
trade and investment flows to Mexico. Therefore, I want to announce 
today that I have asked Ambassador Mickey Kantor to study the impact of 
NAFTA on these small economies and to consult with them on new measures 
to increase regional trade.
    American workers have a direct interest in the prosperity of the 
English-speaking Caribbean. The $2 billion in United States exports to 
those countries creates at least 40,000 American jobs. Our warm and 
productive luncheon meeting covered many other areas as well. These 
nations are all vibrant democracies striving to adapt their economies to 
new global realities while maintaining a full respect for individual 
freedoms and human rights.
    In the Organization of American States and in the United Nations, 
they consistently take strong stands in favor of the collective defense 
of democracy. They have all been firm supporters of multilateral efforts 
to restore President Aristide in Haiti. And we discussed cooperative 
security and economic measures to assist Haitian democracies. I thank 
them for their support of the restoration of President Aristide and, of 
course, we all enjoyed a recounting of President Aristide's swearing-in 
of his new Prime Minister today.
    The Caribbean community will be an important building block of a 
hemispheric community of democracies linked by growing economic ties and 
common political beliefs. That will happen, I believe, in no small 
measure because of the leadership of the five people who are here with 
us today. And I'd like now to ask them each in turn to come to the 
microphone and say a few remarks. And I think President Jagan is going 
first. He was here first in 1961. Is that right?
    The microphone is yours, sir.

[At this point, President Jagan, Prime Minister Sandiford, Prime 
Minister Patterson, and Prime Minister Ingraham made brief remarks.]

    President Clinton. Thank you. Let me also say, before you ask the 
question, if there are people here representing your nations, I want to 
make sure that I give them a chance to ask their questions also, but 
we'll start with Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International].

NAFTA

    Q. Mr. President, since you have a better chance of passing NAFTA in 
the Senate, will you push for the Senate consideration first? And did it 
come as a surprise to you that the Caribbean would feel adversely 
affected by NAFTA? I mean, was it news?
    President Clinton. No. Well, let me answer the first question first. 
I haven't made a decision on that yet, and I don't think I should until 
I consult with the supporters of the agreement. It can't pass in either 
House until the legislation is developed, which is now going on to 
embody the agreement. But I'm certainly open to that. I just simply 
haven't had the opportunity to sit down and visit with the supporters 
and see what they want to do. I have no objection to going that way.
    With regard to the Caribbean, it didn't come as a surprise to me. I 
think in general what these leaders said was that they thought it was a 
good idea but that it shouldn't adversely affect existing relationships. 
Our administration has worked hard to have a posi- 

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tive mutually beneficial relationship with the CARICOM nations to 
faithfully carry out the laws of Congress, including one that was passed 
late last year designed to stop a previous problem with our efforts 
there. And I said, as I said today, I asked the Ambassador for Trade, 
Mickey Kantor, to look into this and see whether we can provide some 
assurances that there will not be a disadvantage to the Caribbean 
nations.

Cuba

    Q. Mr. President, can you be more specific about what the dialog was 
on Cuba and bringing it into a more democratic society?
    President Clinton. Actually, we had a general conversation about it. 
As you know, the position of CARICOM and the position of the United 
States with regard to trade with Cuba is different. I just simply 
reiterated that the Cuban democracy act does not sanction any trade with 
Cuba unless it is somehow subsidized by governments. That is not 
contemplated, so the difficulty issue we just got off the table, and 
then we talked a little bit about what the prospects were for economic 
and political reform in Cuba, something that is devoutly to be hoped for 
by the peoples of all the nations here represented. But there was 
nothing more specific than that.

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, if the Bosnian peace agreement is reached in 
Geneva, how many American forces would you be willing to offer to help 
enforce that agreement? How long would they be required to serve? And 
what would be the risk to those forces?
    President Clinton. Well, first of all, whether I would be prepared 
to do that or not depends on whether I'm convinced that the agreement is 
both--is fair, fully embraced by the Bosnian government, and is 
enforceable. That has been a source of concern for our military planners 
all along--about, you know, whether we could have something that would 
be enforceable.
    But I made clear last February, and I will reiterate again, the 
United States is prepared to participate in a multinational effort to 
keep the peace in Bosnia. But I want to see what the details are. I want 
to get the briefing on it. I want to know that it will be enforceable. 
But I'm certainly open to that, but I also want to know whose 
responsibility it is to stay, for how long.
    It's a little bit different than the situation in Somalia, for 
example, where you really have two problems that relate to one another. 
There needs to be a lot of nation-building in Somalia from the ground 
up, a lot of institution-building. We did go there to stop the 
starvation and the violence and the bloodshed. But it's also true that 
the absence of order gave rise to all those problems.
    And so we're still trying to fulfill our original mission in 
Somalia. This is a very different sort of thing, but I certainly think 
it can work. A multinational effort to keep the peace, if it is 
enforceable and the understandings are there, can clearly work. You can 
see that in the longstanding success we've had in our participation in 
the aftermath of the Camp David agreement.

Cuba

    Q. Mr. President, my question is for Prime Minister Patterson, if 
you could step to the microphone. Going back to Cuba, what is the 
position of CARICOM in regards to Cuba? And do you think you can do 
anything to bring Cuba back into the democratic fold?
    Prime Minister Patterson. First of all, what we are seeking to 
establish with Cuba is a joint commission that discusses the range of 
matters no different from those presently covered by a joint commission 
with Mexico, with Venezuela, with Colombia. It is not an agreement that 
provides for subsidized trade with Cuba and therefore does not offend 
any existing legislation in the United States or elsewhere.
    We feel that the time has come for all countries in the hemisphere 
to work towards a normalization of relationships among them. There are 
differences between the political systems in Cuba and those in the 
CARICOM countries. We remain firmly committed to the democratic 
tradition. But Cuba unquestionably is a Caribbean country. That is a 
reality which we must face, and we believe that the joint commission 
should assist in the process of inducing Cuba towards the sorts of 
policies and programs that are compatible with those of other 
independent nations in the hemisphere.

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    Q. Would you like to see the U.S. do the same thing?
    Prime Minister Patterson. What the U.S. does is a matter for the 
U.S. to determine. If we can assist anywhere in the process of contact 
or mediation, we are always prepared to do so.

Somalia

    Q. Mr. President, in Mogadishu some of the humanitarian relief 
workers say that the U.S. raid early this morning was a blunder, and in 
fact, the U.S. military is making their job more difficult. What do you 
say to those who are there to help? And will the U.S. forces remain 
there long enough to capture Aideed? Is that a target for you?
    President Clinton. Well, the United Nations operation set that as 
their objective, and they asked us for our help in that regard.
    I would remind you that I understand the problems with this, but the 
United Nations believes, and has ample evidence to support the fact, 
that the supporters of Aideed murdered a substantial number of Pakistani 
peacekeepers and are behind the deaths of four Americans. So we have to 
deal with that. And I am open to other suggestions. I think the United 
Nations should be open to other suggestions.
    To date, we have tried to be cooperative with the policies that have 
been jointly developed. We have not been just simply driving this. We 
have really tried to work within the framework of the U.N. to prove that 
this thing could work over the long run. We've also tried to make sure 
that everyone understood that this is not all of Somalia we're talking 
about. We're talking about one part of Mogadishu. In much of the rest of 
the country, the U.N. mission has continued unimpeded and successfully. 
I don't think anyone wants to change the fundamental character of it.
    And so, would I be willing to discuss that with our people and with 
anyone else? Of course, I would. But I think it is very important to 
point out that what provoked this was people involved with Aideed 
killing the Pakistanis first and then the four Americans.
    Q. Mr. President--[inaudible]--talked about the need for--
[inaudible]. Is there a need to ensure the dialog continues through the 
establishment perhaps of U.S.-CARICOM policy machinery? What are you 
prepared to do?
    President Clinton. Well, I think there is a need for a continuing 
dialog. One of the things that I pledged today to these leaders is that 
next year when the conference on the sustainable development in smaller 
nations is held in the Caribbean, that the United States would send a 
high level delegation there. And we didn't discuss any specific 
mechanism. But I think it is very important. You know, all these 
nations, and others not here present, in the Caribbean, are at different 
points in their history with different challenges. And I think that what 
we need to do is to make it clear that the United States is committed to 
democracy, to market economics, and to economic growth of this region 
over the long run. Here even at home we find great difficulty in 
predicting with precision what's going to happen economically, because 
we're in a period of real profound economic change. And I think it's 
important that we make these commitments over the long run and that we 
keep the doors of communication open, and that's exactly what we intend 
to do.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 2:09 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House.