[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 19 (Monday, May 14, 2001)]
[Pages 714-715]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Council of the Americas Conference

 May 7, 2001

    Thank you, Mr. Rhodes, I'm honored; and thank you for having me, 
sir. It's an honor to be here with Senator Chuck Hagel. He's a man who's 
got a good vision of the world. He's also a fine United States Senator, 
I might add. Thank you for being here, Senator. It's good to see 
Ambassadors from nations in our hemisphere. Mr. Rockefeller, thank you 
very much for your support of trade in our hemisphere.
     It's an honor to be here with the best pick I could have possibly 
made to be the Secretary of State, and that's Colin Powell. He's doing a 
really good job of making the case for our country in a strong and 
humble way. When it's all said and done, his tenure is going to mean the 
world is more peaceful and more prosperous.
     I appreciate so very much, Peter Romero from the State Department, 
who has been working side by side with those of us at the White House. I 
appreciate Thomas McNamara and Bill Pryce, as well. And thank you all 
for coming, and thank you for letting me talk about a subject near and 
dear to my heart.
     The Council of the Americas was formed 36 years ago, in a different 
America. And it's certainly a different world. In 1965 international 
trade and investment mattered much less to the U.S. economy. We traded 
mostly with the countries of Europe. Interestingly enough, at that point 
in time, Mexico was our fifth largest trading partner. Today, she's the 
second largest trading partner, behind Canada.
     In 1965 so few Americans traced their ancestry to Latin America 
that the census didn't even bother to tabulate them. Today, some 35 
million Americans are of Hispanic origin. In 1965 military and 
authoritarian regimes ruled all too many of the countries of the 
Americas. Today, with one sad, solitary exception, every nation in our 
hemisphere has an elected government.
    Our recent summit in Quebec symbolized the new reality in our 
hemisphere, a unity of shared values, shared culture, and shared trade. 
And together, we made good progress at that summit, the beginnings of a 
really strong and fruitful relationship all throughout the hemisphere.
    In 1980s and the early nineties, our Nation negotiated many 
important trade agreements: the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, the 
North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Uruguay Round of 
multilateral trade talks. Since then, efforts have stalled as U.S. trade 
promotion authority was allowed to lapse. The inactivity of the American 
Government has had real costs for the American people. The United States 
has few better friends, for example, than the Republic of Chile, but the 
fact is, Canadian goods sold in Chile pay a lower tariff than American 
goods do, because the United States has left its trade talks with Chile 
unfinished.
     Free trade agreements are being negotiated all over the world, and 
we're not a party to them. And this has got to change.
    Americans are the world's preeminent inventor of new technology and 
the world's biggest foreign investor. We're the world's most efficient 
food producer and the world's leading source of information and 
entertainment. For our farmers and our inventors, for our artists and 
for ordinary savers open trade pays off in the form of higher incomes 
and higher returns.
     We benefit from open trade in less tangible ways, as well. 
Americans want to live on a cleaner planet; we want labor standards

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upheld and children protected from exploitation. Americans want human 
rights and individual freedom to advance. Open trade advances those 
American values, those universal values.
     By failing to make the case for trade, we've allowed a new kind of 
protectionism to appear in this country. It talks of workers, while it 
opposes a major source of new jobs. It talks of the environment, while 
opposing the wealth-creating policies that will pay for clean air and 
water in developing nations. It talks of the disadvantaged, even as it 
offers ideas that would keep many of the poor in poverty.
     Open trade is not just an economic opportunity; it is a moral 
imperative. Trade creates jobs for the unemployed. When we negotiate for 
open markets, we are providing new hope for the world's poor. And when 
we promote open trade, we are promoting political freedom. Societies 
that open to commerce across their borders will open to democracy within 
their borders, not always immediately and not always smoothly, but in 
good time.
     Look at our friends, Mexico, and the political reforms there. Look 
at Taiwan. Look at South Korea. And some day soon, I hope that an 
American President will end that list by adding, look at China. I 
believe in open trade with China, because I believe that freedom can 
triumph in China.
     Later this week, I will send the outline of my trade agenda to 
Congress. My administration wants to work with Congress and to listen to 
what the Members have to say. We've been especially impressed by the 
fresh new thinking of many Members about how to advance environmental 
and worker protection concerns in ways that open trade rather than 
closing trade. They recognize that one-size-fits-all policies can't 
succeed. They know we need a toolbox equipped to match diverse tools 
with diverse problems, and I agree.
     And one tool I must have is renewed U.S. trade promotion authority. 
I urge the Congress, restore our Nation's authority to negotiate trade 
agreements. And I will use that authority to build freedom in the world, 
progress in our hemisphere, and enduring prosperity in the United 
States.
     We must pass the free trade agreement with Jordan, one of our best 
friends in the Middle East. We need to complete our free trade agreement 
with Singapore. We must proceed with other bilateral and regional 
agreements. And the time has come for a new global trade round.
     I'm optimistic about trade. I'm also realistic about trade. I will 
enforce our laws against unfair trade practices. And I want to consider 
how we can improve our program for trade adjustment assistance when it 
comes up for reauthorization next year. But we must understand that the 
transition costs of open trade are dwarfed by open trade's benefits that 
are measured not only in dollars and cents but in human freedom, human 
dignity, human rights, and human progress.
     We must make those benefits a reality for all the people of our 
hemisphere. And that's the task ahead. I accept it with enthusiasm. And 
I'm counting on the Council's help to bring sanity to the United States 
Congress.
     God bless.

  Note:  The President spoke at 2:33 p.m. at the State Department. In 
his remarks, he referred to William R. Rhodes, member, David 
Rockefeller, honorary chair, and Thomas E. McNamara, president, board of 
directors, and William T. Pryce, vice president, Washington operations, 
Council of the Americas; and Peter F. Romero, Acting Assistant Secretary 
of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.