For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 20, 2001
Remarks by the President in Photo Opportunity with Central American Leaders
Loews Concorde Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
5:00 P.M. (L)
THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank the
Presidents from some of the Central American countries for coming
here. It's my honor to say once again hello to the President
of El Salvador, the President of Panama, and the President of
Honduras. Thank you all very much. I look forward
to wide-ranging discussions on the benefits of trade, the need for us
to continue to think about how best to have in place measures that will
help in the case of future natural disasters, ways to continue to
cooperate on issues of trafficking of people and arms and drugs.
So I look forward to a very fruitful
discussion. I'm honored you all are here. El
placir es mio.
I'll try to answer a few
questions. Sondra, have you got something?
Q Sir, the protests
have really flared up outside. What do you have to say to
the protestors?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if they are --
if they're protesting because of free trade, I would say I
disagree. I think trade is very important for this
hemisphere. Trade not only helps spread prosperity, but
trade helps spread freedom. And so I would just disagree
with those who think that trade -- somehow trade is going to negatively
affect the working people and people for whom hope doesn't exist in
some places. So we need trade.
And I am convinced that the leadership that I
met with agrees. And we
can work together, because they understand that working together we
can bring prosperity throughout our entire hemisphere.
Secondly, I would hope that those out there
expressing their opinion realize how important it is for the United
States and Canada and Mexico to extend our agreements beyond our
borders, to Central America and South America, where it's important to
keep our neighborhood intact and to have a
strong neighborhood. And these are our neighbors.
I grew up in a world where if you treat your
neighbor well, it's a good start to developing a wholesome
community. So I understand some people don't like trade; I
just strongly disagree with them.
Q Mr. President, what
are you telling summit leaders when they ask you how likely are you to
get fast track?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all,
they understand that trade promotion authority, or fast track, will be
very important for us in order to make sure that we can fulfill our
hopes to have a free-trading hemisphere. But we also can,
and will discuss, bilateral agreements, or agreements with groups of
countries. So it's a dual-track strategy.
I hope Congress understands the hope and
promise of trade promotion authority. It's important for the
President to have trade promotion authority. It will make it
a lot easier for us to complete the agreements that we're all
discussing here in summits such as this.
MR. FLEISCHER: Final question.
Q Mr. President, when
you met with the President of Brazil --
THE PRESIDENT: You again.
Q Yes, it's me again --
and the other ANDEAN leaders, were they -- just following up on fast
track -- the fact that you don't have fast track,
did they express that as a concern?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, not
really. They were more interested in, one, our commitment to
the neighborhood. Secondly, they were -- we spent a lot of
time talking about drugs and drug trafficking, and I assured them I
understood that our nation must do a better job of reducing demand, and
at the same time, working with the ANDEAN nations to eradicate supply.
An issue that came up, and one that I was
aware of is that Plan Colombia could have the opportunity to spread the
problems to neighboring countries, outside of Colombia. And
therefore, we have to put together an ANDEAN initiative which
recognizes that. And thirdly, that relations are -- that we
must have relations beyond just drug eradication. In other
words, that we've got to work together to make sure the education
systems in our respective countries fulfill their promise; that legal
reforms are needed in some parts of the world.
And so we had a very wide-ranging discussion,
and I was most pleased, by the way, that the President of Brazil joined
in the discussion, because it was -- I thought it was a very good
signal of his understanding the importance of the ANDEAN
region. And he plays a very -- his country plays a very
important part and a very important role in that part of the world.
Q Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: You got your
wish. (Laughter.)
END 5:09 P.M. (L)
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