[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 10 (Monday, March 15, 1999)]
[Pages 385-390]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on Hurricane Mitch Reconstruction 
Efforts in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

March 9, 1999

    President Clinton. Thank you, Mr. President, for your remarks and 
for the extended visit we have already had today about these matters.
    I wanted to have the opportunity today to hear from a broad cross-
section of citizens of this country, and so I will be extremely brief. I 
agree with the President that this period of reconstruction should be 
seen as the opportunity to build something even better than what was 
here before. And furthermore, I believe that if all elements of a 
society are properly involved and feel fairly treated, that the 
country's social fabric, sense of community, will be stronger than it 
was before the disaster occurred.
    Many of you have paid a very high price for what has occurred, and 
the losses have been staggering. But I think the--I have been quite 
impressed by what has already been done and by the attitude of the 
people. What the United States is interested in is how we can best be an 
effective partner with you from our end. And so I'm quite interested in 
your perspective on that, as well as anything you would like to tell me 
about your present activities.
    I'd also like to introduce--this is Congressman Xavier Becerra, who 
came here before with the First Lady and has just finished a term as the 
head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He is from California. And I 
am delighted to have him back with me. And Congressman Reyes from Texas 
is also here with us.
    Moderator. We have our Archbishop--perhaps he can kick off the 
discussion.

[Archbishop Oscar Rodriguez began the discussion by thanking President 
Clinton, the people, and the churches in the U.S. for their assistance 
in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. He asked that the President support 
efforts to expand trade by allowing NAFTA parity, cease deportation of 
Hondurans, and support Central American efforts within the G-7 for 
multilateral debt relief.]

    Moderator. And this is the mayor of Tegucigalpa. I think you know 
about the accident she had in the helicopter. And after that, she took 
his job, and here we have her now.

[Mayor Vilma de Castellanos stated that 30 percent of the city was 
destroyed and briefly mentioned the impact of loss of life and damage to 
the economic and social infrastructure of the city. She closed by 
presenting the President with the key to the city.]

    Moderator. And now we have Mario Canawati, who is president of the 
Chamber

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of Commerce and Industry of San Pedro Sula and Cortes.

[Mr. Canawati thanked the Government and people of the U.S. for support 
during the crisis and reconstruction. He noted that Central America is 
one of the most important trade partners of the U.S. and that the U.S. 
has been instrumental in Honduran economic and democratic development 
through the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). He cited the textile and 
apparel industry as one which had been excluded from the CBI and that 
the revenue it generated compared unfavorably with Mexico. He said the 
only alternative to creating permanent jobs and sustained economic 
growth was through the implementation of a trade field that allowed 
Honduran exports to compete under the same conditions as NAFTA 
products.]

    Moderator. And perhaps Jacqueline Foglia from the Honduran American 
Chamber of Commerce would like to speak.

[Ms. Foglia stated that Hurricane Mitch affected agricultural more than 
other sectors of the economy. She noted that the garment industry and 
tourism sectors were not highly affected, and these might provide the 
motor for economic reconstruction. She went on to outline steps that the 
Honduran American Chamber of Commerce was taking to advance 
reconstruction efforts with the Association of American Chambers of 
Commerce of Latin America, in Washington, DC, which included working 
toward a U.S. legislative reconstruction package which would include the 
Caribbean Basin Trade Enhancement Measure which would, through greater 
access to U.S. markets, allow for a faster economic recovery, job 
creation, and overall economic benefits for Honduras.]

    Moderator. And now, Jorge Quinones, director of the Vida Foundation.

[Mr. Quinones thanked the President and the U.S. Agency for 
International Development (USAID) for its help in Honduran environmental 
projects. He stated that in the aftermath of the hurricane, 
reforestation and sustainable management of water basins were the most 
formidable challenges in reconstruction. He added that environmental 
education needed to be a central part of the reconstruction agenda.]

    Moderator. And Mariano Flanos now, from Save the Children.

[Mr. Flanos stated that Save the Children supported over 50,000 people 
with different kinds of financing from the people and Government of the 
United States, especially from USAID, and had also benefited from the 
support of human resources from U.S. organizations in Honduras for areas 
that went far beyond reconstruction and infrastructure.]

    Moderator. And now, Ricardo Maduro, a businessman.

[Mr. Maduro, president of a private education foundation, stated that 
the Honduran infrastructure in education was substantially damaged by 
Hurricane Mitch and indicated the worst effect had been to reduce the 
capacity, public and private, to invest in education. He described the 
education levels in the country and stated that to move forward they 
need to use nontraditional methods such as radio and television to reach 
students. He expressed the market-driven need for more computers in 
education and teaching English as a second language. A spokesman for the 
Flores administration said the Government was attempting to reach an 
early agreement with the International Monetary Fund for bilateral and 
multilateral debt relief. He indicated the Government was working to 
develop a reconstruction master plan with a consultative group in 
Stockholm, Sweden, while simultaneously strengthening the mechanisms of 
financing transparency through international auditing. Representative 
Xavier Becerra made brief remarks commending the Hondurans for the 
improvements made since his visit in November, 1998. He pledged to work 
hard in Congress to provide as much support for the region as possible.]

    President Clinton. First of all, I would like to thank you all for 
your presentations and for making them quite specific and to the point. 
I would like to respond to a number of the points that were made. First 
of all, I have sent legislation to the Congress, just last week before I 
came here, asking for greater liberalization of trade for the Central

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American and Caribbean nations to move closer toward parity with NAFTA 
in Mexico. I have--it does not go as far in everything that I'm sure a 
lot of you would do, but it does as much as we believe we can pass in 
the Congress.
    I was profoundly disappointed last year that we did not pass the 
trade-opening initiative. And of course, after the hurricane struck, I 
was even more disappointed. I think now, ironically because of the 
hurricane, we may have a better chance to pass a bill. And I will do 
everything I can to that end.
    With regard to debt relief, part of the package that I have proposed 
to the Congress in aid, as opposed to trade, about a $955 million 
package, a part of it involves the debt deferral and outright debt 
forgiveness, both of which would give very much needed debt relief not 
only to Honduras but to the other Central American nations. If the 
Congress will go along with me and pass this, it will give me the 
standing to argue more forcefully to the other nations and to the 
international organizations that they must follow suit.
    I think, clearly, Honduras should be given relief under the highly 
indebted countries initiative that the United States has done a lot to 
create. I believe we should do more. I think the fact that the Holy 
Father has made this a year in which he's calling for people to do more 
debt relief will, frankly, be enormously helpful, and I told him that 
when I was in St. Louis recently. And I would urge you to communicate 
this to the Vatican, that if there could be more of this, like sort of a 
constant reminder, it would be highly effective, even perhaps 
establishing some sort of priority saying you ought to do at least 
Central America and then something in Africa and something in Asia to 
give hope to the people on those continents, something like that.
    But I think on a thing like this it's not enough to say it one time. 
We have to keep working. But I think Central America has a special claim 
here, Honduras, Nicaragua, the other countries as well, because one of 
the arguments I always hear, even in my own country, about debt 
forgiveness is, ``Well, look, you know if you''--and the former banker 
here understands this--``if you forgive it all, well, then nobody will 
want to loan any money tomorrow because they'll think all of that will 
be forgiven, too.''
    Well, in the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in centuries 
here, it seems to me that argument just doesn't hold water here. It 
might be true in the case of an Asian country that had a bad banking 
system and got in an economic problem for local reasons, but it seems to 
me, insofar as the present predicament of Central America is a direct 
result of the hurricane, that argument has no standing.
    So I will do the best I can. But again, I would urge all of you to 
stay on that because relieving the government of the financial burden of 
the payments will free up a lot of money for education and other things 
as well.
    On the deportation, I think you know, Archbishop Rodriguez, because 
you spoke in a way that indicated you did, I have done what I could to 
minimize the impact of some of our immigration laws, not only on 
Hondurans but on all the people of Central America. I, frankly, believe 
I have done all I can do under the law. Now, because there was such 
hardship here, so much devastation, I was able to provide some greater 
consideration for the Hondurans that have come to the United States.
    But I think it would be a mistake to sort of openly encourage more 
people to come, in violation of our laws and quotas, because there is--I 
have gone to the limit of what I can now do. And I think it is far more 
important for us to concentrate on getting this aid package passed, 
getting the debt relief, getting the trade relief, getting the renewal 
of the economy here going.
    Let me just mention three other issues very quickly. One of you 
mentioned the need for more loans for small business and 
microbusinesses. We have our USAID Director here with me, Mr. Atwood. I 
think the United States funded 2 million microenterprise loans last year 
through AID around the world. My wife is--probably talked about that 
when she was here. This is a passion of hers and has been for about 15 
years now.
    And we have found, in our own country, when we have a natural 
disaster--you know, we had a flood, a 500 year flood in the Mississippi 
River 5 years ago, and one of the

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most important funds that we have is the fund that provides for special 
credit for small businesses who otherwise could not get it.
    So I don't know whether there's anything special, Mr. President, we 
could do to help, for the small- and micro-enterprises or to try to 
establish even a broader and more adequate international fund for such 
things in the face of disasters. But we always find, even in America, 
which has a very sophisticated banking system, that they are the first 
casualties of natural disasters that wreck the economies of whole 
communities. So if we could help you in that, I would be happy to.
    There are just two other things that were mentioned. With regard to 
the environment, I think that--you said, sir, that you felt that the 
disaster would have been even worse had it not been for some of the 
environmental practices here in Honduras. Yesterday, when I was in 
Nicaragua, there was no question that it was worse in the places where 
there had been vast deforestation and nothing to protect the people from 
the mudslides. And you have a lot of serious--the President was telling 
me today, you have a lot of serious decisions to make about, you know, 
how to replenish the soil which has been destroyed, where the topsoil 
has been carried away, or perhaps the nutrients have been washed away 
and the crops won't grow anymore.
    I will do whatever I can. In this aid package, we have some 
significant amount of money for environmental investments. But I will do 
whatever I can to be particularly helpful there. I think it would be--
not only with the United States but with others as well--I think the 
more we know about the specific plans and strategies, the better off we 
will be.
    But if you look at our hemisphere, our region here, it's perfectly 
obvious that the countries that have done the best job of preserving 
their natural environment are going to be the strongest economically, 
also, over the long run. And yet, one of the greatest battles we face in 
the world today, in this larger struggle over climate change, which may 
or may not have had anything to do with Hurricane Mitch--we don't know. 
No one knows for sure. But the larger battle is that in most countries, 
most decisionmakers do not believe you can grow an economy unless you 
continue to use its resources at an unsustainable rate--that is, at a 
greater rate than they can be replaced--and do not believe you can grow 
an economy unless you increase, year-in and year-out, the amount of fuel 
and energy you are using that contributes to greenhouse gases, coal, and 
oil, for example.
    Now, all the evidence is against that proposition, but old ideas die 
hard. And I do believe that because economies have--[inaudible]--if for 
no other reason, and because of some of the stunning examples already 
set by the preservation of the biosphere or by the energy patterns 
adopted in Costa Rica, for example, that Central America may be in a 
unique position to get lots of investment to prove to the rest of the 
world that we don't have to destroy the environment to grow the economy. 
And so I would be happy to exert some extra efforts to help you get some 
investments in that regard, but again, I think the specifics are 
important.
    For example, I'll just say one thing. The last time I was in Costa 
Rica, I noticed they were driving--the buses they were using, the school 
buses they were using, the transportation buses they were using--were 
powered by electricity or natural gas, and they were all made by a 
company in Vice President Gore's home State. And there are lots of 
things--if we knew what the strategy was here and what the priorities 
were, there might be a lot of things we could do to be helpful.
    The last thing I'd like to say is, I want to endorse what was said 
earlier by you, Mr. Maduro, about education. And I would be happy for us 
to have a long-term partnership on that, but again, I don't feel that I 
know enough to know what your immediate priorities are. The United 
States has had some success in working with countries in various parts 
of the world in helping to increase more rapidly the number of children 
going to school.
    And of course, as you pointed out, there's no point in increasing 
the number of children going to school unless you have a place for them 
to go to school, a teacher to teach them, and materials with which they 
learn. But I do not believe that you can come anywhere

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close to doing what you want to do in Honduras if it takes you a decade 
to add one more year to the average schooling. And there may be a way--
I'm going to talk about this a little bit tomorrow--but this is a year 
in which a lot of countries are trying to pass this international 
convention against child labor, which the church has been solemnly 
supportive of, and which I strongly support.
    But I think it would be interesting to see whether we could marry 
the commitment of countries to support the convention against child 
labor with a commitment of the advanced countries that are pushing to 
help to dramatically increase investment in those countries in 
education, so that you're saying not just that you don't want the 
children in the factory but you do want them in the school.
    And there may be a way that we could dramatically accelerate the 
rate, the average schooling here. Now, I have all these people from my 
administration here, plus Lieutenant Governor MacKay, former Lieutenant 
Governor of Florida, who now will be my new Special Envoy to Latin 
America, and Mr. Atwood and the others are all here, so--and your 
Ambassadors. He's our Ambassador, but I think he's really your 
Ambassador. [Laughter] But we will follow up on this.
    On the environment and on education, the more specific you can be 
about what you want us to do, the more we can be helpful, I think. On 
all these areas, I will do my best.
    The last thing I'd like to say is I'd like to thank the gentleman 
from Save the Children. My wife and I have been involved with Save the 
Children for more than 20 years, long before we ever thought we would be 
in national political life. And as soon as this hurricane occurred, she 
gave some money from her foundation to Save the Children through 
operations here. So I thank you for what you're doing. The organization 
has done great work in our home area as well, and I thank all of you.
    This was a very good set of presentations, and you gave me a lot to 
go home and work on.

[President Carlos Roberto Flores of Honduras expressed his appreciation 
to the President and noted the representation in the audience of 
nongovernmental organizations, labor unions, private enterprise, and 
religious groups. With regard to Archbishop Rodriguez' remarks on 
immigration, President Flores said his government did not want to 
promote emigration to the United States. Regarding those who went in 
earlier days, he asked that they receive the same treatment other 
Central American countries' nationals receive by law.]

    President Clinton. Well, I think you know that I strongly believe in 
that. I think that the present American immigration law and how it 
treats people that were in our country as of some time ago is an 
inexcusable remnant of the cold war and wrong. I haven't said anything 
to you I haven't said at home. I think that--people came to the United 
States because they felt oppressed and are entitled to stay in our 
country because they came here, it shouldn't matter whether they felt 
the oppression from the left or the right. I mean, if it's a rational 
category, people should be treated the same regardless of what the facts 
are. But the real issue is that all the countries in Central America 
should be treated the same insofar as whatever the objective facts were 
that brought the people to our country. So if people should come home, 
then they should be treated the same; if people should be able to stay, 
they should be treated the same. That's what I believe.

[President Flores said he was optimistic about Honduras' recuperation 
from Hurricane Mitch but expressed concern that the difficulties it 
presented could undermine the democracy which they had fought so hard to 
attain. He said the challenge would be to show the Honduran people that 
the system works for them. He concluded by thanking the President for 
coming.]

    President Clinton. Thank you. Let me just say one thing as we break 
up. I have heard this--and one of the reasons I am grateful that we have 
Members of our Congress here is that we have these bills up there; they 
can be addressed now. I think there is an overwhelming understanding in 
both parties in the Congress that we have to pass the aid bill, and I 
think the only thing that we have to do is to make sure that political 
considerations in America, that have

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nothing to do with Central America, things that are back home don't in 
any way hold up the consideration of either piece of legislation, and so 
we will work hard on it.
    Thank you.
    Oh, I have to get my key to the city. If I wear this to dinner 
tonight, I'll get a discount. [Laughter]
    Thank you.

Note: The roundtable began at 2:52 p.m. in the conference room at the 
Central Bank. In his remarks, the President referred to Pope John Paul 
II. A portion of these remarks could not be verified because the tape 
was incomplete.