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His
Majesty, King Letsie III;
His
Highness Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso;
The
Right Honorable the Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili;
His
Excellency Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Education Lehohla;
Your
Excellencies, Ministers of the Government of Lesotho;
Your
Excellency, the President of the Senate;
Your
Excellency, the Speaker of the National Assembly;
Your
Worships, Justices of the High Court;
Your
Excellencies, members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Your
Excellencies, members of Parliament and Senate;
Government
Officials;
Representatives
of the Lesotho Defense Forces, Lesotho Mounted Police
Services, a Distinguished guests:and National Security Services;
Leaders
of the Political Parties;
The life
of a diplomat is the life of a nomad.
The pleasures of making new friends are always
balanced by the painful necessity of saying goodbye.
For my family and me, that time has come again.
We will bid farewell to the Mountain Kingdom on
Sunday, and return to the United States to live for
the first time in nearly a decade.
We have been immeasurably enriched by our
experiences here, and I thank you all for the
hospitality and warmth that you have shared with us.
I leave Lesotho with a
sense of optimism about your future and a sense of
satisfaction about the state of relations between the
United States and Lesotho.
Over the past six years, you have made
remarkable strides in consolidating and expanding
democracy. Certainly,
the international community helped a good deal, but
the negotiations thrashing out the shape of the new
electoral system were carried out between Basotho, not
imposed from outside.
It is not a perfect system: no system designed
by man ever is. But
it is a good system, and one that can evolve with the
country’s needs.
Most importantly, it is your achievement.
I emphasize this last
point because it is an important one that applies not
only to political, but also to economic development.
The key determinant in whether Lesotho moves
beyond the status of least developed country does not
lie in the amount of money or expertise that outsider
donors are willing to provide.
That is important, but what is far more
essential are the attitudes and efforts that Basotho
bring to the table.
The success of Lesotho
under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, known as
AGOA, is a clear demonstration that this country and
its people can compete and participate as full equals
in the global economy.
Lesotho is now the largest exporter of apparel
to the United States from Africa and the eighth
largest overall.
Only the oil producers, South Africa, and Cote
d’Ivoire sell more to us. Let me be clear that AGOA
is not an aid program, it is a trade preference.
American firms are under no obligation to buy
from Lesotho producers if they do not meet American
standards for quality and price.
Lesotho earned every one of the nearly 400
million dollars that came into the country in 2003
precisely because they met those standards.
And the figures for the first quarter of 2004
indicate that this will be an even better year.
As many of you know, last
week the U.S. Senate unanimously joined the House of
Representatives in passing the AGOA Acceleration Act
of 2004, also known as AGOA III, and sent it to the
President for signature.
The most important aspect of the bill for
Lesotho and many other African countries was the
section extending the provision allowing duty-free use
of third country fabrics for another 3 years, with a
phase-out during the final year.
Please use this three- year window to attract
fabric mills to Lesotho and the rest of Africa, for I
assure you that there will not be another extension.
There are over 4,000 tariff items on the list
of AGOA-eligible exports, so I urge you to find ways
to diversify your exports to the U.S., either directly
or through cooperative ventures with South African
firms exporting to America.
AGOA’s benefits come
primarily from the duty-free status of exports from
Africa. But
those benefits will decline over time, as tariffs
around the world come down.
In a matter of a decade, maybe more, maybe
less, the tariffs on clothing produced in Asia will be
low enough that the determining factor in winning
market share will be plant efficiency.
Lesotho-based companies, their workers, and the
government must work together now to make these plants
as efficient as their Asian and South American
counterparts. Failure
to do so will result in loss of market share, and
ultimately, of jobs.
As I said, AGOA is an opportunity, not a
guarantee and not an aid program.
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In conjunction with AGOA, the
United States is negotiating a Free Trade Agreement
with Lesotho and the other members of the South
African Customs Union.
An FTA, unlike a unilateral trade preference
like AGOA, locks both sides into a multilateral
agreement. One
side cannot on its own withdraw benefits from the
other. If
we are successful in concluding this FTA by the end of
the year, as we hope, it will provide a much more
encouraging environment for greater trade and
investment in the region, and hence a better life for
all.
As a sign of the American
government’s confidence in Lesotho’s future,
Lesotho was recently designated as one of 16 original
beneficiaries of the Millennium Challenge Account. This is a new approach to foreign aid, at least from our past
practices, where we are not going to tell you what you
need or how to accomplish your development goals.
Instead, all we ask is that the programs
contribute in an identifiable way to economic
development, that the results of the program be
measurable, that it be the product of a broad
consultative mechanism, and that you take on the bulk
of the responsibility for making it happen. How that
is structured is up to you.
It sounds simple enough, but it means a lot of
hard work on your part and a lot of self-restraint on
ours. The
underlying principles behind the Millennium Challenge
Account are that aid only works in countries that are
following good economic and political policies, and
people learn by doing themselves, not relying on
outsiders to carry them forward.
There is a lot of untapped ability in this
country, and I fervently hope that you use the MCA to
bring it to life.
The
big unknown for the future of this country is the
scourge of HIV/AIDS.
I am mightily encouraged by the start of the
universal voluntary counseling and testing campaign,
by the opening of the Sankatana Clinic and other sites
to treat AIDS patients, and the greater openness in
discussing the pandemic.
I hope that the National AIDS Commission comes
into being soon, not because we need another
bureaucracy, but because it represents a unique way to
involve the entire Basotho nation in the fight.
You have chosen a unique way to select the
members of this commission, one that other nations
facing the same challenge would do well to emulate.
Please don’t be shy about your innovations.
While we should be proud of all that has been
accomplished over the past several years, we cannot
declare victory until there are no more new AIDS cases
in the country and all those who have been affected by
the disease are being cared for.
Please, get yourselves tested, encourage your
families and friends to do so, and talk openly and
frankly with your children about sex.
Let’s make sure that this wonderful country
still exists in 30 years’ time.
Ladies and gentlemen, it
has been a unique honor and privilege to serve as
United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho.
I have enjoyed every minute of my time among
you, and I will leave a substantial part of my heart
in the Mountain Kingdom.
I truly feel that my family and I have become
bana ba Moshoeshoe.
I thank you once more for your hospitality and
warmth, your friendship and your guidance.
Before we move to the
singing of the national anthems, I ask you to charge
your glasses and join me in a toast to His Majesty,
King Letsie III, and through him to the health,
happiness and posterity of the Basotho nation.
To the King.
Thank you.
KHOTSO
PULA
NALA
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