[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 44 (Monday, November 4, 2002)]
[Pages 1866-1867]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With President Vicente Fox of Mexico and 
an Exchange With Reporters in 
Los Cabos, Mexico

October 26, 2002

[President Fox made opening remarks in Spanish, and no translation was 
provided.]

    President Bush. Vicente, thank you for inviting us here. This is a 
very beautiful part of the world, and we're so honored you're hosting 
this convention.
    We did have a very good discussion, but I'm not surprised. After 
all, we're close friends. We discussed trade. We discussed commerce. We 
did discuss migration. Ever since I have been the President and Vicente 
has been the President, we have had a mutual desire to deal with the 
migration issue in a way that recognizes reality and in a way that 
treats the Mexican citizens who are in the United States with respect. 
And we will continue to work on this issue.
    And we did talk about world peace and Iraq. Mexico is a member of 
the Security Council. We discussed how to keep the world peaceful, how 
to hold people to account, how to make sure the United Nations is 
effective. And I appreciate so very much the President and the Foreign 
Minister's desire to consult closely with the United States as we move 
forward to making the world more peaceful.
    So we're--it's an honor to be here. It's going to be a very 
important conference, being held in a beautiful spot and hosted by a 
good friend, Mr. President.
    We'll take a couple of questions.

Immigration

    Q. President Bush, we know that--we understand President Fox was 
going to talk to you about the impact that your subsidies would 
eventually have on Mexican illegal migration to the U.S. Did you have an 
answer for him?
    President Bush. Ask the question again--agricultural subsidies?
    Q. Migration----
    President Bush. Oh, yes. Well, here's the answer. The answer is, the 
long-term answer for the migration issue is to work a way that 
encourages commerce on both sides of the border, so people can find jobs 
here in Mexico, for starters. That's the long-term solution.
    And the short-term solution, we've got to recognize that wage 
differentials are going to cause people to want to come to the United 
States. And when they come to the United States, we've got to work to 
make sure they're treated with respect. And the issue is, how do we 
recognize the reality of two societies with a wage differential the way 
they are? Here on the border, the wage differential is narrowing--or on 
the border, wage differential is narrowing, so the migration pressure 
tends to come from interior of Mexico and the south of Mexico.
    And one of the things that the President and I have discussed in the 
past is, how best to develop industry together in the midst of Mexico, 
in the south of Mexico, so that people are more likely to find work at 
home.
    Heidi [Heidi Pryzbyla, Bloomberg News]. Oh, sorry.

North Korea

    Q. A senior administration official told us this morning that the 
goal with North Korea is to isolate them. What is your strategy for 
doing that without winding up in the same position that we were in, in 
1994, with a failed agreement?
    President Bush. Well, I'm glad you asked a senior administrative 
official. Our goal is to work with our friends in the region to convince 
Kim Chong-il to disarm. I made a positive step yesterday in Crawford 
when the President of China made a public declaration that--he said, 
``Like the United States, we share the desire to make sure the Korean 
Peninsula is nuclear weapons free.''
    Right after this meeting with President Fox, I'll be meeting with 
the leaders of Japan and South Korea, where we'll continue this dialog. 
So the strategy is to make sure that our close friends and our allies 
and people with whom we've got relations work in concert to convince Mr. 
Kim Chong-il that a nuclear-weapons-free peninsula is in his interests; 
it's in South Korea's interests, and it is in the world's interests.

[At this point, a reporter asked a question in Spanish. President Bush 
and President Fox

[[Page 1867]]

responded in Spanish, and no translation was provided.]

U.N. Resolution on Iraq

    Q. For President Fox--it's the same question, basically. For 
President Fox, are you prepared to support the U.S. position at the U.N. 
and vote for a resolution authorizing force?
    And for President Bush, are there any consequences for nations that 
don't support our position at the U.N.?
    President Bush. The only consequence, of course, is with Saddam 
Hussein. And if the U.N. does not pass a resolution which holds him to 
account and that has consequences, then as I have said in speech after 
speech after speech, if the U.N. won't act, if Saddam Hussein won't 
disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.
    Q. President Fox?

[President Fox responded to the question in Spanish, and no translation 
was provided.]

Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. at the Las Ventanas al Paraiso 
Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda 
of Mexico; General Secretary Kim Chong-il of North Korea; President 
Jiang Zemin of China; President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea; Prime 
Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; and President Saddam Hussein of 
Iraq. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.