Council of the Americas’ 34th Annual Washington Conference

And so it is a long patrol. It's a difficult patrol. I'm so proud of the men and women of the armed forces who are out there fighting for freedom. I'm so proud of the men and women of the State Department and so many other government agencies that are out there trying to bring this new life to the people of Iraq.

And so what we are doing is right. What we're doing is justified. The international community will increasingly recognize this, and even though there are tough roads to be traveled and difficult times ahead, I'm confident we will prevail, because we're correct in this.

There are other challenges in the world. There are other places where we have to remain steadfast -- whether it's in the Middle East, where we try to seize any opportunity that comes along to move the peace process forward; whether it's in North Korea where we have succeeded in bringing together a coalition of the neighbors of North Korea and the United States to impress upon the North Koreans that the programs that they have been working on for nuclear weapons development are programs that must come to an end.

And the major reason for them to come to an end is that it would benefit the North Koreans for these programs to come to an end; and also, the neighbors of North Korea, and the international community does not want to see a nuclearized Korean Peninsula that is destabilizing for the region.

There are so many other areas of the world where we are pursuing our interests. Sometimes you find a great success like in Libya where Muammar Qadhafi has gone from being somebody who is ostracized, kept in a corner, and he decided, "Well, why am I keeping these weapons of mass destruction? What have they done for me?"

And by giving them up, and in a rather sudden and strategic shift of policy, he has gained standing in the international community he never would have gained by continuing to pursue the development of such weapons; and I hope that that will be an example to other nations.

We're working hard on proliferation security initiatives to cut down on the transfer of this kind of material around the world, and we've had considerable success with those efforts. We're working hard to go after what some people like to call the "root causes" of problems, whether it's through the use of the Millennium Challenge Fund, which I'll talk about in a few moments, or whether it's the massive investment that this Administration is making in fighting the biggest weapon of mass destruction on the face of the earth today, and that is HIV/AIDS, which affects every nation, but especially those nations that are undeveloped, and that are most susceptible to this kind of infectious disease.

And so the United States is engaged on many fronts in many ways around the world, and nowhere is this more the case than here, in our own hemisphere, the Americas. Let there be no doubt in anyone's mind that we are as committed to our goals in this hemisphere as we are with respect to our goals anywhere else in the world.

You understand. This group, especially, understands so well the importance of the hemisphere to the United States and of the United States to the hemisphere.

We're tied: ties of history, ties of family, commerce bind this region tightly together. Perhaps, most important of all, we hold common values and a common vision of the future.

The free nations of the Americas have but one goal, and that's to seek, to build a hemisphere that rests on a solid foundation of democracy, prosperity and security, where dictators, traffickers and terrorists cannot thrive.

All of us recognize that we cannot achieve our goal unless we work together. And that's why you are here today, and that's why I'm so privileged once again to have the opportunity to speak to you about our goals in our hemisphere. So it is fitting, indeed, that the theme of this year's conference is partnership in the Americas.

President Bush is strongly committed to forging partnerships across the hemisphere -- partnerships for security, partnerships for democracy and partnerships for prosperity. The United States seeks to build these partnerships for the long haul, not just to address the concerns of the moment. Concerted, sustained effort will be needed if we, and our hemispheric neighbors, are to meet the challenges that are confronting the Americas.

The events of September 11, 2001 brought home to the countries of our hemisphere the vulnerabilities of our societies and the vulnerabilities of our economies. And so we must deepen our security partnerships so that we can better protect our citizens without, at the same time, closing our borders or closing our markets.

We are using the Defense Ministerial process and the Rio Treaty to build a common front against the security threats we face, particularly terrorism. The United States also is providing security assistance to our hemispheric neighbors so that they are better able to improve their capability to deal with these kinds of threats. Our national security forces, our intelligence organizations, our law enforcement agencies, all, are cooperating more closely than ever before to strengthen our hemisphere’s first line of defense against traffickers and terrorists.

The United States values the support of American neighbors in this global war against terrorism. Our neighbors have acted not only out of a sense of hemispheric solidarity and security, but also because of their own experiences with terrorism, with dictatorship or tough transitions to peace and democracy.

The United States is forging vibrant partnerships in democracy across the hemisphere in keeping with the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which states very, very clearly: “The peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote it and to defend it.”

Experience has shown around the world that only democracies, with their combination of political and economic freedoms, can create conditions for well-being on the large scale that is needed to lift millions of people out of poverty.

Experience has also shown that countries with little regard for civil liberties, weak private sectors and unaccountable governments do a poor job of meeting the needs of their citizens -- the needs of their citizens for the basics of life: food; shelter; education; health care; hope for a better life for their children.

We recognize, however, that democracies take time to deliver on their great promise of a better life. The process of reform, going from some totalitarian system to democracy can be chaotic and wrenching. It's hard. It's not easy. Democracy is a very demanding system. For nations to stay the course to democracy, the people must see real improvement in their daily lives, or else they say, "What was the point of it all?" And that real improvement is what you all have to focus on in the course of this discussion that you'll be having today.

One of the greatest challenges the democracies of the Americas face is ensuring that citizens do not lose their faith in the future while their democracy is still evolving, while it's still growing, while it is still gelling, while it is still setting up.

We seek to help countries through their times of transition so their people's dreams do not turn to despair, and they do not begin to question the legitimacy of democracy itself.

That is why we are working intensively; we're working so hard with citizens and their governments throughout the hemisphere to advance the rule of law, the basic – the basic element upon which democracies must rest to make sure that we develop vibrant civil societies where people can argue with each other, they can form groups, they can present their views to the government, they can use the private sector to advance their causes, and we can institutionalize responsible government, and we can improve access to the political process, not only on the part of the majority, but on the part of long-marginalized indigenous communities, and especially access to the political process for women.

Corruption is another enemy of democracy. Corruption can destroy the faith of citizens in democratic government; so we are working hard to help to implement the provisions of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption. We're doing everything we can to deny safe haven to corrupt officials. We're doing everything we can to get their assets and to aggressively prosecute corruption cases.

And whenever and wherever democracy is threatened in the region, we are determined to act in democracy’s defense with our friends.

Together with fellow Americans of the Inter-American community and other international partners, we are working with all sides in Venezuela, working with all sides to encourage a constitutional, democratic, peaceful and electoral end to the political crisis. As a result, we support, as you well know, the efforts of the Organization of American States. We support the efforts of the Carter Center. Both of these organizations have roles as observers -- key roles to make sure that we have a credible recall referendum process in the very near future.

International partnership also is crucial to helping the citizens and leadership of Haiti make a new beginning and create a better future for the Haitian people. This was a very difficult challenge for us. I'll never forget that evening in late February, the last day of February, when we learned that President Aristide realized that it was time for him to go.

And in a short period of time, working with Canada, France and Chile, we were able to put together a multilateral force under UN Security Council mandate, which succeeded in averting bloodshed and a humanitarian disaster.

I can tell you as somebody who was intimately involved in all of that for the days leading up to the 29th of February, that we were on the verge of a civil war inside of Port-au-Prince and other parts of Haiti that would have resulted in the loss of many, many lives and brought a totally disastrous situation down upon the people of Haiti.

We acted. It was controversial. But nevertheless, it was necessary. And in the short period of time since then, we have been successful in seeing a constitutionally-designated President take over on an interim basis; a Prime Minister who was selected by a group of elders of Haitian society.

We now have passed a UN resolution within the last few days that will put in place a peacekeeping force to go, on a more -- less-than-temporary basis, I will say -- to help Haitians recreate a police force and begin the reconstruction process.

The prime minister I visited with, and the president I visited with on the 5th of April; and they're working hard to put in place a process that will lead to open, free and fair elections in 2005. And every member of the current interim government has said they will not run for office. They are in this for the next year or two to get things back on track.

Haiti, however, even with a successful transition back to an elected government will be in desperate need of resources from its neighbors within the hemisphere, but -- not only from its neighbors, but from the entire international community. It is a desperately poor nation. It needs institutions. It needs a vibrant civil society. It needs assistance. It needs aid. It needs its police force to be rebuilt. In all of these things, we must not turn our eyes away from; and the United States will not. We will do everything we can to support the Haitian people as, once again, they try to build a society that will serve its people.

There are so many other issues that we are working on. The Bolivia Support Group of donors that we co-chair with Mexico, for example, has been working to ensure the success of Bolivia’s still fragile democracy. We're doing this by helping to strengthen democratic institutions and accelerate and growth -- economic growth -- and doing what we can to help the Bolivians redress societal inequities.

Nowhere, of course, nowhere in the Americas is the cause of democracy under greater siege than in Cuba, where scores of democracy advocates, human rights activists and independent journalists remain imprisoned for long periods of time. For what? For speaking their mind. For speaking out.

President Bush is strongly committed to supporting the efforts of the Cuban people to build an independent civil society and free the flow of ideas and information to, from and across the island. The new U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, which I chair, is exploring ways we can help Cubans peacefully prepare for the inevitable democratic transition and to help them hasten the arrival, or the beginning, of that transition.

At the recent meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, we joined other nations, not only nations in the hemisphere, but nations from across the globe in passing the resolution holding the Cuban Government accountable for the brutal crackdown that took place in March of 2003 on the peaceful opposition.

The Inter-American Democratic Charter states that: “The peoples of the Americas” -- not the peoples of the Americas except Cubans -- “have a right to democracy;” and we will work in partnership with the democracies of the hemisphere to support the Cuban people in their courageous efforts to secure the democracy which is their right.

This morning we see the news of actions taken by Mexico and Peru in response to the outrageous charges that President Castro made over the weekend, where he dares to challenge free and independent nations that made their own choice to properly condemn him and his regime for its actions. Castro, as usual, tried to point a finger of blame in the other direction, back at Mexico and Peru. And Mexico and Peru have responded, in my judgment, appropriately.

On the economic front, we are actively pursuing partnerships in trade throughout the hemisphere.

Experience with the North American Free Trade Agreement tells us that relations based on free trade benefit all trading partners. Nobody loses. A lot of dislocation takes place, but ultimately, everyone wins.

Total trade among Canada, Mexico and the United States has more than doubled under NAFTA. Virtually all tariffs on manufactured goods and practically all tariffs on agricultural products -- the controversial area, agricultural products -- but practically all tariffs have been eliminated on that, as well. Canada and Mexico are our number one and number two trading partners. The number of people and goods crossing our borders daily has climbed to record levels. As President Fox recently said about Mexico’s trade with the United States: “We know the value of an open commercial relationship, the impact that it has had on both nations, and the unprecedented levels of prosperity that it brings to our people. It’s a two-way street.” In other words, it’s a beneficial partnership.

The United States remains committed to achieving the goal set by the 2001 Quebec Summit of establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA. And we will work hard with Brazil, our FTAA co-chair, and our 32 other partners in this process to realize the vision of a free trade zone stretching from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska.

Beyond U.S. support for the FTAA, we hope to have in place bilateral agreements with some 14 American countries in the near term; and that will account for about 90 percent of all U.S. two-way trade in the hemisphere. Our free trade agreement with Chile already is in force and we have negotiated agreements with our neighbors in Central America and the Dominican Republic. We hope to add Panama and some of our Andean friends to the free trade club in the coming months. The Council’s help would be very welcome in making the case to the American public and to the American Congress for free trading relationships in the hemisphere.

There is no doubt that free trade will level the playing field for the United States, and benefit the region at the same time. Free trade agreements will help the nations of our hemisphere attract domestic and foreign investment, opening economic opportunities for our citizens.

Remember, as I've said to you on previous occasions. It's trade that we want to encourage. It's trade that ultimately will lift up the economies of our nations, will lift up the peoples of our nations.

Free trade agreements encourage investment; encourage trade. Free trade agreements provide the mechanisms for the better enforcement of workers' rights, the better enforcement of environmental standards. Free trade agreements will spur deeper economic integration of the region as the rules of trade and investment adopted by each country gradually converge, and we have a set system across the whole hemisphere.

Free trade agreements will encourage good governance because nobody will invest in places where governance is not good, where corruption is rampant, where the rule of law does not exist. Free trade agreements move us in the right direction.

Governments will adopt more transparent standards to participate in free trade arrangements; more transparent standards for procurement; better protection of property rights; professionalism within their trade-related ministries; and it will ensure personal security for domestic and foreign investors. In short, free trade agreements will better equip the nations of our hemisphere to be successful in a globalizing world.

We recognize, we recognize, indeed, that nations which do not fully implement market reforms, are unable to gain maximum benefit from unfettered trade. Such nations also lack the resilience to withstand downtrends in the global economy.

To ensure regional stability, it is crucial that developing nations complete their adjustments to a changing world trading system and that they establish domestic conditions that attract traders and investors. That is why United States economic assistance focuses on debt management, tightening financial controls and going after lax tax, legal and regulatory problems -- fixing them; putting them on a sound basis of reform. Only sound financial policies and robust commerce can generate the capital that is needed to drive development.

But development cannot be sustained unless governments invest in their people. That's your raw material to work with -- your people, and they must be invested in. So in accordance with the commitments made by Summit leaders in Monterrey this past January, we are encouraging countries to take the benefits they derive from trade and plough these benefits into education, into health, into the environment, into making people of the hemisphere ready to participate in the challenging 21st century globalizing economy and societies they will be expected to perform in. Better-educated, healthier citizens and a better-managed, healthier environment, in turn, lead to greater productivity.

The United States is making education assistance to the region a priority. We also have pledged to expand anti-retroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS to all those in the hemisphere who need it. We are helping our American neighbors develop capacities to conserve their resources. We are helping our friends to develop the capacity to conserve -- to preserve their biological diversity.

The United States is working in partnership with our hemispheric neighbors to help them make good on the promise that democracy and free trade will transform the lives of their people.

To succeed in this transformation, there must be ownership as well as partnership. The countries of the region must take primary responsibility for their own futures. It can't be imposed from outside. It has to be something that is felt and believed in and worked on internally, as well. We can help from the outside, but ultimately, reform and transformation has to come from within the country.

The winning combination of ownership and partnership is built into President Bush’s bold development initiative called the Millennium Challenge Account, or MCA. MCA is the most significant development program since the Marshall plan.

When fully funded by Congress, the MCA alone will represent an increase of 50 percent from the level of our development assistance of just two years ago. From 2006 onward, when the program really gets up to full speed, the MCA would be devoting $5 billion per year in new assistance to deserving countries -- to those countries who are able to use this kind of assistance.

And MCA is different in that it reflects the new international consensus that was developed last year in Monterrey. The new consensus is that development and aid that produces the best results is that aid which goes to countries that adopt pro-growth strategies for meeting political, social and economic challenges.

We will only support those countries that demonstrate their commitment to govern justly, to invest in their people, and those countries that are committed to the rule of law, to the ending of corruption, and those countries that will foster economic freedom.

Several low-income nations in our hemisphere may soon be designated eligible to compete for a share of the first $1 billion in MCA assistance. And the prospect of obtaining MCA funding in future years should serve as an incentive, a spur, to other nations in the hemisphere, other nations in the world, to take the necessary steps to transform themselves internally; to get ownership of their future; to start doing the right things so that they can meet the criteria of the MCA legislation.

My friends, the partnerships that all of you in the private sector forge with the citizens and governments of the hemisphere will be just as crucial to the future of the Americas as the partnerships that governments make with one another.

It is in your interest, in the interest of the United States and in the interest of our hemisphere that your companies promote good governance. So please do your part. Do your part to encourage policies that improve health and educational opportunities for the people of the hemisphere. Do everything you can to encourage the governments of the hemisphere to fight corruption and crime. Build support for your activities here in Washington or as you travel around the hemisphere, build support for free trade here in the United States, throughout the hemisphere, especially up in Congress.

There is no challenge in the hemisphere that does not affect your businesses in one-way or another, no challenge that can be met without your active support, your partnership, your buy-in to our goals. By helping the countries of the hemisphere achieve their goals for democracy, their goals for development and security, your companies also benefit. We've heard it said all too often, "Businesses do well when businesses do good." That's what you have been doing. That's what I encourage you to keep doing.

I ask all of you in the Council of the Americas to be partners in freedom and hope for the hemisphere. And remember what we do it for. We do it for profit, yes. We do it for security, yes. We do it to have stability in the region, yes. But above all, we do it for our fellow citizens of the hemisphere so that the citizens of the hemisphere, the peasants, the poor, the landless, those who have been deprived for so many years, can look at democracy and economic freedom and globalization as opportunities for them to live better lives; and more importantly, for them to create conditions in their country, with the help of us, to create better conditions in their country so that their children will lead better lives.

Never forget what we do this for. We do it for the people.

Thank you very much.

(Applause.)