Promoting Free Enterprise and Democracy Across the Americas
Thursday, March 14, 2002
"Free trade applies the power of markets to the needs of the poor. We know that nations that open their economies to the benefits of trade are more successful in climbing out of poverty. … We also know that free trade encourages the habits of liberty that sustain freedom over the long haul."--President George W. Bush, address to the World Bank, July 17, 2001
Next week, President George W. Bush begins a three-day trip, including his first presidential visit to South America, to stress to our American partners the importance our nation attaches to invigorating hemispheric relations. Even as we prosecute the War on Terrorism, the President is redoubling our efforts to focus on trade and democratic institutions.
The President will be in Monterrey speaking to an international conference on the importance of free trade and free enterprise; Lima for a meeting with the leaders of Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia on renewing regional trade agreements and counter-narcotics efforts; and in San Salvador for meetings on the prospects of a Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with all seven Central American heads of state.
At the top of the President’s agenda will be hemispheric free trade through the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). President Bush will emphasize that trade supports economic prosperity, political stability, and the rule of law.
“There’s a vital link between freedom of people and freedom of commerce,” the President told the Organization of American States in April 2001. “Democratic freedoms cannot flourish unless our hemisphere also builds a prosperity whose benefits are widely shared. And open trade is an essential foundation for that prosperity and that possibility.”
The Agenda: Mexico
In Monterrey, the President will reiterate his call for ending international loans to governments which have a proven history of subsidizing corruption and capital flight, and replacing them with grants, which can be more carefully monitored. He will support “responsible aid” for hunger, education, and health—effective humanitarian assistance that does not have the deadly side effect of destroying emerging agriculture and industry.
The Mexican venue is a suitably symbolic starting point for the President’s historic tour through the Americas. Presidents Bush and Vicente Fox held an unprecedented joint Cabinet meeting between the Mexican and United States governments in Washington, September 5-6, 2001, on issues including crime, agriculture, water issues, energy, migration, and foreign policy. President Bush made clear the importance we attach to our close working partnership with Mexico. During this U.S.-Mexico summit, President Bush will continue his bilateral work with President Fox. The agenda includes continued cooperation on border security; trade; economic development; and immigration.
Mexico is the United States’ largest trading partner after Canada. U.S.-Mexico trade accounted for $247.2 billion in goods in 2000. Our exports to Mexico represent 14% of worldwide U.S. sales in 2000, while purchases from Mexico account for 11% of America’s overall imports.
The Agenda: Peru
In Peru, the President will conduct a bilateral working session with President Alejandro Toledo, and meet with the presidents of Bolivia and Colombia, to discuss trade, investment, and counter-narcotics. A highlight of these discussions will be the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA).
In his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee in August 2001, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier reported that this agreement—reached in 1991—has successfully doubled trade between our countries. ATPA has promoted export diversification and broad-based economic development in Peru, providing alternatives to drug crop cultivation throughout the Andean region. Recognizing the importance of this cooperative U.S-Peru agreement, the House renewed ATPA in November 2001. However, the Senate failed to take up the issue and, in December 2001, ATPA ended.
ATPA renewal is a major objective of the Bush Administration, both to stem drug crop cultivation and to improve the economic well being of people in Peru and throughout the Andean region. To continue its benefits while the Senate has failed to act, on February 14, 2002, President Bush announced that import duties on eligible products from the ATPA countries would be suspended for 90 days. Both presidents will take the opportunity of their summit to reiterate calls for the Senate to pass ATPA.
The Agenda: El Salvador
In El Salvador, President Bush will meet with President Francisco Flores and the leaders of the seven Central American nations. This extraordinary meeting of presidents will hear directly from President Bush on his proposal for a Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which he submitted to Congress on January 16, 2002. CAFTA would include provisions to promote U.S. exports, support democracy and economic reform, and advance free trade throughout the Americas.
United States exports to Central America totaled $8.8 billion in 2000—an amount greater than all U.S. exports to the 1.4 billion people of Russia, Indonesia, and India combined. The fact that U.S. imports from Central America totaled $11.8 billion in 2000 is the strongest argument for CAFTA: it would further open up Central American markets to U.S. exports. Moreover, by committing these countries to even greater openness and transparency, it would deepen the roots of democracy, civil society, and the rule of law in the region, as well as reinforce market reforms. It would also improve U.S. competitiveness in the region: Canada and Mexico already have free trade agreements in place with Central America, leaving U.S. business at an international disadvantage.
CAFTA is an important stepping-stone toward the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which President Bush has committed the U.S. to joining by January 2005. The Free Trade Area of the Americas will be the largest free market in the world, comprising nearly 800 million people spread over two continents.
The House Majority strongly supports the President’s efforts to increase free trade in the Americas. Our hemispheric relations depend on free enterprise, free men and women, a free press, and strong democracies. Prosperity throughout the Americas is in the interest of each of our nations and will lead to a more peaceful, stable hemisphere.
Challenges Beyond Trade
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a prime example of how improved trade has far-reaching effects throughout society. As U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has noted, NAFTA was “always about much more than trade. It was a key to political transformation of a modernizing Mexico.”
In 2000, Mexicans elected Vicente Fox, a member of the opposition PAN party, ending more than 70 years of single-party PRI rule and a heavily Socialist economic tradition that had impoverished generations of Mexicans. Economic empowerment created the conditions for greater civil participation in the democratic system.
The President’s initiatives on the Americas are needed now more than ever. Recent polls indicate dissatisfaction or disappointment with democracy throughout much of Latin America. To counter this trend, the President will emphasize not only the importance of trade, but also America’s strong desire to improve the well-being of Latin Americans and to help create the conditions for stable democracy.
A poll of 17 nations conducted before September 11 found that 48% of Latin Americans prefer democracy to authoritarian rule, down from 60% the year before.[1] The most marked decrease in support for democracy was in Central America, where support plunged 20 points from last year.
The Economist reports that while “democracy is holding up” in Latin America, “polls show people to be deeply dissatisfied with its failure to bring jobs, improve living standards or tackle violent crime.” Continued and often increased migration to the United States and Europe is cited as concrete evidence of growing dissatisfaction.
To stem this lack of confidence—and its effects—America must advocate trade and economic development as the necessary prerequisites for sustaining democracy and the rule of law. Before the OAS last year, President Bush pointed out, “Open trade fuels the engines of economic growth that creates new jobs and new income. It applies the power of the markets to the needs to the poor. It spurs the process of economic and legal reform. It helps dismantle protectionist bureaucracies that stifle incentive and invite corruption. And open trade reinforces the habits of liberty that sustain democracy over the long term (emphasis added).”
Strengthening Democracy
When President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the majority of Latin Americans lived under authoritarian or Communist rule. By the end of the 1980s, nearly every country had held free elections and had instituted free market and democratic reforms. Republicans in Congress have spoken clearly and consistently in support of increased trade, democratic development, and rule of law in the Americas. But the continuation in our hemisphere of democracy is not assured.
The continuing Colombian drug war and escalating political violence—including the kidnapping of elected officials there—threatens that country’s stability. Assassinations of opposition candidates in Brazil are dangerous to democratic pluralism. Continued political consolidation of power by President Hugo Chavez, and recent calls by senior military officers have raised red flags as to the future of democracy in Venezuela. Lawlessness and lack of democratic practices were the key determinants in the U.N.’s decision last year to withdraw its mission from Haiti.
On the very day the terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York, the OAS adopted its Inter-American Democratic Charter. It declares that the “peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it.” This is a ringing and defiant challenge to the continued existence of a Communist dictatorship in Cuba, to the narco-terrorists, and to the unreconstructed socialists who continue to prey upon the Americas. It is a timely reminder that not all of the people in the Americas are truly free—and that our own future will not be secure unless we rise to meet the challenge to freedom and democracy.
Human Rights
Congress has a vital role in promoting stability and prosperity throughout the Americas. Respect for human rights and an end to political violence are the touchstones of this effort. Recently, the State Department released its 2001 Human Rights Report. Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras were each singled out for human rights abuses within their borders.
More than 10 years after the penultimate Latin American military dictator left office, respect for human rights and the rule of law must be constantly encouraged. Congress should positively recognize those countries that improve their human rights records. Equally importantly, Congress must subject governments that continue to abuse human rights to serious consequences.
Conclusion
In an address before the World Bank in July 2001, President Bush stated:
"To all nations promoting democratic government and the rule of law so that trade and aid can succeed, you’re not alone. To all nations tearing down the walls of suspicion and isolation, and building ties of trade and trust, you’re not alone. And to all nations who are willing to stake their future on the global progress of liberty, you will never be alone. This is my nation’s pledge, a pledge I will keep."
The Americas are essential to United States national interests. The mission set forth by the President, however, is not one of self-interest, but of intercontinental interest. Free exchange among the citizens of all of America’s nations—economic, political, cultural, and otherwise—will enrich the poor, strengthen democratic practices and norms and enhance stability, opportunity, and prosperity for all of the nearly one billion people of the Western Hemisphere.
[1] Latinobarometro, July 2001.
|
