[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 50 (Monday, December 19, 1994)]
[Pages 2485-2489]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Goals of the Summit of the Americas in Miami, Florida

December 9, 1994

    Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. Thank you, ladies and 
gentlemen, for that warm welcome. Hillary and I and Vice President and 
Mrs. Gore are delighted to be here.
    We thank Governor Chiles and Mrs. Chiles, the Lieutenant Governor 
and Mrs. MacKay, the members of the Florida congressional delegation, 
Senator Graham, Senator Mack, the distinguished Members of Congress who 
have come from all over the United States to be here. I want to say a 
special word of thanks to Dante Fascell, the honorary cochair of this 
summit and a great man. I thank the mayors of Miami Beach and Miami, all 
the people who are involved in the metro Dade government, all the people 
who have worked so hard on this summit.
    You know, when we first announced the plans to hold the Summit of 
the Americas here in Miami, it seemed that it was a natural choice. This 
city, after all, has been variously described as the hub, the melting 
pot, the gateway, the crossroads of the Americas. But in the end we 
chose Miami because of the commitment of the people who live and work 
here to make this summit a success, led as the Vice President said by 
the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor.
    I won't dwell on all the subtle and not-so-subtle details of our 
many conversations about this. But let me say that they persuaded me 
that this was the reverse of that wonderful line in the movie ``Field of 
Dreams,'' where they said to us, ``If you come, we will build it.'' And 
you have, and I thank you.
    Your efforts have been extraordinary, and we are grateful for them. 
I have just been amazed at the energy that has come out of this 
community and this State over the last several months, the kind of 
energy that's supposed to be generated only by the Florida Sun. You 
promised that the citizens of Miami would do it right, and it's clear 
that you have delivered. I think I can say for all of those who have 
come from around America to be here, we knew we would need to be warm in 
December, and now we are, in more ways than one. And we thank you very, 
very much.
    History has given the people of the Americas a dazzling opportunity 
to build a community of nations committed to the values of liberty and 
the promise of prosperity. Now, over the next 3 days, the 34 
democratically elected leaders of our hemisphere will gather to begin to 
seize this opportunity.
    I convened this Summit of the Americas with three clear goals in 
mind: First, to open new markets and create a free trade area throughout 
our hemisphere; second, to strengthen this remarkable movement to 
democracy; and third, to bring together our nations to improve the 
quality of life for all of our people. If we're successful, the summit 
will lead to more jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for our children and 
for generations to come. We will have launched a new partnership for 
prosperity.
    Today we gather in Miami to mark a quiet revolution and to launch a 
new era, for here in the Americas, as all of us know, nation after 
nation has freed itself from dictatorship and debt and embraced 
democracy and development. When historians look back on our times, they 
will marvel at the speed with which democracy has swept across the 
entire Americas. Consider this: At the time of the last hemispheric 
summit in 1967, 10 countries suffered under authoritarian rule, and 
there were fewer here. But today, 34 of the hemisphere's leaders have 
won their posts through ballots, not bullets.
    This weekend we will welcome leaders like President Aristide of 
Haiti. We have all seen his commitment to reconciliation and the rule of 
law and how it is now moving his people from fear to freedom. And I hope 
I can take a moment of pride to salute the

[[Page 2486]]

brave American men and women in uniform and their partners from around 
the world who helped to restore that democracy and freedom to Haiti. We 
are very proud of them. [Applause]
    Here at the Summit of the Americas, the people of the United States 
will meet a whole new generation of leaders, a generation no longer 
subject to the dictates of military juntas who stifle liberties and loot 
their nation, a generation that has proved in Central America that 
bloody regional conflicts can be peacefully concluded through 
negotiation and reform and reconciliation, a generation which has 
pledged to support democracy collectively wherever it is imperiled in 
this hemisphere. That's a commitment no other region in the world has 
made.
    These leaders are here in Miami because they have tapped what Simon 
Bolivar, the Liberator of Latin America, called ``the most sacred 
spring,'' ``the will of the people.'' Today, just a day before the 
anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights, we honor them, all of them. And we must also honor the brave men 
and women who dedicated themselves to the cause of freedom and liberty 
and who today lie all across this hemisphere in unmarked graves. This 
summit is also a tribute to their astonishing sacrifice. And it is their 
triumph as well.
    Only one nation in our hemisphere is not represented here. It's the 
only one where democracy is still denied. We support the Cuban people's 
desire for peaceful, democratic change, and we hope that the next time 
we have one of these summits and the people of all the Western 
Hemisphere send their leaders here, a leader of a democratic Cuba will 
take its place at the table of nations. [Applause] Thank you.
    The wave of political freedom that has swept across the Americas has 
also been matched by unprecedented economic reform. In these times of 
very great stress, farsighted leaders in nation after nation have 
adopted sound policies to tame inflation, to restore economic growth. 
They've cut tariffs, stabilized currencies, opened their economies to 
foreign investment. They have worked together to shrink mountains of 
debt. They've privatized; they've decentralized.
    Argentina has cut its central government by 60 percent in 4 years. 
Bolivia has given back to local communities more responsibility for 
health, for education, for agriculture. Brazil has slashed its inflation 
rate. The so-called lost decade in Latin America is a fading memory. 
These reforms are working wonders. Investment is growing. The middle 
class is again on the rise. The Western Hemisphere now boasts the second 
fastest growing economies in the world. And if current trends continue, 
within just a decade our hemisphere will be the biggest market in the 
world, more than 850 million consumers buying $3 trillion worth of goods 
and services. These are remarkable, hopeful times.
    Here in the United States, we, too, have developed a comprehensive 
economic strategy to reap the rewards of this moment. We had a lot of 
work to do just to put our economic house in order. We've made deep cuts 
in our deficit, in Federal spending, in the size of the Federal 
Government. For the first time since Harry Truman was President, this 
year we will have 3 years of reduction in our deficit in a row. We are 
already taking our Federal Government down to its smallest size since 
John Kennedy was President. We have made major steps toward deregulation 
in banking and trucking and deregulating the States in the areas of 
welfare, health, and education. And we have just begun to move in this 
direction.
    Our country has produced over 5 million new jobs in the last 22 
months. We've got the lowest unemployment rate in 4 years and have been 
voted by the annual panel of international economists as the world's 
most productive economy for the first time in 9 years. But the thing 
that gives me the most hope, after all the years--nearly two decades--in 
America of American families working longer workweeks for stagnant wages 
and more fragile benefits, is that this year more high-wage jobs have 
come into our economy than in the previous 5 years combined. We hope 
that we are seeing the beginning of the end of a 20-year trend in 
stagnant wages, and the beginning of the restoration of the American 
dream by reaching out to the world and into our hearts.
    Still, we know that millions of Americans have not felt this 
economic recovery. Millions

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of Americans are still working harder for less and feeling very 
uncertain, even as they read all the good statistics in the newspaper. 
We have a lot of work to do. But the truth is that the United States has 
never been in a stronger economic position to compete and win in the 
world.
    We're also taking bold steps to open new markets and to make the 
global economy work for our people. For 40 years, our markets have been 
more open than those of any other nations. We led the restoration of 
economic hope and opportunity after the Second World War. But now that 
competition is everywhere and productivity is growing and the lessons of 
management, technology, and investment are readily apparent to 
hardworking people all across the world, we cannot allow that to 
continue. We simply must be able to export more of our goods and our 
services if we are going to create more high-wage jobs.
    Just a year ago yesterday, I signed into law NAFTA, the North 
American Free Trade Agreement. You can clap for that. [Applause] When 
Congress voted for NAFTA, that event committed the United States to 
continuing leadership and engagement in the post-cold-war world. It 
marked a new era in world trade relations for America, and it gave birth 
to this summit, which could not have occurred if that hadn't happened.
    In the first 9 months of this year, our exports to Mexico jumped 22 
percent. Increased exports to Mexico and Canada have helped us to create 
more than 100,000 new jobs in America in this year alone. Auto exports 
to Mexico are up 500 percent. And I might say, Mexican exports to the 
United States are also up. It's been a good deal for us, a good deal for 
them. There has been no ``giant sucking sound,'' except for American 
goods going across the border.
    Last month in Indonesia, we agreed with 17 other Asian-Pacific 
nations, including Mexico and Chile, two countries represented here, to 
achieve free trade in the Asian-Pacific region by the year 2020. The 
tariffs will begin to fall and give us new access to new markets in the 
fastest growing economies of the world far before then.
    And just yesterday I signed into law the bill implementing the 
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the largest agreement ever for 
free and fair trade. And GATT, like NAFTA before it, passed because we 
had strong bipartisan support in Congress. That is a pattern that must 
prevail as we continue to pursue open markets and prosperity in this 
hemisphere and around the world. And I strongly urge all the nations in 
our hemisphere who have not yet done so to follow what America has done 
and implement this agreement now. It is an important thing for our 
future growth.
    Finally, let me emphasize that our economic strategy seeks to 
prepare our own people to fill the high-wage jobs of the future. For too 
many people, as I said earlier, these times are ones of great 
uncertainty. Pressures of the global economy have held down wages and 
increased job turnover for people who are not in a position to take 
advantage of the developments now occurring.
    We owe it to those Americans to provide the kind of lifetime 
education and training that will give them a chance to win in this 
economy as well. And we must ensure that basic labor standards are 
preserved and promoted so that freer trade means better working 
conditions for all. After all, in America, our people, our workers, are 
the most important asset we have. And that is true in every other nation 
as well. That's why democracy and free trade go hand-in-hand. More free 
trade is worthwhile only if its benefits actually change the lives of 
real people for the better.
    But as I have said over the last 2 years, that does not mean that we 
can repeal the laws of change, repeal the sweeping changes taking place 
in the global economy. If we do nothing to reach out to other countries 
than to expand trade, if we had walked away from NAFTA, if we had walked 
away from GATT, if we don't reach out here and throughout the world, the 
United States will still continue to suffer the burdens of trade, for we 
can't walk away. But if we reach out, as we are with NAFTA, with GATT, 
with the Summit of the Americas, if we act wisely, then we can make this 
new world work for us. Trade can be a benefit to our people. When we 
have the opportunity to sell American products and services around the 
world, we know we can compete, and we know that

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means new jobs and a rising standard of living, the core of the American 
dream.
    I will say again, we must in the United States not only create jobs 
but raise incomes. And we can only do that if we train people for higher 
wage jobs and if we create those jobs. One of the only ways we can 
create those jobs is to expand trade, especially in this hemisphere. So 
that's why every American worker in every part of the United States 
should be glad we are all here today at the Summit of the Americas.
    Now, I hope I've established why that is my primary goal for this 
summit. We have a real opportunity here to build on the momentum of 
NAFTA and GATT. That's what this new partnership of prosperity is all 
about, creating a free trade area that stretches from Alaska to 
Argentina. Let no one underestimate the significance of this--
[applause]--someday I'll learn to coordinate my speech lines and the 
applause. [Laughter]
    Let me tell you, though--think about it--from Alaska to Argentina. 
People have talked about free trade in this hemisphere for years. It's 
been talked about and talked about. The difference is, here in Miami we 
have the chance to act, and we're going to take it.
    Let me try to describe in graphic terms what this means. Latin 
America is already the fastest growing region in the world for American 
exports. Of every dollar Latin Americans spend on exports, 44 cents buy 
goods made in the U.S.A. Despite trade barriers that are, on average, 4 
times higher than ours, Florida alone sold almost $9 billion worth of 
goods in the Americas in last year alone. And by the year 2005, if 
current trends continue, our country will sell more to Latin America 
than to Western Europe or Japan. That's why we're here. That's an 
investment worth making. Creating a free trade area would be good news 
throughout the Americas. Here in the United States, our exports to Latin 
America could literally double by the year 2005. That would create over 
one million new jobs.
    Exports also create good-paying jobs. On average, export-related 
jobs pay 17 percent more than average wages in America. They're the kind 
of jobs that guarantee the families that we are concerned about a fair 
shot at the American dream. And that is why we must succeed here.
    But trade is not the only goal of this meeting; there are two 
others. The second goal of our summit must be to preserve and strengthen 
our community of democracies. Continued economic prosperity clearly 
depends upon keeping the democracies alive and stronger. And we can only 
do that if we address the dangers to democracy that face all nations.
    Many of the dangers we face--consider them: international crime, 
narcotics trafficking, terrorism, environmental degradation--these 
things can only be overcome if we act in harmony. So in the days ahead 
we will discuss ways to seize the assets of money launderers, to explore 
new ways like those developed in Chile to prevent corruption from 
corroding our democracies, to move forward on all of these fronts.
    We must also keep our democracies healthy and open. Our hemisphere 
has come too far and the cost has been too great to return to the days 
of repression and dictatorship. So at the summit we will discuss how the 
Organization of American States can help to reconcile political disputes 
and ensure that democratic constitutions actually live and breathe.
    Here in the United States we know that democracy is hard work. We've 
been at it over 200 years, and we know we still have to defend it every 
day. We have to continually review how well our governments perform and 
even whether they should be doing some things at all. Our own efforts to 
cut the size and cost and improve the performance of Government, led by 
the Vice President and his reinventing Government team, demonstrates the 
immense importance and the great rewards of this undertaking. And we, 
too, have only just begun.
    The third goal of the summit is to bring our nations together to 
pursue sustainable development. That is far more than a buzzword. Our 
democracies and our prosperity will be short-lived if we do not figure 
out how to deal with the things that enable us to grow and come together 
and maintain our quality of life over the long run. Improving the basic 
health and education of our peoples is a key part of that sustainable 
development strategy.

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    Consider our common efforts to eradicate polio, banished from our 
hemisphere since 1991. That shows you what cooperation can bring. So at 
this summit we will discuss ways that we can combat poverty, combat 
disease, increase health care, increase education, remove threats from 
millions and millions of our fellow citizens.
    Our summit agenda also calls for important talks aimed at making our 
environmental and trade policies mutually supportive. Threats to our 
environment respect no border and ultimately can undermine our 
economies. We must discuss initiatives that will make progress. We're 
going to talk about things like banning lead from gasoline in every 
country, conserving nature's diversities, spreading innovative 
environmental technologies. We will be doing the kinds of things that 
will permit us to sustain the remarkable trends of the last few years.
    At the summit, in support of expanding trade and democracy and 
sustainable development, we will consider more than 20 initiatives, all 
told, to plot a course for the future. And I am convinced that we will 
succeed as long as we recognize that the bonds that unite us are 
stronger than the forces that divide us.
    Once the United States and our neighbors were clearly divided by 
seemingly unbridgeable cultural and economic gulfs. But today, 
superhighways, satellite dishes, and enlightened self-interest draw us 
together as never before. Our economies are increasingly interwoven. And 
Latin American and Caribbean contributions to American culture, in great 
novels, fine foods, spirited music, free television networks, and many 
other ways, grow every day. By the year 2020, the United States of 
America may well boast a Spanish-speaking population second only in size 
to Mexico's. The connections between north and south in the Americas 
are, in short, a source of great energy. We have to strengthen these 
bonds. We've got to make them work for the benefit of all of our people.
    On this very day, 170 years ago, the foot soldiers of Bolivar's army 
won the Battle of Ayacucho, the last battle for liberation between the 
people of the New World and colonial Spain. With that triumph, Peru 
proclaimed its independence, and a new era began in our hemisphere. It 
was an era that Bolivar hoped would produce greater unity among the pan-
American states. Well, his dream was not realized in his lifetime, and 
generation after generation has struggled without success to make it 
real.
    In our own century, President Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy, as 
Vice President Gore said, sought to unite the hemisphere by urging 
mutual respect among all and recognizing even then, long ago, the 
importance of our interdependence. Three decades later, President 
Kennedy's Alliance for Progress inspired the peoples of the Americas 
with its vision of social justice and economic growth.
    Today, we can build on those foundations and do what could not be 
done in former times. We can create a partnership for prosperity where 
freedom and trade and economic opportunity become the common property of 
the people of the Americas. Just imagine it: a hemisphere where disputes 
among and within nations are peacefully and honorably resolved, where 
cultures and nations are universally and mutually respected, where no 
person's rights are denied and labor is not abused, where ideas and 
trade flow freely across borders, where work is rewarded and families 
and communities are strong. Just imagine it.
    My fellow Americans, this is a magic moment. Let us seize it.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:30 p.m. at the Jackie Gleason Theater 
for the Performing Arts. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Lawton 
Chiles of Florida and his wife, Rhea; Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay and his 
wife, Anne; Mayor Seymour Gelber of Miami Beach; and Mayor Steve Clark 
of Miami. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.