[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 18 (Monday, May 7, 2007)]
[Pages 545-552]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference With European Union Leaders

April 30, 2007

    President Bush. Thank you all. Please be seated. Welcome to the Rose 
Garden. I want to welcome Angela Merkel and Jose Barroso here. Thank you 
all for your friendship. Thank you for what has been a serious set of 
discussions.

    I told the Chancellor and the President that the EU-U.S. relations 
are very important to our country, that not only is it important for us 
to strategize how to promote prosperity and peace, but it's important 
for us to achieve concrete results. And we have done so.

    I thank the Chancellor and Jose very much for the transatlantic 
economic integration plan that the three of us signed today. It is a 
statement of the importance of trade. It is a commitment to eliminating 
barriers to trade. It is a recognition that the closer that the United 
States and the EU become, the better off our people become. And so this 
is a substantial agreement, and I appreciate it.

    We also talked about Doha, and I thank Peter Mandelson and Susan 
Schwab for briefing us. The first thing I told the group in the Cabinet 
Room was that I am firmly dedicated to a successful Doha round. I 
believe it's in this country's interests that we reject isolationism and 
protectionism and encourage free trade. I'm under no illusions as to how 
hard it will be to achieve the objective, but the first thing is, there 
must be a firm commitment by the leadership to get a deal.

    Secondly, I reminded the people that this country is dedicated to 
working to eliminate poverty and disease, and the best way to help the 
developing world is through a successful Doha round. We told our trade 
ministers, ``Work hard; work often; work constructively.'' And I believe 
we can be successful.

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We're committed to reducing our agricultural subsidies in order to 
advance the process. We expect others to follow suit and market access.
    Anyway, I am optimistic we can achieve the objective. And today's 
meetings gave us a chance to discuss a way forward. We talked about the 
visa waiver program. We talked about Iran and the need for our nations 
to continue to work closely together to send a unified message to the 
Iranians that their development of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable to 
peace. We talked about Darfur.
    We talked about Afghanistan and Iraq. And I appreciate very much the 
EU support of the International Compact that will be meeting on Iraq 
here in Sharm al-Sheikh. We talked about Cuba and the importance for 
Cuba to be a free society, a society that respects human rights and 
human dignity, a society that honors the rule of law.
    We also talked about climate change, and here we share a common 
interest. One, we recognize that we have a problem with greenhouse 
gases; two, we recognize we have a problem with a dependence on oil; 
three, we recognize that we can use technologies to help solve this 
problem; and four, we recognize we have an obligation to work together 
to promote the technologies necessary to solve the problem and encourage 
the developing world to use those technologies.
    And so I found the discussion refreshing and interesting, and I 
appreciate the candid conversations we had.
    Madam Chancellor, welcome back here to the Rose Garden, and I'm 
looking forward to your comments.
    President Angela Merkel. Thank you, Mr. President, dear George. 
Thank you for the hospitality. Thank you for the hospitality you 
accorded to the European Union and also for the fact that you made it 
possible to hold this summit meeting between the EU and the United 
States of America, which already has a very good and rich tradition.
    It was a very interesting debate and one that was actually--we were 
talking about a lot of issues--about transatlantic economic integration, 
obviously, first and foremost. And let me thank you very warmly for the 
fact that we've been able to enjoy such substantial progress in such a 
relatively short time. That was only possible because the American 
administration--but in particular, you, Mr. President--were behind, 
full-square behind this project and because we not only agreed on 
general frameworks but on very concrete projects.
    And I think that's exactly what the people in our country expect 
from us, all the representatives of our respective business communities. 
They ask us, ``What can we do in order to really pool our resources and 
make sure that we work on one and the same level playing field as 
regards, for example, our shared values.'' So I am confident that what 
with the Economic Council that we have set up, we will be able to make 
progress on very concrete projects, for example, mutual recognition of 
standards and other areas. It is, as I see it, a significant step 
forward.
    I would also like to thank you for the progress we've been able to 
make on climate and energy issues. There is a common basis. We are aware 
of the fact that we do have a problem here, that we need to solve this 
problem. There are different approaches, obviously, as to how to solve 
that.
    But we have been able, actually, to find a lot of common ground. And 
one of the issues we talked about, for example, was a commitment of the 
United States of America to introduce 20 percent biofuels over the next 
few years to come, until 2020, and to have this at their disposal. And 
for that too we need to develop a common market, common standards which, 
as I see it, has been, again, giving a more--a very important impetus to 
that particular industry and that technology.
    Now, on climate, we will also need to work on this in view of the 
upcoming G-8 summit, where we will make it clear, as European Union, as 
United States of America, that we don't want to isolate ourselves or 
shut ourselves off against the rest of the world, but where we want to 
enlist the support of others, invite them to join us.
    And I also note that the trade talks have been taking place here on 
the margins of this meeting. They also, obviously, will then have to 
take part--place in the more wider group, the multilateral group. Let me 
just tell you, this agreement between the European Union and the U.S. is 
not in any way against free

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trade. No, not at all. And what we need to do here is really to look at 
the larger picture. And I feel it's so good that the President is 
committed to make a step forward also on reducing non-tariff barriers to 
trade. All of the partners will have to be in on this, but we will do 
our bit to make this true.
    I don't want to go through the whole agenda of international issues. 
And let me just tell you, it was an open and candid discussion that 
clearly showed us that we need to work together, that diplomacy can only 
be successful if we stand together, be this on the Middle East, on other 
issues.
    And let me tell you that we have been talking at greater length also 
about the situation in Darfur, which we consider to be totally 
unacceptable, and that we need to do everything we can in order to help 
the people there on the ground who suffer immensely, because we have not 
made progress so far and that we ought to use all of our possibilities 
in order to achieve progress also in the European--in the United 
Nations.
    Thank you yet again for your hospitality, for the commitment that, I 
think, the number of documents that we have been able to agree on here 
today show--is born out--it's a good day for EU-U.S. relations.
    President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. [Inaudible]--a very friendly 
exchange, the one we had today, covering the whole range of European 
Union-United States relations and also some international issues. 
President Bush and Chancellor Merkel already mentioned the basic points, 
so let me just underline one or two that I believe are specifically 
important, namely in terms of economic relations and also on climate.
    On economic relations, we signed very important framework for 
advancing transatlantic European integration. This was already welcomed 
by business community on both sides of the Atlantic. Our economic 
relation is by far the most important in the world. Transatlantic trade 
in goods and service totals over 1.7 billion euros a day. But we can 
work together more to make that relation even easier. And I believe 
there is some untapped potential, namely if we can achieve more 
regulatory cooperation, in some cases regulatory convergence, put down 
some barriers to trade and investment on both sides, and to fight, of 
course, protectionism and isolationism that sometimes happens on both 
sides of the Atlantic as well.
    So this is, indeed, a very important agreement and an agreement that 
also brings with it a Transatlantic Economic Council to be a permanent 
body, with senior people on both sides of the Atlantic as we look at all 
those issues in a concrete manner, in which way we can make it move 
forward.
    On the European Union side, I decided to appoint Vice President of 
the Commission Gunter Verheugen as our leading personality in that 
council.
    Another important point linked with this, to be signed later this 
afternoon, is the Air Transport Agreement. It is a very important first-
stage agreement on air transport, but it also brings with it the same 
idea of putting, in an easier footing, the relations--economic 
relations, people's relations--between the United States of America and 
the European Union. And I think it's also very important, is by far the 
most important, in terms of air traffic liberalization, since the 
convention of Chicago so many years ago.
    But trade--we also welcomed very strong statement that President 
Bush made during our meeting and--just now. We are very committed to a 
successful conclusion to Doha round. We believe we can do it. We should 
do it. It will be good for trade, for the economy globally, but also for 
developing world and also for having all the main players in a true 
multilateral system for trade. So we are going to make efforts to get 
that done.
    Regarding climate, I really welcome the fact that there was progress 
in this meeting. We agree there is a threat; there is a very serious and 
global threat. We agree that there is a need to reduce emissions. We 
agree that we should work together. That's why I decided to have a forum 
where we are going to address many of these issues, namely technology 
and other issues that are important to fight climate change. And let's 
be frank: Without the United States and Europe working together, we 
cannot engage others so that we can have a real global effort to face 
this very important threat to our economy but also to our security. So 
climate and energy security are important in the agenda.

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And I'm very happy with the progress that we have achieved in this 
meeting today.
    Once again, President Bush, dear George, thank you very much for all 
the preparations and all the support you are giving personally to these 
very deep and strong relations.
    President Bush. Thank you, Jose. Two questions for the three of us, 
starting with Terry [Terence Hunt, Associated Press].

Emergency Supplemental Appropriations

    Q. Mr. President, you're about to veto a bill that would force troop 
withdrawals from Iraq. How much of a voice are you willing to give 
Congress in the way that you conduct the war?
    President Bush. Yes. I am about to veto a bill that has got 
artificial timetables for withdrawal, but that's not the only bad thing 
about the bill. It also imposes the judgment of people here in 
Washington on our military commanders and diplomats. It also adds 
domestic spending that's unrelated to the war. I have made my position 
very clear--the Congress chose to ignore it, and so I'll veto the bill.
    That's not to say that I'm not interested in their opinions. I am. I 
look forward to working with members of both parties to get a bill that 
doesn't set artificial timetables and doesn't micromanage and gets the 
money to our troops. I believe there's a lot of Democrats that 
understand that we need to get the money to the troops as soon as 
possible. And so I'm optimistic we can get something done in a positive 
way.

Russia/Missile Defense System

    Q. Mr. President----
    President Bush. How could we ever forget your face? [Laughter]
    Q. That's great. Thank you very much. I remember yours too. 
[Laughter]
    President Bush. Thank you.
    Q. Mr. President, concerning the nuclear dispute about missile 
defense, the missile defense with Moscow, what concrete steps are you 
planning to convince President Putin that this is a good idea of NATO 
and the U.S.? And can the German Chancellor help you on this issue?
    President Bush. As you know, I'm having a regular conversation with 
the German Chancellor. We have a secure video that is beamed in the 
White House and her office, and so we consult regularly. And she 
expressed her concerns that the U.S. position wasn't very clear about 
the missile defense systems and that there were some people concerned in 
Germany, as well as Europe, about our intentions. And she also suggested 
that it might make sense for me to share my intentions more clearly with 
President Putin. And I took her advice very seriously.
    Our intention, of course, is to have a defense system that prevents 
rogue regimes from holding Western Europe and/or America to hostage. 
Evidently, the Russians view it differently. And so upon the advice of 
the Chancellor, I asked Secretary Gates to go to Moscow, where he had a 
very constructive meeting with President Putin. I called President Putin 
and asked him to see Secretary Gates, and that we would put forth an 
interesting information-sharing proposal.
    Our intention is to say to Russia that the system is something you 
ought to think about participating in. It's in your interests to have a 
system that could prevent a future Iranian regime, for example, from 
launching a weapon--it's in Russia's security interests. And therefore, 
we have started a dialog that, as a result of Secretary Gates's visit, 
that hopefully will make explicit our intentions and hopefully present 
the--an opportunity to share with the Russians, so that they don't see 
us as an antagonistic force, but see us as a friendly force.

Trade/Iran

    Q. If I could ask you, President of the Commission, first of all, on 
the trade agreement you've reached. Presumably this is an agreement 
that's going to make wealthy countries richer, yet there's no progress 
to report on Doha to help the plight of poor countries. Aren't your 
priorities wrong?
    And on a separate issue, your foreign policy chief has said that the 
U.S. should talk to Iran. I wondered whether you could tell us exactly 
what the U.S. should be talking to Iran about.
    President Bush, if I can just add a question on that, your Secretary 
of State is going to a conference in Iraq where the Foreign Minister 
from Iran is going to be present. Do

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you expect her to have conversations with the Foreign Minister of Iran? 
What will she talk about? And if she does have a conversation, is there 
going to be a change of U.S. policy? Thank you very much.
    President Durao Barroso. Regarding the framework for advancing 
transatlantic-European integration, we said it very clearly--and it is 
clearly stated in the declaration and also in all our conversations--
that this is not detrimental to the global trade talks. On the contrary, 
you just heard President Bush, Chancellor Merkel, and myself saying it 
clearly that completion of Doha round remains a priority for all of us.
    But there are some artificial barriers to trade and investment--it's 
more about investment than to trade, to be frank--still between the 
United States and Europe. And through harmonization of standards, 
through a giant effort, for instance, to promote the enforcement of 
intellectual property rights, through some common approaches to 
investment, to capital markets integration, to common--or at least 
commonly accepted rules for accounting--we are trying to untap a lot of 
potential that exists in the United States-European Union relations.
    So this is not at all against global trade talks. On the contrary, 
we remain and we, in fact, we are urging for a completion of the Doha 
trade talks, not only because they are about trade, but because they are 
about development. And today we had extensive conversations about it. 
And as President Bush has said, we've heard a complete briefing by Susan 
Schwab on the American side and Peter Mandelson on the European Union 
side.
    Regarding Iran, we also share the same views, basically, about how 
to deal with Iran. And it's not only the United States and Europe, I'll 
say--there are several resolutions with the United Nations Security 
Council. And the Iranians should understand that this message they are 
receiving from the global community--by the United States, by Europe, 
but from others; the Security Council adopt several resolutions. 
Proliferation, nuclear proliferation is, indeed, a threat, not only to 
regional stability but to the global peace and global stability. So I 
believe we are united in sending this very clear message here, but also 
in the United Nations, to the Iranian authorities.
    President Bush. Should the Foreign Minister of Iran bump into Condi 
Rice, Condi won't be rude. She's not a rude person. I'm sure she'll be 
polite. But she'll also be firm in reminding this representative of the 
Iranian Government that there's a better way forward for the Iranian 
people than isolation. My hopes, of course, is that the Foreign Minister 
would see the resolve of our Government, through Condi, to continue to 
rally the world to convince the Iranians to give up their nuclear 
weapons ambitions. I happen to believe a significant threat to world 
peace, today and in the future, is the Iranian threat if they were to 
end up with a nuclear weapon--``today'' is the wrong word--``in the 
future.'' They don't have a weapon today.
    And so I--if, in fact, there is a conversation, it will be one that 
says, if the Iranian Government wants to have a serious conversation 
with the United States and others, they ought to give up their 
enrichment program in a verifiable fashion. And we will sit down at the 
table with them, along with our European partners and Russia as well. 
That's what she'll tell them.
    President Merkel. Allow me, if I may, one remark on the 
transatlantic economic partnership and how that tallies with the Doha 
round. The Doha round actually is mainly about reducing tariffs. And the 
transatlantic economic partnership has to do more with standards that 
have nothing to do, actually, with tariffs.
    What we are after is to see to it that we try for convergence on 
standards in many, many areas where we do not have mutual recognition of 
standards or areas where we can actually harmonize those standards, and 
therefore, reduce costs by millions, for example, in drug testing, in 
crash tests for automobiles. And if we look at where the challenges lie, 
I am firmly convinced that both the United States and the European Union 
would be far more competitive and need to be far more competitive, vis-
a-vis the emerging countries.
    So in this way, this will liberate money to put into new 
technologies, into developing techniques that can enable us to do that. 
And we're actually squandering money that could

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be put to better use. So the two are complementary, but they also serve 
strengthening competitiveness of both the European Union and the United 
States.

World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz

    Q. For all three of you, did you at any point today, either 
informally or not, have discussions about the fate of World Bank 
President Paul Wolfowitz? Should he resign, keep his job? And your 
reason for that, please.
    President Bush. The answer is, no, we didn't have a discussion. My 
position is, is that he ought to stay. He ought to be given a fair 
hearing. And I appreciate the fact that he has advanced--he's helped the 
World Bank recognize that the eradication of world poverty is an 
important priority for the bank.
    President Merkel. Well, today we did not address that issue, and my 
position is, and this is going to be relayed by a minister in the 
board--in the individual bodies of the World Bank, and they have the 
respective commissions as well, that this ought to be a very 
transparent, very candid conversation. This is, I think, where this 
belongs, this particular issue.

Alternative Fuel Sources

    Q. A question addressed to you, Mr. President, and also to the 
Chancellor. You were speaking of progress that you have been able to 
achieve on climate. Are these true and genuine--is this true and genuine 
progress if we still don't agree on the instruments to get there? The 
Europeans seem to be banking more on limiting CO<INF>2</INF> emissions, 
sort of national limits that are imposed by governments. You seem to be 
more in favor of, sort of, a voluntary regime. But apparently, we're 
sort of reaching the 11th hour.
    President Bush. Actually, that's not an accurate portrayal of my 
position. For example, take tailpipe emissions from automobiles. I have 
said we'll have a mandatory fuel standard--not a voluntary fuel 
standard, but a mandatory fuel standard--that will reduce our uses of 
gasoline by 20 percent over a 10-year period of time. We believe that 
ethanol and biodiesel--the spread of ethanol and biodiesel are--the goal 
of spreading ethanol and biodiesel is achievable. That's what we 
believe. And we're spending a lot of money to achieve that goal.
    Now, the spread of ethanol in the United States is not going to be 
achievable if we rely only upon corn. There is a limit to the amount of 
ethanol we can produce with corn as the feedstock. So our research 
dollars are going to what they call cellulosic ethanol, and that means 
the ability to make ethanol from switch grasses or wood chips. And we're 
spending a lot of money to that end.
    And it is a mandatory approach. And the reason why I laid it out is 
because one, I do believe we can be better stewards of the environment, 
and two, I know it's in our national interest to become less dependent 
on foreign sources of oil. The fundamental question is, will America be 
able to develop the technology necessary for us to achieve the goal? I 
think we can. It's in our interest to share that technology, not only 
with our partners who are wealthy enough to spend money on research 
dollars but also with the developing world.
    Now, you talk about helping alleviate poverty in the developing 
world. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the developing world could grow crops 
that would enable them to power their automobiles so they wouldn't have 
to be dependent on foreign oil either? And that's the message I took 
down to South America, with Lula, and to Central America. For example, 
sugar cane is the most efficient--you're learning a lot about ethanol 
here--but sugar cane is the most efficient way to make ethanol. It turns 
out, in Central America, there is a lot of land and opportunity to 
continue to produce cane, which means that the Central American 
countries could be eventually net exporters of energy. And so we've got 
a lot of common ground and a lot of area to work on.
    As to how each country approaches it, that's an interesting 
question. And I think that each country needs to recognize that we must 
reduce our greenhouse gases and deal, obviously, with their own internal 
politics to come up with an effective strategy that, hopefully, when 
added together, that it leads to a real reduction.
    Finally, you've got to recognize that in order to make--achieve 
progress on greenhouse gases, we've got to make sure that the

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developing nations, which are significant emitters, are a part of the 
process. As I reminded the people around the conference table today, the 
United States could shut down our economy and emit no greenhouse gases, 
and all it would take is for China, in about 18 months, to produce as 
much as we had been producing, to make up the difference about what we 
reduced our greenhouse gases to.
    So it's a--this is a very important issue. It's got global 
consequences. The good news is, is that we recognize there's a problem. 
The good news is, we recognize technology is going to lead to solutions, 
and that we're willing to share those technologies. And we all recognize 
we've got to deal with the developing world, particularly China and 
India.
    President Merkel. I feel--just look back a year ago. I feel that we 
would have had a lot more difficulty actually bringing about language 
that describes this problem adequately than we have to now. And it is 
thanks to the President and his team clearly mentioning what the problem 
is in this document. It says clearly, we need to do everything we can in 
order to work against these detrimental consequences. A lot is being 
done discussing this issue. For example, we need to discuss possible 
pricing of CO<INF>2</INF>, how can we translate this into a market-
economic compatible scheme.
    And we are also agreed that we, as industrialized country, need to 
address this issue; we need to develop the necessary technology. But we, 
alone, without the emerging countries, will not be able solve this 
problem. And this is why--how it's--why it's so important that this EU-
U.S. result is translated into the G-8, debated together with the 
outreach countries--China and South Africa, Brazil, among others, and 
India--because if we were not doing that, we will--we would not be able 
to combat this problem that is truly a global one.
    But what is also true is that if the developed countries who have 
the best technology don't do anything, it will be even harder to 
convince the others. But without convincing the others, CO<INF>2</INF> 
emissions worldwide will not go down. And I do think that we, together, 
need to define steps. We have done it. For example, we said we need a 
proper agenda for the Indonesian talks at the end of this year. That's 
an enormous step forward. And I think this is where we should be clear 
about the glass being half full instead of half empty. So think again 
for this.

U.S.-EU Cooperation on the Environment

    Q. For Mr. Barroso, I would like to know how happy the European 
Union is, really, with the final document on climate change? Is it as 
ambitious as you were planning? Thank you.
    President Durao Barroso. To be very frank, it's better than what I 
was planning. I think it was real progress. Of course, it's working in 
progress, but as President Bush said, we agree there is a global threat; 
it's a serious threat. We agree there is the need to establish a limit 
to greenhouse gases. We agree with many of the mechanisms, namely the 
market-based mechanisms, the technology cooperation. We have agreed to 
establish a high-level group, a forum, between the European Union and 
the American administration to look at those issues. And as Chancellor 
Merkel just said, we have to engage others. So now we can go to the G-8 
summit in Heiligendamm in June, in Germany to discuss this issue also 
with others that are very relevant for a global solution to a global 
problem.
    So I really believe that there was progress and very concrete 
progress. For instance, standards for biofuels--it's good. The idea to 
have a conference on renewables between the European Union and the 
United States, it will be next year here in Washington. And some 
concrete--it's very detailed in our document--some concrete mechanisms, 
in terms of energy efficiency.
    So I really believe that by linking those different files--climate 
protection, energy security--we can really achieve a very important goal 
of having a sustainable development that is friendly to our environment. 
But I think it was a very important progress, and we are working along 
the same lines. But it is, of course, still work in progress.
    President Bush. Good. Thank you all very much. Madam Chancellor, 
thank you.
    President Merkel. Thank you.
    President Bush. Mr. President, thank you.

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Note: The President's news conference began at 1:18 p.m. in the Rose 
Garden at the White House. Participating in the event were Chancellor 
Angela Merkel of Germany, in her capacity as President of the European 
Council; and President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso of the European 
Commission. President Bush referred to European Union Commissioner for 
Trade Peter Mandelson; President Vladimir Putin of Russia; Minister of 
Foreign Affairs Manuchehr Motaki of Iran; and President Luiz Inacio Lula 
da Silva of Brazil. A reporter referred to European Union Foreign 
Minister Javier Solana Madariaga. Chancellor Merkel and a reporter spoke 
in German, and their remarks were translated by an interpreter.