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Articles with Fast Track References
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Articles with Fast Track References
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FOIA Number: 2017-0401-F
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MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
Subgroup/Office of Origin:
Policy Development
Series/Staff Member:
Linda Eddleman
Subseries:
OA/ID Number:
10602
FolderID:
Folder Title:
Articles with Fast Track Refereneces
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S
100
2
6
2
David S. Broder
Fast Track, Heavy Freight
For President Clinton, the big trade
people who voted for NAFTA," House
vote scheduled later this week repre-
Democratic Whip David Bonior of
sents "Double Jeopardy."
Michigan, an ardent opponent, told me
If Clinton fails to win the same "fast
over the weekend. A key House Demo-
track" negotiating authority that previ-
cratic supporter conceded that Clinton
ous presidents have carried into inter-
is unlikely to get many more than 30
national bargaining, it would threaten a
percent of the 206 Democrats to go
central part of his overall economic
along-a figure low enough that it
policy and rattle already jumpy world
could prove fatal.
stock markets. It would signal retreat
Clinton aides blame the probiem on
by the United States from its leader-
organized labor, which has led the fight
ship role for a more open international
against "fast track," just as it did against
marketplace and-by the sober judg-
NAFTA "This is the most blatant
ment of the embassies of at least two
example of the corrupting effect of
key allies-could set off serious trade
campaign finances on Washington poli-
wars.
cy-making I know," one high adminis-
Chances are, it won't come to that.
tration official said.
The Senate, which is scheduled to vote
Even if you accept AFL-CIO lobbyist
first, seems likely to approve the fast-
track procedure in which trade agree-
Peggy Taylor's assurance that "we
have not threatened to cut off contri-
ments are voted up or down by Con-
gress but are not subject to amend-
butions to anyone," there is no doubt
ment. In the House, which is slated to
the dependence of most congressional
follow on Friday, Clinton faces an uphill
Democrats on unions for their bedrock
struggle, but one he might still win.
financing makes them receptive to the
The cost of victory may be high,
arguments Taylor and other labor lob-
however. By every calculation, more
byists offer.
7 than two-thirds of the affirmative votes
But there's more than money in-
will have to come from Republicans.
volved. In the 1994 midterm election, a
BY OHLSSON
The more Clinton has to turn to Speak-
year after the NAFTA vote, union
J
Her Newt Gingrich and his allies, the
activists, stung by losing that fight to
to a 10-seat gain. Understandably, its
Missouri, who is leading the fight for
Rep. Ron Kind, a moderate freshman
higher the price they can extract on
Clinton and by the president's failure to
arguments are heeded.
labor.
from a marginal district in Wisconsin,
other issues. Gingrich, still trying to
get a Democratic Congress even to
Labor is less monolithic than it
What Clinton and the White House
who concedes he is adopting the "paro-
shore up his own shaky position after
vote on his promised health care re-
appears, however. The growing
have been slow to realize is that Gep-
chial concern" of dairy farmers frus-
last summer's failed coup, simply can-
form, deserted their posts. Phone
unions-notably those representing
hardt has convinced many of his col-
trated by their post-NAFTA dealings
not afford to be altruistic.
banks went unmanned; the turnout of
public employees and service indus-
leagues that demanding stronger
with Canada. "Very few of us oppose
II
The reason Clinton may have to pay
union families plummeted; 40 percent
tries-care much less about the trade
worker and environmental protections
giving the president the authority to
a high price is that he has signally
of those who bothered to vote backed
as part of future trade agreements is a
negotiate," he said, "but he should
T-
GOP candidates, and the Democrats
issue than do the Teamsters or the big
failed to persuade his own party of the
way of helping their constituents-not
have elevated this to a national debate
lost the House for the first time in 40
industrial unions. Vice President Al
rightness of his trade policy. In 1993,
undercutting a successful Clinton eco-
on what the rules of trade should look
after a vigorous campaign by Clinton,
years.
Gore, despite his pro-NAFTA and pro-
nomic policy. Until very recently, the
like in the 21st century. That is what
only 40 percent of House Democrats
In 1996, by contrast, labor, under
fast-track stance, has at least as many
president let the opposition dominate
Ronald Reagan would have done."
supported NAFTA-the free trade
new leadership, targeted Gingrich and
allies among top unionists as his pro-
the public debate.
As a result of that failure, Clinton will
agreement with Mexico and Canada.
the GOP early, boosted its share of the
spective opponent for the 2000 nomina-
As a result, Clinton will not get the
pay Gingrich a high price if he is to
"On fast track, he will lose 20 or more
electorate and helped the Democrats
tion, Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of
votes of such thoughtful Democrats as
avoid a truly devastating defeat.
PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
Dow Jones News/Retrieval (R)
If Clinton Doesn't Get `Fast Track' Now, He'll
DOCUMENT 2 OF 2
J9728900080
Politics & Policy
* If Clinton Doesn't Get `Fast Track' Now,
He'll Never Get It, Commerce Chief Says
By Jackie Calmes
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
624 Words
4527 Characters
* 10/16/97
The Wall Street Journal
A24
(Copyright (c) 1997, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
*
RIO DE JANEIRO -- If Congress doesn't renew "fast-track" trade
authority this fall, President Clinton will have lost that chance for
the remainder of his presidency and, with it, the ability to negotiate
*
strategic trade agreements, Commerce Secretary William Daley warned.
*
"If not this year, then not until 2001," said Mr. Daley, who managed
Mr. Clinton's hard-won 1993 campaign for congressional approval of the
North American Free Trade Agreement. He is among the high-level White
House officials traveling with the president on an eight-day,
three-nation trip through South America. A major objective of the visit
is to whip up Latin American and U.S. support for free trade throughout
the hemisphere.
*
Mr. Daley's statement reflects the political pressures against a
trade proposal that is vigorously opposed by organized labor, which, in
turn, influences many Democrats and some Republicans. The Clinton trade
proposal would allow him to seek congressional approval of future trade
pacts without lawmakers' amendments -- a bargaining prerequisite for
U.S. trading partners who don't want Congress to tamper with any deal.
*
In 1998, Mr. Daley said, the political crosscurrents of a
congressional election year "would make it way too difficult" to win
passage. "Nobody would want to touch it," he said.
That would remain true in 1999, he added, as politicking for the 2000
presidential election began. Now, three years before the election, a
subplot of the current debate is the rivalry between potential
Democratic candidates in 2000, Vice President Al Gore and House Minority
Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri. Mr. Gephardt, who is leading the
* opposition to the pact, will participate in an anti-fast-track rally on
Wall Street today.
Also traveling with Mr. Clinton is GOP Rep. David Dreier of
California, an ardent free-trader who says GOP House leaders want to see
Source: Wall Street Journal, October 16, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval (R)
Mr. Clinton demonstrate that he can deliver more Democratic votes before
they schedule a vote on the matter. Other lawmakers with Mr. Clinton in
Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina this week are Democratic Reps. James
McDermott of Washington, who committed last week to support the
* fast-track plan, and Nydia Velazquez of New York and Ruben Hinojosa of
Texas, two undecided Hispanic lawmakers.
"We've heard from a lot of members, 'It's just the politics that are
* killing us, not the policy," Mr. Daley said.
Mr. Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel Berger, yesterday
reiterated the administration line that the president is merely asking
for power accorded other presidents in the past two decades. "If they're
bad trade deals, then Congress ought to vote them down. If they're good
trade deals, then Congress shouldn't vote them down," Mr. Berger said.
"But they shouldn't deprive this president" of a power past presidents
enjoyed.
Throughout the trip, Mr. Clinton, who was to go on to Buenos Aires
last night, has stressed the economic and social benefits of free trade,
as well as the obligation of all nations and their businesses to protect
*
workers and the environment, reflecting the demands of fast-track foes
back home.
Meanwhile, Mr. Clinton's Rio appearance yesterday illustrated just
how far Brazil has to go to "bridge the gap between the haves and the
have-nots," as he put it to U.S. and South American business leaders
earlier in the day in Sao Paulo. His Rio motorcade passed slums of
wretched squalor, with hovels of corrugated metal and scrap wood.
In one of the city's less desperate neighborhoods, Mr. Clinton, along
with soccer star Pele, spoke to enthusiastic children at Mangueira
School, a sports and academic complex for as many as 7,000 local
students that is supported by Xerox Corp. In "the new economy" that is
emerging globally, he said, "it is wrong for only a few to reap the
benefits of the wonderful changes going on while the many remain mired
in poverty."
Source: Wall Street Journal, October 16, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Q: Ways & Means Chairman Archer has written a letter telling the Administration it must
secure 70 Democratic House votes before a House vote will be allowed on fast track? How
do you respond?
From the start, the Administration has acted on a bipartisan basis to secure renewed fast track
negotiating authority. We continue to believe we will need both Republicans and Democrats
to secure a majority. The President, the Cabinetand the entire Administration have been
extremely active in securing the votes needed particularly Democratic votes.
We do not believe it is helpful to begin setting preconditions to the achievement of our
bipartisan goal. The important thing is for all those who support fast track to work together
to secure the votes so we can continue to open foreign markets for America's companies
and workers.
The Administration will continue to work in a bipartisan fashion to get the job done. We
encourage all those who support fast track to work with us in that effort.
Q: But do you think you can get 70 votes?
I don't want to get into the number of Democratic or Republican votes possible. I do think
we can secure the necessary votes in both the House and the Senate if we continue to make a
strong bipartisan effort.
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Page 2
LEVEL 1 - 14 OF 250 STORIES
Copyright 1997 U.S. Newswire, Inc.
U.S. Newswire
October 16, 1997 23:04 Eastern Time
SECTION: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DESKS
LENGTH: 1815 words
HEADLINE: Transcript of Clinton Remarks in Television Town Hall (3 of 5)
CONTACT: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Oct. 16
BODY:
Following is a transcript of remarks made by President Clinton today in a
television town hall in Argentina (Part 3 of 5)
MODERATOR: And we're going to go coast to coast, Mr. President.
We're going to go back to L.A. now with another question.
MODERATOR: Mr. President, we have here in Los Angeles a person who
wants to ask you about free trade. It's from Ricardo Castagno (phonetic. ) He
is the coordinator for Central American Matters at the William Bilaskis
Institute (phonetic) in Los Angeles.
Q Good afternoon, Mr. President. Hispanic congressmen here in the
United States are against fast track, as a result of certain lacks in certain
NAFTA programs for retraining workers who have lost their jobs as a result of
NAFTA and others to create jobs for those same workers. My question is, don't
you think that we need to improve NAFTA before we expand it to South America or
before we negotiate any other free trade agreement, before we ask for fast
track authorization?
THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely not. Let's look at the economic facts
here. First of all -- and I would be happy to discuss this, but whether you
believe NAFTA was a success or a failure and I believe we are far better off
economically and in our relations with Mexico than we would have been had we not
passed NAFTA. But we are the only developed country in the world with a
2,000-mile border with a country that is still developing. We have unique
historically, cultural, economic, environmental and other challenges in our
relationship.
Our trade with the Americas has grown enormously in the last few
years. It has gone up 200 percent since 1990. It's now over $109 billion. In
the last year alone, 70 percent of America's trade growth has come from the
Americas.
So should we do something to trade more with Chile, with Argentina,
with Brazil, with other countries? Yes, I believe we should. Should we wait
while Europeans and others make agreements that help their workers? No, I don't
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U.S. Newswire, October 16, 1997
believe we should. Are there political benefits as well as economic benefits to
our cooperation? Absolutely.
Now, in the case of NAFTA let's go back to NAFTA we had a couple
of rough years with NAFTA because of the peso crisis in Mexico and the recession
which followed. But they were not nearly as bad and Mexico bounced back much
more quickly than they did when the same thing happened to Mexico in the early
'80s and there was no NAFTA, there was no trade.
We have not solved all the environmental problems along the border,
but at least we have a financial mechanism and a testing mechanism now and we
have shown we have some examples of progress. I think you can rightly say that
the North American Development Bank lost two years in the development, in '94
and '95. We've been working since early '96 to get it going. And just recently
I reached an agreement with the Hispanic Caucus to dramatically increase the
lending capacity of the North American Development Bank to help Americans
displaced by NAFTA-related trade.
We've already doubled worker retraining funds. I reached an agreement
with the Hispanic Caucus to increase it another $450 million over the next five
years. So I think that we do have to do more to help Americans who are
disadvantaged by trade, but that is not an argument against fast track. Fast
track is about the future of Latin America and its future economic relations
with us. And I think we'd be making a terrible mistake to delay. We should
speed up, not delay. The economy down here is on a fast track. I can see it
all around me. They're not waiting for us to do this. We just should be a good
partner and do it.
MODERATOR: We continue now with the intercontinental dialogue through
Univision, where we are getting together almost 500 million people throughout
Latin America and our continent. We're going to change subjects now. Here is
Fernando Siman (phonetic), a doctor here in Argentina, secretary of the Young
Pediatricians Group.
Q Good afternoon.
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon.
Q My question has to do with health, and it's this: Access to health
care is a basic human right. The United States has many times helped to promote
and defend human rights. How do you think the United States can help us now to
be able to gain access for the entire population to health care? And how does
this work in the United States, immersed as you are in a free market economic
system?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, that's a problem that we haven't fully
solved. Hillary and I tried in 1994 to devise a system where everyone who could
afford it would pay something according to their ability to pay, for themselves
and their employees to buy health insurance so everyone would have access to
health care. That plan did not pass.
What have we done instead? We have tried to make it possible for
health care to be more affordable. We've tried to protect people's health
insurance when they have it so that they don't lose it. And we have a network
of public health clinics throughout the United States that people can visit if
they do not have access to health care. We just passed a law in our country
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U.S. Newswire, October 16, 1997
with $24 billion to provide health insurance to another 5 million children over
the next five years. So we're trying.
But I think that we should from my own point of view, we should
support programs through the international financial institutions that help you
and through AID, the USAID programs that deal with basic health care. Access
to health care is, in my view, right up there with education in terms of what it
will take to give every single child in this country and on this continent a
chance to participate in the future we're building. And I think the United
States should continue to have a high priority on health care and health care
abroad.
And thank you for being a pediatrician.
MODERATOR: The next question comes from Maria Rosario Valgare
(phonetic). She is from the neighboring country of Uruguay, and she is an
English teacher, and she has a degree in international relations.
Your question.
Q Good afternoon, Mr. President. I spent some time studying in the
United States. Your universities and your schools in the United States are full
of foreign students who seem to have understood the need to culturally interact
in this era of globalization. Don't you think that more U.S. young people
should be going out to the world in order to get to know it and get to know
people and get in touch and not be SO unaware of the needs of globalization?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Absolutely. You know, one of the reasons I have
the attitudes that I have today is that when I was a young man I was given the
opportunity to study in another country for two years and travel to other
countries. I have strongly supported America maintaining the Fulbright
Scholarship program for that reason.
And I believe that we should do all that we can to encourage more
students from the United States to take a year or so and study abroad. I'm very
glad that we have students from other countries in the U.S. I think there are
now 2,000 students from Argentina in the United States. Are there any American
students here? Good for you. Well, we have a few hear, beating the odds. But I
think it's very important.
Let me also say that there is a marked attitudinal change, though,
now. Young Americans, Americans under 30 are far more likely to want to be
involved with a foreign culture, to want to study overseas, to understand the
importance of trade and political cooperation to their own future far more
likely. So I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a big upsurge in the number
of young Americans now who want to take at least a year and go overseas to learn
about another culture, to master another language, to be a part of the world as
it is developing.
But you're absolutely right, we should do more of it.
MODERATOR: Now, Mr. President, we're going to move on to another city
where we have many people who speak two languages English and Spanish
Miami. They have a question there for you.
MODERATOR: That's right, here's someone from the University of Miami.
She's 18 years old and she's president of the Puerto Rican Students Association.
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U.S. Newswire, October 16, 1997
I Thank you. Good afternoon to everyone and good afternoon to you,
Mr. President. This is my question: If Puerto Rico were accepted as the 51st
state, what assurance could you give the Puerto Rican community that we would be
able to keep our traditions, our culture, our language and not lose your
Puerto Rican identity.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first, let me state what my position is. My
position is that the status of Puerto Rico should be for the Puerto Rican people
themselves to decide. Whether a commonwealth, independence or statehood it
should be totally up to the people of Puerto Rico.
If Puerto Rico were to become a state, among other things, under our
laws the educational system of Puerto Rico would be primarily the constitutional
responsibility of the state of Puerto Rico, so that to whatever extent the state
wanted to have a cultural support for the native culture, the native customs and
the native language would be a decision for the state to pursue that the federal
government should not try to undermine.
So that's my position. I don't think you'd have to worry about that.
There are complicating questions on both sides of that issue. But I think the
preservation of the unique and wonderful culture of Puerto Rico would not be a
problem probably in either way. But there may be some specific problems I'm
unaware of. But I would say that people should make their decisions about
commonwealth and statehood probably based on what they think is best
economically, rather than that. I believe that we'll be able to preserve the
culture no matter what.
As a matter of fact, if you look at what's happening in Miami, what's
happening in Los Angeles, what's happening in Chicago, what's happening in the
Fairfax County school district across the river from Washington, D.C., where
there are people from 180 different national groups in one school district --
we're going to do a lot of cultural preservation in the years ahead.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: October 16, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 16 OF 250 STORIES
Copyright 1997 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse
October 16, 1997 16:07 GMT
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 870 words
HEADLINE: Clinton underscores "alliance of values" between US, Argentina
DATELINE: (INCORPORATES Latam-US-Argentina)
BODY:
By Christian Chaise
BUENOS AIRES, Oct 16 (AFP) - US President Bill Clinton applauded "the
alliance of values" between the United States and Argentina here Thursday in his
latest effort to promote pan-American free trade.
Clinton, here on the last stop of a three-nation South American tour, also
called on Argentina to tighten relations with Britain to resolve their conflict
over the Falkland Islands, known here as the Malvinas.
The visiting leader, who met with President Carlos Menem at the Casa Rosada
presidential residence also expressed his "concern regarding pressures on the
press throughout the hemisphere," according to a US official.
Clinton arrived here late Wednesday on the third and final leg of his trip to
whip up support of his 1994 proposal to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas
by 2005. The president took his free-trade crusade to Venezuela and to Brazil
earlier in his visit.
He told Menem the United States supports Mercosur -- a customs union
comprising Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay -- according to Jim Dobbins,
a top Clinton advisor on Latin America.
Clinton had said the same thing to Brazilian President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso during an unsuccessful sales pitch for the free trade area earlier this
week in Brazil, where protestors showered his limousine in manure.
But unlike its giant neighbor to the north, which is eyeing a bigger role on
the global stage, Menem's Argentina has decided to hitch its wagon to the US
star, and Clinton appeared keenly aware of the fact.
He used a brief speech here to highlight not just "the alliance of values"
between the United States and Argentina but his decision last week to grant
Argentina the largely symbolic status of "major non-NATO ally."
The moniker does not reflect a military or strategic alliance but reflects
Argentina's "desire to cooperate with the United States," said Dobbins.
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Agence France Presse, October 16, 1997
The two leaders discussed better Argentine-British relations, which must
still cope with the thorny issue of sovereignty over the Falklands, over which
the two fought a brief but bloody war in 1982 which Britain won.
Clinton "expressed our interest in seeing two of our very best friends
continue their dialogue and the improvement in their relations, said
Jeffrey Davidow, US undersecretary of state for Latin American affairs.
Menem did not ask Clinton for "any type of mediation" on the issue, according
to Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella.
Clinton never raised the issue of corruption despite Argentine fears and
what the White House had indicated prior to the visit and never so much as
spoke the word, according to Dobbins.
Menem in turn did not bring up Argentine irritation at neighboring Chile's
interest in buying two dozen F-16 fighters after Clinton lifted a US embargo on
arms sales to South American countries in August.
But Clinton's remarks about freedom of the press was an implicit criticism of
Argentina, where threats against journalists have increased, and an appeal to
Menem to improve press protections.
The Argentine leader replied that "this was a useful subject for discussions"
at the Americas summit in Santiago in April.
Clinton also came out in support of Argentine membership in the OECD but
expressed some concern as to intellectual property protection in Argentina, a
long-standing sore point for US firms.
The two nations signed five accords to cooperate on bilateral consultation,
sustainable development, nuclear energy, protection of national parks and space,
the foreign ministry said.
chz/ok/pfm
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright took some time off for tango lessons
while flying with President Bill Clinton from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires, a
White House spokesman said.
Clinton and his wife, Hillary, watched in wonder as the 60-year-old Albright
took twirls with Republican congressman David Dreier, her tango-teacher, aboard
Air Force One, spokesman Michael McCurry said.
The improvised lesson took place Wednesday as Clinton was heading to
Argentina after a two-day visit to Brazil.
The Czech-born Albright seems attracted to Argentina and its culture. Weeks
ago, during a Washington dinner for visiting Asian foreign ministers, she raised
eyebrows by singing "Don't Cry for me Argentina," from the musical "Evita",
based on the late Argentine first lady Evita Peron.
Dreier, who after dancing with Albright continued to tango with a Democratic
lawmaker, was invited on Clinton's South American tour because he backs
congressional approval of "fast track" negotiating procedure for trade pacts,
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Agence France Presse, October 16, 1997
long sought -- but still out of reach - by the White House.
Clinton arrived late Wednesday in Buenos Aires and before heading for his
hotel popped inside a posh restaurant with his wife to try Argentina's famous
beef dishes.
McCurry said Brazilian President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, wrote Clinton a
warm, friendly letter thanking him for his visit to Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio,
which he called a great success.
Clinton's first-ever tour of South America began in Venezuela and will end
Saturday, after a two-day rest at Argentina's southwestern Andean resort city of
San Carlos de Bariloche.
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LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: October 16, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 20 OF 250 STORIES
Copyright 1997 The Financial Times Limited
Financial Times (London)
us 7
October 16, 1997, Thursday USA EDITION 1
pressure
SECTION: NEWS: US AND CANADA; Pg. 05
Brazil to
LENGTH: 337 words
mar thing
reductions would
HEADLINE: Lower trade barriers in Americas, says Clinton
fest hear
BYLINE: By Geoff Dyer in Sao Paulo
DATELINE: Sao Paulo
BODY:
US president Bill Clinton yesterday urged Brazilian business leaders to
support moves to reduce trade barriers in the Americas as a means of creating
greater economic efficiency and higher growth.
Speaking in Sao Paulo on the fourth day of his first trip to South America,
Mr Clinton also called on South American representatives of US companies to put
pressure on the US Congress to pass legislation giving the president
"fast-track" negotiating authority in trade talks.
"I need all the help I can get," said Mr Clinton, adding that he hoped the
bill would be passed this year. Without the authority, Congress would have the
power to change any trade agreement the president signed.
The absence of fast-track approval has meant that little concrete progress
has been made during Mr Clinton's trip on discussions about the creation of a
34-country Free Trade Area for the Americas (FTAA) by 2005.
Although the US and Brazil have agreed to begin formal negotiations next
year, the two countries have been at loggerheads over how the talks should
proceed. The US wants immediate talks about tariff reduction, while Brazil,
facing a growing trade deficit, has called for a more gradual approach. However,
diplomats say the US will not be able to put any pressure on Brazil until
Congress approves the fast-track bill.
Instead, Mr Clinton has used his two-day visit to Brazil to try to smooth
relations with Latin America's biggest country, which have occasionally become
heated over the FTAA issue.
Mr Clinton stressed yesterday that Brazil and the US had the largest
populations and economies in the hemisphere and spoke about the need for Brazil
to play a strong leadership role in the integration of the Americas.
"We can set a standard of success for the Americas, showing that democracy
and free markets deliver,' he said.
After visiting a school in a slum neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro yesterday
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afternoon, Mr Clinton left for Argentina, the last leg of his trip which began
in Venezuela.
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made
The State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)
spuch
October 16, 1997, Tuesday, EARLY AND CITY EDITIONS
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 5
u:
disparty
LENGTH: 940 words
HEADLINE: Clinton: Poor must be helped Urges Brail to close gap between 'haves'
and 'have-nots'
BYLINE: GEORGE CONDON JR. COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RIO DE JANIERO, Brazil
BODY:
To the poorest of Brazil's children and the richest of its businessmen,
President Clinton Wednesday campaigned for a narrowing of the gap between the
hemisphere's "haves" and "have-nots," calling for greater efforts to make sure
the poor benefit from improved economies throughout the Americas.
That message was delivered most dramatically when Clinton became the first
U.S. president ever to venture into the favellas -- slums -- that hold so much
of Brazil's population in the grip of what he called "poverty, relentless
deprivation, the daily defeat of hope."
There, in a sweltering 100-degree heat and with shirtless residents watching
curiously from the rooftops of the nearby shacks jammed into the hillside,
Clinton called for the creation of a stable middle class.
"It is wrong for only a few to reap the benefits of the wonderful changes
going on while the many remain mired in poverty," he told an audience made up
primarily of children at Mangueira School.
"That is a betrayal of our values of individual integrity and equal
opportunity, and in the end, it will erode faith and democracy in free markets.
And those who have will do better by giving a hand up to those who deserve their
chance, too."
Many of the children fidgeted in the heat and were clearly more excited at
the presence of soccer legend Pele now a Brazilian government minister who
preceded Clinton to the stage set up on a soccer field.
But the president's message was not aimed at the children. It was aimed at
what U.S. National Security Adviser Sandy Berger called "the new breed of
leaders" here who have by and large junked their region's longtime reliance on
command economics and begun to follow the U.S. teachings to build market
economies.
That shift has improved most Latin economies but the benefits generally have
not yet been felt by the poor. It concerns Clinton administration strategists
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who fear a continuing rich-poor chasm might undercut their arguments for
expanded free trade throughout the hemisphere.
To dramatize that concern, Clinton went to the Mangueira favella rather than
to the Brazilian Congress, the favored speech locale for the seven presidents
who made earlier trips here.
In the favella, the president stressed the necessity of building "here and
elsewhere a great middle class to strengthen democracy and stabilize society."
Earlier, the president was even more pointed, striking the same theme but in
a much different setting. In Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, he urged a group
of well-off, well-dressed business leaders to join his drive to narrow the
inequities between rich and poor.
The backdrop an air-conditioned modernistic ballroom filled with
dark-suited businessmen could not have been more different, but the message
was the same.
"We must work even harder to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots,
Clinton said, lamenting what he called "the age-old curse of Latin America."
This persistent poverty "has got to be dealt with more seriously, not only by
government but by people in the private sector working in partnership with
government," he said. "We have to give everyone who will work for it a place in
the future we are trying to build.
Clinton pledged American leadership in using expanded free trade to help the
poorer countries of the hemisphere "lift themselves into the ranks of
middle-income countries."
He linked this goal to his campaign for renewed authority to negotiate trade
deals. That authority known as "fast track" would permit him to hammer
out deals that could not be amended by Congress. Instead, Congress would have
to accept or reject them in their entirety.
Clinton appealed to members of the audience "representing American companies"
to lobby Congress, where the fast-track measure faces intense opposition, much
of it from members of Clinton's own party.
"Globalization is irreversible," he said. "Protectionism will only make
things worse."
(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM) But he also touched on criticisms raised by
those Democrats who are calling for more protections for worker rights and the
environment in all future trade deals.
"While we cannot turn back the winds of change, we can and must do more to
harness their force to everyone's advantage and make sure the benefits and
burdens of expanding trade are fairly borne, " he said.
Berger told reporters the two speeches were added to the trip because the
president "recognizes that globalization creates winners and losers, that a
rising tide does not lift all the boats equally
and that we must also pursue
strategies to promote social cohesion and to close the (rich-poor) gap. "
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Berger said this is "what the fast-track debate is about."
(EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Clinton also stressed education as a tool for raising the poor from the slums
of Brazil and neighboring countries. It was that emphasis that drew him to the
Mangueira School, a model program of education and sports that is providing
fresh opportunity to poor children.
Supported by a group of corporate sponsors, led by the Xerox Corp., that
provide $ 600,000 a year in contributions, the school provide education and
sports and pushes the students onto to higher education.
"If I didn't come here, I think I'd probably be a beggar," said a grateful
Jose (cq) Rodrigues, 14, who attended the speech clad in her pink and green
school gymnastic uniform.
With her eight brothers and sisters, mother and step-father, she lives in a
two-room shanty in the neighborhood visited by Clinton. But because of the
program, she hopes to attend college.
TYPE: NEWS
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Copyright 1997 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
October 16, 1997, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A21
LENGTH: 951 words
HEADLINE: Clinton Sees Two Sides Of Brazil; Model School Pulls Young From
Poverty; Clinton, at Brazilian School, Cites Need to Help Young Rise Out of
Poverty
BYLINE: John F. Harris, Washington Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 15
BODY:
President Clinton has spent this week in South America preaching a sunny
vision of trade and education as the keys to a bright new continent of wealth
and opportunity. This afternoon, he ventured into a place that has seen precious
little of either, and he acknowledged in blunt terms that reality can be more
complicated than the vision.
The setting was Rio's Mangueira community, where the presidential limousine
passed rows of dreary shacks and ramshackle tenements before arriving at a
school where Clinton assured children growing up in poverty that a world of
high-tech riches awaits. But this time his optimism was mixed with admonition.
"It is wrong for only a few to reap the benefits of the wonderful changes
going on while the many remain mired in poverty," he declared, in a nation
historically riven by some of the continent's starkest inequalities. "Those who
have will do better by giving a hand up to those who deserve their chance, too."
This was a day when Clinton saw first-hand the sharp angles of Brazilian
life.
He started the day in an air-conditioned auditorium in Sao Paulo, addressing
a well-coiffed mix of Brazilian and U.S. businessmen assembled by the chamber of
commerce. There, he extolled the "astonishing accomplishment" of Brazil's
economic revival in the past five years.
Then he came to Rio and its Mangueira neighborhood, where he stood on a
sweltering outdoor stage, warning that a child's "great gift from God, the power
to dream
can be lost through poverty, relentless deprivation, the daily
defeat of hope."
The stop promised to be the most exotic of Clinton's trip to South America,
where his schedule has mostly been filled with meetings with government leaders
and traditional speeches. While Clinton's remarks here hit some sober notes, the
mood of the day was ebullient, and at times seemed a little like a campaign
rally.
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He and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton shared the stage with the most
famous Brazilian of all the soccer legend Pele, now the government's
minister of sport. When Clinton finished speaking, he and Pele briefly kicked a
soccer ball around before Clinton plunged into the crowd of children in their
pastel pink-and-green sports uniforms.
These are the colors of the Mangueira School, which Brazilians are promoting
as a successful experiment in quelling juvenile delinquency and lifting children
out of squalor. Mangueira, while poor, is far from the most downtrodden place in
this city. Brazilians say it is a place with special resonance in their culture,
a wellspring of artistic achievement that has a reputation like Harlem's in the
1920s.
The neighborhood, for instance, is the place where Brazilian samba music was
invented. Jazzy, drum-dominated samba rhythms blared from loudspeakers today.
"If I didn't come here, I'd probably be a beggar, because without school I
would be nothing," said a 14-year-old student, Jose Rodrigues.
Clinton's message at the school was an echo of one he utters often at home
the splendors of a world linked by better education and technological
innovations such as the Internet. A computer at the school was linked by the
Internet with its sister school, which is in Northern Virginia. Clinton and
Brazilian students exchanged typed messages with students at Prince William
County's Hylton High School; the computers' mini-cams allowed people at both
places to see each other.
At Hylton, junior Sarah Marr, 16, and Brazilian exchange student Luis Macedo,
16, sat at the keyboard, corresponding with their Rio peers, lauding technology,
bragging about the Orioles and Redskins, and asking Clinton if he liked Brazil.
Clinton leaned over the keyboard to respond and was suddenly subject to the
world of teenagers.
"He's a slow typer," a girl in the back of the room noted.
But in due course the message went out. "I'm having a wonderful time, " he
wrote. "I wish all of you could visit Brazil."
The Mangueira School is a project jointly supported by the government and
private companies, including the Brazilian branch of Xerox. More a community
center than a regular school, it emphasizes athletics and has on-site
health-care facilities in addition to a vocational training program. Pele, who
helped in its founding, called it one of Brazil's "best examples of social
concern and social progress."
The Clinton administration has said the government of Brazilian President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former socialist, deserves credit for stabilizing
the economy in a way that has reduced the number of Brazil's poor people by 13
million. But that leaves an estimated 40 million still living in poverty out
of a population of 160 million.
"We must do more, and we must be honest with our children," Clinton said. "We
know that education and technology alone will not abolish poverty and
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inequality. But they do give people what they need to lift themselves up, to
join the emerging global society and to make the most of their own lives. "
The White House national security adviser, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, said
this message has meaning in the United States as well, particularly in
Clinton's uphill battle in Congress to win "fast-track" authority to negotiate
free-trade agreements.
"The opponents of fast-track in many ways are opposing trade, and they say
really that you have to make a choice between either dealing with the inequities
of our society or dealing with open markets and expanding trade, " Berger said.
"What the president has been saying over these past weeks and months
is
that we don't have the luxury of that choice. "
Staff writer Ann O'Hanlon in Prince William County contributed to this
report.
GRAPHIC: Photo, afp/bob pearson, Clinton hugs soccer legend Pele during a visit
to a model school in a Rio shantytown.
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Copyright 1997 U.S. Newswire, Inc.
U.S. Newswire
October 15, 1997 14:17 Eastern Time
SECTION: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DESKS
LENGTH: 1867 words
HEADLINE: Transcript of Clinton Remarks to Business Leaders in Brazil Part 1 of
2)
CONTACT: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Oct. 15
BODY:
Following is a transcript of remarks made by President Clinton today to business
leaders in Brazil (Part 1 of 2) :
Auditorium
Memorial America Latino
Sao Paulo, Brazil
7:30 A.M. (L)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Mr. Miller, for your introduction
and your statement. Thank you, Governor, for your moving words. And thank you
all for coming out this morning. I am delighted to be here and to be joined by
a distinguished delegation of Americans, including the Secretary of State, the
Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Education, the United Nations
Ambassador, my Special Envoy to Latin America, the National Security Advisor and
four distinguished members of the House of Representatives, Congressman David
Dreier, Congressman Jim McDermott, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Congressman
Ruben Hiriojosa. We also have the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States
here, the Minister of the Brazilian government and the Mayor, and I thank them
all for coming.
I think this speaks the importance of the relationship between the
United States and Brazil. I'm delighted to be in Sao Paulo, the economic engine
of this great nation and the commercial heart of the new Latin America. I often
hear it said now that Brazil is the land of the future. I think that in this
city, the future is here. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss
the partnership that I hope our two nations will forge for the 21st century.
All of you know that over the last decade, a genuine revolution has
swept across this hemisphere. As never before, Americas are coming together in
the embrace of common goals and common values. We have a special responsibility
and a special ability, Brazil and the United States, to work together with the
other nations of the Americas to lead this process, with the largest populations
and the largest economies, rich natural resources, enormous and fascinating
diversity among our peoples. Most important, both of us cherish the same
ideals: freedom and equality, respect for the individual and the integrity of
the family and community, social justice and peace.
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Our partnership is already broad in scope and ambition. We fight drugs
and the spread of nuclear weapons together. We work to protect the Rainforest
and to explore the Heavens together. We work to help others in our hemisphere
turn from conflict to cooperation together. But nowhere can we make a greater
difference for our people than by leading all the Americas down the path to
prosperity in the new economy of the 21st century.
The United States has worked watched with respect and admiration as
Brazil has embraced strong reform. With President Cardoso's Real Plan, with the
support of the public and the Congress, Brazil has slashed inflation from 2500
percent to five percent in only five years a truly astonishing
accomplishment. In the course of SO doing, 13 million Brazilians have been
lifted above the poverty line, growth of more than four percent a year has been
achieved. Brazil has become a magnet for billions of dollars of foreign
investment, a good deal of it from the United States.
Brazil's growing prosperity is good news for Brazilians, but also good
news for Americans. Last year, our bilateral trade totaled more than $21
billion. The United States is Brazil's largest single trading partner, larger
than the Andean Pact, the Central American Common Market, CARICOM and Mercosur
combined. We buy about a fifth of Brazil's exports and our exports to Brazil
have more than doubled since 1992. As Mr. Miller said, American businesses know
that Brazil is a great place to bet on for the future, it's a good place to do
business, and today there is, I understand, also in this audience a first-rate
trade delegation from Seattle trying to support that proposition.
Our big trade numbers sometimes mask a lot of individual stories
not always from large companies. The Snider Mold Company of Mequon, Wisconsin
sells molds for making water tanks to companies in Brazil. Brazilian firms use
the equipment to replace old tanks with safer models, supporting jobs in both
countries and providing healthier drinking water for families in Sao Paulo. The
lives of real people are changed for the better by this kind of trade.
And in Brazil, we see a large snapshot of what is happening indeed
throughout our region, where barriers are falling, trade and investment are
booming, trade among Mercosur countries has more than quadrupled since 1990. In
that same period, the United States exports to Latin America have grown by more
than 100 percent. This all promotes greater efficiency in economic growth in the
Americas and brings people better opportunities to build better lives for
themselves and their children.
Early in the next century, as open markets continue to spread, 20
nations around the world, home to half the world's population, will lift
themselves from the ranks of the poorest countries into the ranks of middle-
income countries. Their gain in skills and jobs and wealth will be our gain as
well.
I want America to lead the process of economic integration and rising
living standards here in our hemisphere and around the world. In the last four
and half years we have concluded more than 220 separate trade agreements with
expanding trade accounting for one-third of our own strong growth. Now, I'm
working to persuade our Congress to renew the President's fast track negotiating
authority SO that we can do more.
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In the past few weeks, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways
and Means Committee, on which Congressman Dreier and Congressman McDermott who
are here with me sit, have approved this legislation with bipartisan support.
And we're going to do all we can to pass the bill this year. I hope, if I might
be forgiven this on foreign soil, I hope that those of you representing American
companies will urge members of Congress of both parties to support the
legislation; I need all the help I can get.
I have also attempted to see that the United States puts special
emphasis on Latin America. We hosted the Summit of the Americas in Miami in
1994, I appointed my long-time friend and former Chief of Staff Mack McLarty to
be a Special Envoy to Latin America to send a signal to the continent that we
are serious about a long-term sustained and comprehensive partnership.
The United States welcomes all constructive efforts by others to bring
our hemisphere together, and especially Brazil's leadership role in those
efforts. Brazil and Argentina, through their strategic alliance, are providing
a decisive impulse for democracy, economic reform and regional security
cooperation. Mercosur has expanded trade among its members and with the outside
world. It has also bolstered democracy and promoted peace as a growing
integration in interdependence make yesterday's hostilities unthinkable today.
We hope every step in the process of hemispheric integration, whether
in Mercosur, NAFTA, CARICOM or elsewhere we'll build momentum toward our common
goal of a free trade area of the Americas by 2005, first endorsed at the 1994
Summit in Miami.
Our nations are committed to launch comprehensive negotiations at
Santiago in April and, as we agreed at the Miami Summit, to achieve concrete
progress by the turn of the century. Just imagine the potential of an American
market with 800 million people, from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina,
buying each other's goods, spurring each other's creativity, enriching each
other's lives, investing in each other's future.
But even as we seize these possibilities, we must also work even
harder to bridge the gap between the haves and the have- not. The age- old curse
of Latin America, the constant undercurrent of all advanced economies of the
last 20 years, has got to be dealt with more seriously not only by government,
but by people in the private sector working in partnership with government. We
have to give everyone who will work for it a place in the future we are trying
to build.
In your country and mine and throughout the hemisphere, many people
still question our course: fearing the pressure of competition, feeling as yet
no benefit from the changes underway. Knowing that as yet, no nation has found
the perfect formula for both embracing the global economy while preserving and
extending the social contract. Globalization is irreversible. Protectionism
will only make things worse. But while we cannot turn back the winds of change,
we can and must do more to harness their force to everyone's advantage and make
sure that the benefits and burdens of expanding trade are fairly borne.
That means deepening democracy and the rule of law, including a free
press and an independent judiciary. It means insisting on worker protection so
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that trade enhances working conditions and living standards instead of
undermining them. It means equipping all our people with the education,
training and skills to succeed SO that progress is everyone's friend.
Since 1993, we in the United States have been working hard to come
to grips with these two competing challenges. We have more than doubled our
worker training funds directed at those in the work force who may be displaced
by technology or trade. We have established the North American Development Bank
to try to make investments in communities that have been displaced by our
increasing integration with Canada and Mexico. We ha ve worked to improve joint
environmental inspections and enforcement and to jointly agree to stop using
some kinds of chemicals and other things which are damaging to the environment.
We have set up special empowerment zones to give our private sector
incentives to invest in communities which are not touched by trade one way or
the other because their economies have developed so little. All these things
have not had perfect results, but they are making a difference, and they show
that there is a way to have strong economic growth, an open economy, an openness
to trade and investment and still care about extending opportunity SO that more
and more people who are willing to work have a chance to work and succeed.
We must also do more to protect natural resources and the
environment. The United States rejects the false choice between economic growth
and environmental protection. We believe in sustainable development, making
sure that today's progress does not come at tomorrow's expense. Trade-driven
growth need not bring environmental quality down; indeed, trade must maintain
and improve the quality of our environment.
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The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
October 15, 1997, Wednesday, AM cycle
SECTION: Business News
LENGTH: 537 words
HEADLINE: Rubin pushes for fast-track authority
BYLINE: By DENNIS GALE, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: SIOUX FALLS, S.D.
BODY:
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin on Tuesday pressed President Clinton's case
for fast-track trade authority, saying that without it the United States will be
left behind while other nations forge alliances.
Clinton's fast-track authority expired in 1994. If re-established, it would
allow the president to negotiate free-trade agreements under a process that
requires quick congressional consideration and a yes-or-no vote without the
chance for amendments.
In a speech to the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, Rubin said other nations
are making their own deals.
"There is no question these kinds of trade agreements are going to continue
to develop around the world, " Rubin said. "The only question is, will we be part
of the process or will we be on the outside looking in."
To be part of future trade agreements, "the president must have fast-track
authority," Rubin said. He said if Congress doesn't grant it this year, the next
real chance won't come until 2001.
Earlier Tuesday, Rubin told reporters that consumer interest rates should
remain in check. Clinton's deficit reduction program of 1993 resulted in lower
interest rates, Rubin said.
"That's what drove the economic recovery we now have,' " he said. "Ever since
then, interest rates have been relatively low and consistent with the continued
growth. I think they 11 stay there. "
Rubin also said the United States needs to open markets abroad but must
protect its interests "in countries where there are unfair trade impediments."
That's especially important in agriculture, he said. The United States has a
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large trade surplus and is "very competitive" in that sector of the world
economy, Rubin said.
He said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota has introduced
legislation that will let the administration deal with unfair barriers to U.S.
agricultural exports. "That is legislation that we very strongly support," Rubin
said.
Daschle, who accompanied Rubin, said the administration's endorsement for the
legislation he proposed earlier this year makes it likely the bill will become
law.
Agriculture faces more trade barriers than any other sector of the economy
and has the most compliance problems of any sector in international agreements,
he said.
Daschle said his legislation gives top priority to agriculture in all future
U.S. trade negotiations. It's a goal long sought by the U.S. agricultural
community, he said.
The United States and Japan have concluded the second annual review of a
five-year auto trade pact. U.S. trade officials have said they are not happy
with the progress Japan is making toward implementing the agreement.
Nations that participate in the world's markets must have fair trade as well
as free trade, Rubin said, adding that the United States is committed to
removing any trade impediments.
"The Japanese auto talks are one very good example," Rubin said. "Japan has
serious impediments to the export of our automobiles and auto parts to Japan,
and we're committed to try and remove those impediments."
Trade officials have said they were concerned about a decline in the foreign
share of Japan's auto market and a downward trend in the number of new
dealerships offering U.S. cars.
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Copyright 1997 Copley News Service
Copley News Service
October 15, 1997, Wednesday 16:37 Eastern Time
SECTION: Washington - general news
LENGTH: 1178 words
HEADLINE: Clinton calls for narrowing haves/have-nots gap in visit to Shantytown
BYLINE: George E. Condon Jr.
DATELINE: RIO DE JANIERO, Brazil
BODY:
To the poorest of Brazil's children and the richest of its businessmen,
President Clinton Wednesday campaigned for a narrowing of the gap between the
hemisphere's 'haves'' and 'have-nots, calling for greater efforts to make
sure the poor benefit from improved economies throughout the Americas.
That message was delivered most dramatically when Clinton became the first
U.S. president ever to venture into the favellas slums that hold so much of
Brazil's population in the grip of what he called ''poverty, relentless
deprivation, the daily defeat of hope.
There, in a sweltering 100-degree heat and with shirtless residents watching
curiously from the rooftops of the nearby shacks jammed into the hillside,
Clinton called for the creation of a stable middle class.
''It is wrong for only a few to reap the benefits of the wonderful changes
going on while the many remain mired in poverty, he told an audience made up
primarily of children at Mangueira School.
'That is a betrayal of our values of individual integrity and equal
opportunity, and in the end, it will erode faith and democracy in free markets.
And those who have will do better by giving a hand up to those who deserve their
chance, too
Many of the children fidgeted in the heat and were clearly more excited at
the presence of soccer legend Pele now a Brazilian government minister who
preceded Clinton to the stage set up on a soccer field.
But the president's message was not aimed at the children. It was aimed at
what U.S. National Security Adviser Sandy Berger called ''the new breed of
leaders' here who have by and large junked their region's longtime reliance on
command economics and begun to follow the U.S. teachings to build market
economies.
That shift has improved most Latin economies but the benefits generally have
not yet been felt by the poor. It concerns Clinton administration strategists
who fear a continuing rich-poor chasm might undercut their arguments for
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expanded free trade throughout the hemisphere.
To dramatize that concern, Clinton went to the Mangueira favella rather than
to the Brazilian Congress, the favored speech locale for the seven presidents
who made earlier trips here.
In the favella, the president stressed the necessity of building 'here and
elsewhere a great middle class to strengthen democracy and stabilize society.
Earlier, the president was even more pointed, striking the same theme but in
a much different setting. In Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, he urged a group
of well-off, well-dressed business leaders to join his drive to narrow the
inequities between rich and poor.
The backdrop an air-conditioned modernistic ballroom filled with dark-suited
businessmen could not have been more different, but the message was the same.
We must work even harder to bridge the gap between the haves and
have-nots, Clinton said, lamenting what he called ''the age-old curse of Latin
America.
I
This persistent poverty ''has got to be dealt with more seriously, not only
by government but by people in the private sector working in partnership with
government, he said. We have to give everyone who will work for it a place
in the future we are trying to build.
Clinton pledged American leadership in using expanded free trade to help the
poorer countries of the hemisphere ''lift themselves into the ranks of
middle-income countries.
He linked this goal to his campaign for renewed authority to negotiate trade
deals. That authority known as ''fast track' would permit him to hammer out
deals that could not be amended by Congress. Instead, Congress would have to
accept or reject them in their entirety.
Clinton appealed to members of the audience 'representing American
companies'' to lobby Congress, where the fast-track measure faces intense
opposition, much of it from members of Clinton's own party.
''Globalization is irreversible, he said. 'Protectionism will only make
things worse.
(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
But he also touched on criticisms raised by those Democrats who are calling
for more protections for worker rights and the environment in all future trade
deals.
'While we cannot turn back the winds of change, we can and must do more to
harness their force to everyone's advantage and make sure the benefits and
burdens of expanding trade are fairly borne, he said.
Berger told reporters the two speeches were added to the trip because the
president "recognizes that globalization creates winners and losers, that a
rising tide does not lift all the boats equally
and that we must also pursue
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strategies to promote social cohesion and to close the (rich-poor) gap.
Berger said this is what the fast-track debate is about.
(EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Clinton also stressed education as a tool for raising the poor from the slums
of Brazil and neighboring countries. It was that emphasis that drew him to the
Mangueira School, a model program of education and sports that is providing
fresh opportunity to poor children.
Supported by a group of corporate sponsors, led by the Xerox Corp., that
provide $600, 000 a year in contributions, the school provide education and
sports and pushes the students onto to higher education.
If I didn't come here, I think I'd probably be a beggar, said a grateful
Jose (cq) Rodrigues, 14, who attended the speech clad in her pink and green
school gymnastic uniform.
With her eight brothers and sisters, mother and step-father, she lives in a
two-room shanty in the neighborhood visited by Clinton. But because of the
program, she hopes to attend college.
With children like her in mind, the president said the school is ''giving
Mangueira's children a future.
The president also joined six of the students in an Internet hook-up with
students in Woodbridge, Va., an example, he said of the global use of
technology.
And, more playfully, before leaving the school the president was goaded by
Pele and the children into displaying his prowess as a soccer player.
Bouncing the ball confidently off his left knee, Clinton went one-on-one
against a young boy. Looking left, he kicked the ball to the right of the goal.
With a little assist from the goalie, the president scored and received a
congratulatory high-five from Pele.
The adulatory reception he got at the school with schoolgirls reaching up to
kiss him on the face and boys proclaiming him 'really cool' was in contrast to
the scattered protests that greeted him elsewhere in Brazil. On the day after
his limousine was pelted by manure in Brasilia, Clinton drove past some
protesters here chanting, 'Yankee parasite get out of Brazil.
Berger joked about the handful of protesters, contrasting them to the
'hundreds of thousands' who protested some previous U.S. visits. They' re
hardly deserving of the good old days of protest, he said.
After a helicopter tour of Rio and lunch at the famed Copacabana Palace, the
president flew to Argentina, the final country in his current South American
tour.
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Times Publishing Company
St. Petersburg Times
October 15, 1997, Wednesday
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 12A
LENGTH: 424 words
HEADLINE: A Latin America of opportunity
BYLINE: (editorial)
BODY:
President Clinton this week is seeing a Latin America that his predecessors
could only imagine. In several countries that suffered for decades under
authoritarian rule, opposition groups are moving into the mainstream, the courts
are becoming relevant, and economies are diversifying and gathering strength. In
South America, the regional trade group, Mercosur, has brokered economic and
political ties with Europe and Japan. Clinton calls the positive changes a
"quiet revolution." It is one that Washington should not take for granted.
Clinton's overdue visit to South America, the first of his presidency, is
both practical and symbolic. He has proposed new efforts to control drug
trafficking and illegal immigration, and to expand hemispheric trade. Such
themes are predictable, reflecting Clinton's domestic agenda. The president also
has used the pageantry of his state visits to lobby Congress for
"fast-track" trade authority. "It's a tough fight, but I think we'll win it," he
predicted Monday on the flight to Brazil from Venezuela.
Clinton is ever the campaigner. But he should not let domestic politics
overcome the larger purpose of his trip. With the Cold War over, the president
has the luxury to strike deeper and redefine Washington's role in Latin America.
Lower trade barriers are fine. But for a market economy to flourish over time,
Latin America must abandon its rigid class controls and historical cycles of
authoritarian rule.
The president broached the subject Monday, with characteristio timidity.
Venezuelans "understand that they can't preserve their democracy in a
free-market economy," he said, "unless they try to strengthen their social
compact." Clinton has shown little interest in linking human rights to trade,
but the time is right. Why waste the opportunity?
In political terms, the president could soften Democratic opposition to
fast-track by balancing trade with democratic concerns. Clinton should use this
week's trip to refocus the congressional debate. The issue is not just whether
fair-labor and environmental laws belong in bilateral trade pacts. Beyond those
concerns, Washington should be working to bring other regional governments into
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an equal partnership with common democratic beliefs. This trip is providing the
president and all Americans with evidence that many of our hemispheric neighbors
are more prepared for such a partnership than ever before, but they need the
United States' help to build on the political and economic gains they already
have achieved.
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U.S. Newswire
October 14, 1997 16:26 Eastern Time
SECTION: NATIONAL DESK
LENGTH: 2301 words
HEADLINE: Clinton, Cardoso Remarks at Signing of Declaration on Education Part 2
of 4)
CONTACT: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Oct. 14
BODY:
Following is a transcript of remarks by President Clinton and President Cardoso
at signing of declaration on education (Part 2 of 4) :
So here is the question, it seems to me -- and I would like to talk a
little about this because I think it's quite important I think it's very
important that the people of Brazil understand that just as with the trade issue
and Mercosur, the United States would never knowingly make any suggestion that
would undermine the growth of Brazil or any other country. It is not in our
interest. We, after all, only have 4 percent of world's people. We enjoy a very
high standard of living. We can only maintain our own standard of living if you
grow. If there are more good jobs for Brazilians, higher incomes, more people
are brought into the social compact in this country, then you can be a stronger
partner, not only for us, but for your neighbors in this continent and
throughout the world.
So our strategy is to aggressively support the growth of the emerging
economies of the world, the strength of their democracies, and our capacity to
cooperate together. I do not believe that any reasonable person can look at the
world of today and imagine the world of tomorrow and believe that America can
gain by someone else's economic loss. We have an interest in finding a way to
grow together.
By the same token, the world will not gain if some countries limit their
greenhouse gas emissions and other countries grow in the same old way with the
same old energy base so that the climate continues to warm more rapidly than it
has at any time in the last 10,000 years.
So what we want to do is to find a way for the developing countries to
fulfill their responsibilities within the framework of Kyoto, recognizing that
those of us in developed countries must do more, but that we must all
participate. And we want to be very explicit that any participation on your
part would not come at the expense of economic growth.
Developing nations have an opportunity to chart a different energy future
than some of the developed countries. And if we share our technology and we
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share our knowledge, then we can achieve that. This is very important.
Brazil has already gone a long way toward proving this point, because you
have developed so many non-traditional fuels, biologically-based fuels, for
running your vehicles. So you have given evidence to the general point that I
hope will be embraced by all the countries of the developing world. And I
encourage that.
Finally, let me say, we talked about expanding our cooperation in regional
and global security, and I want to say a word of appreciation to Brazil as the
guarantor of the Peru-Ecuador peace process, and appreciation for its historic
decision to join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and to sign the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In all these actions, Brazil has taken its place
as a world leader for peace and security.
Today, the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty we signed will help us to crack
down on drug production and trafficking and fight transnational crime in a way
that benefits all of our people.
President Cardoso said two years ago when he visited me at the White House
and I quote "The vocation of Brazil and the United States is to stand
together. " I believe we stand
together today as never before. The issues we face are central to the well-
being of both our peoples. The fate of our hemisphere, with strong democracies,
a commitment to fight crime and drugs, to work for lasting peace, the future of
the new economy, preparing our people for the 21st century that's what this
trip is all about. These are all objectives we share, and they really matter to
ordinary citizens in both our nations and throughout this hemisphere.
Thank you. (Applause.)
PRESIDENT CARDOSO: President Clinton, I'd like to ask you to begin if you
don't mind.
I Mr. President, Attorney General Reno has made her decision and will
extend her inquiry into your telephone fundraising to determine whether a
special counsel should be named. How do you feel about that hanging over you
for another 60 days at least?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: I feel nothing about it. There is a law and there are
facts. And I feel that it would be much better is she were permitted to do her
job. I know I didn't do anything wrong. I did everything I could to comply
with the law. I feel good about it. But I told you yesterday, the thing I don't
feel good about is the overt, explicit, overbearing attempt to politicize this
whole process and to put pressure on more than one actor in it. That's wrong.
There's a law. There's a fact- finding process. And I'm going to cooperate
with it in every way I possibly can.
Q Mr. Clinton, will the recent between the European Union and Mercosur
affect how you formulate your strategy for commerce in the Americas?
And for President Fernando Enrique, the question is, what is the relative
importance of Europe as far as Brazil's commercial strategy or trade strategies
concerned, especially vis a vis the United States?
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PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, first of all, if I were in Brazil I would be
trying to sell as much as I could to America and to Europe. I think that's the
way this market works. Both the European Union and the United States have
increased our exports to Brazil and to the Mercosur countries in the last few
years markedly. So I don't feel threatened by it, I just want to make sure
we're fully competing. And if we don't fully compete, it will be our fault, not
yours and not Europe's.
That's one of the reasons that I'm seeking fast track authority. It's up to
the United States to decide whether it's going to be a fully competitive nation,
but we have in the last two years, for the first time in a long time, more
than half our new jobs have come in the higher wage categories. And it's the
direct result of our aggressive pursuit of trade opportunities.
So I'm prepared to compete and all I want is a fair chance to compete with
the Europeans here or anywhere else. But I don't see that as a bad thing. If I
were i n your position, I'd be trying to sell more to everybody.
PRESIDENT CARDOSO: Well, I believe that what President Clinton said is most
helpful to us. The more competition we have between the United States and
Europe for trade, the better it is for us because it makes our products much
cheaper. So I agree with President Clinton. It is true that Brazil's number
one individual client is the United States today. But the European Union, as a
whole, or taken as a whole, imports and exports a bit more than the United
States, actually. We are now, as I said before and I'm going to repeat this,
global traders. We actually trade with a number of countries and areas
throughout the world and we're very interested in increasing these trade flows.
With regard to the United States, we have increased such trade flows.
Unfortunately, we have an increasing trade deficit as a result of the increased
trade with the United States. So we have to review this situation and try to
balance it better to the benefit of both. We want to increase imports and
exports. We don't want a zero-sum game and we don't want a game in which one
loses and the other wins. We want a win-win situation in the trade arena.
That is why we say that our trade policy with Europe is very active. It
will continue to be very active. But I agree wholeheartedly with President
Clinton we cannot think about
such economic blocks as isolated fortresses. They have been designed to
increase trade, and we're going to take advantage of every opportunity that we
can find to intensify our trade abroad, to sell things abroad. We will do so
whenever we can. We're not going to close off our economy because our
competitiveness, our progress in the area of technology and the cheapening of
the products for own people depend on such trade.
Thank you
Q Mr. President, in Venezuela your discussions included alternative energy
sources. Here you've also discussed safe or clean energy sources. I wonder,
given that in the United States there is opportunity for improvement in the area
of both energy incentives and also reducing the amount of emissions, do you find
it difficult to discuss this topic while abroad?
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PRESIDENT CLINTON: No, because I don't think the two things are
inconsistent. I think we are a real responsibility in the United States to
do energy conversion. We were on that path, ironically, 20 years ago, when our
experts underestimated the amount of natural gas reserves that would be
available to us in the United States and throughout the world. And we thought
we could move to a clean coal technology and do the job. We now know that that
decision was not accurate. But the people who made the decisions 20 years ago
did it based on the best evidence they had at the time.
So I think we're going to have more reliance on natural gas and other forms
of energy that are even cleaner. And we have to do more conservation. If you
were there at the climate change conference we had at Georgetown a couple of
weeks ago, we learned, among other things, that two-thirds of all the heat
generated in the production of electricity is wasted. If we can recover half of
that waste heat, we will generate enormous new capacity for growth without
adding one single pollutant in the form of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
So we've got a lot to do on our own account.
But as I said let me reiterate what I said. What I want to do is to try
to help the developing countries grow their economy just as fast as would
otherwise be the case, but chart a different energy future than the one we
charted in the past when we were at the same stage of development. And the
question is, can they do that. I think it's absolutely clear, crystal clear
that they can.
And this is a big problem. In China today, bronchial disease is, among
children, the number one health problem for kids in the country already. So
I
want the Chinese economy to grow and the Chinese people to prosper, but I think
they should choose a different energy course for the same growth. And I think
they can and we should be trying to help them. If we don't do it, then no
matter what we in the developed countries do, within 30 to 40 years we'll be
right back in the same pickle we're in today, except worse.
Q I have two questions for both Presidents. For President Clinton, since
1995 both governments have worked on the bilateral trade with you, but so far
they have no concrete results. And the perception is that Brazil is still
complaining about trade barriers and better access to the U.S. market. So I'd
like to know if both Presidents have now a new orientation toward a new phase in
the trade bilateral relationship.
For President Fernando Enrique, my question is, if there is no fast track
authority, if this is not granted, would Brazil be willing to negotiate if
there is no fast track, do you believe that there will be an continuity in the
negotiations of FTAA? And if there isn't, would Mercosur take on this role
in other words, the role of the principal protagonist in terms of trade in the
region?
PRESIDENT CARDOSO: I don't want to make any bets on American policy. If
there is going to be this sort of a policy or not is the United States'
problem. I think that President Clinton is going to be in a position to get the
fast track authority he wants.
But integration, whether we're talking about integration throughout the
hemisphere or Mercosur, are two processes that are very interesting to our
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economies, quite apart from any political issues, which will simply decide the
speed at which such issues are decided. So what President Clinton said was
crystal clear when he talked about his view of Mercosur and FTAA. He said there
is no clash between the two; there is no opposition. There is simply a
situation, and we have to give ourselves enough time so that we will be in a
position to prepare for increased competition. It's just a matter of time,
procedures, SO that we will be in a position to participate fully in
conversations and understandings.
So with or without a fast track authority, the question is, is it good or
bad for us to increase international trade, and the answer is always the same
it's always good to increase international trade. So I would say that the other
factors are just conditioning factors, but the key objectives are out there and
they're unchanging.
We will continue to work to our utmost to consolidate Mercosur, but
simultaneously to work on the FTAA. We signed an agreement in Miami I didn't
sign it myself personally, but I was just the President-elect, but President
Clinton was kind enough to ask me to come and observe. And this is not just a
commitment on paper. It's a real commitment we really want to increase our
trade foundation.
Now, people are talking about the United States, Europe and so forth - -
trade is trade. We have to look at things one question at a time, how we're
going to deal with the interests that are being affected, how can we build
bridges in such a way as to benefit the parties involved. All of this involves
a long construction process.
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Copyright 1997 Associated Press
AP Online
October 14, 1997; Tuesday 13:15 Eastern Time
SECTION: Washington - general news
LENGTH: 786 words
HEADLINE: Clinton Pushes Continental Trade
BYLINE: SONYA ROSS
DATELINE: BRASILIA, Brazil
BODY:
President Clinton, campaigning before reluctant Brazilians for a hemispheric
free-trade zone, said today that a regional pact in South America would not
interfere with U.S. goals.
'Regional trade agreements everywhere if they serve to open borders,
increase economic activities and promote growth promote stability and
opportunity that benefits Americans, the president said.
At a news conference with Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in
front of the low-slung, futuristic Planalto Palace, Clinton openly faced what he
called ''some misunderstanding' about competing trade interests between the
United States and the Mercosur trade bloc.
The Mercosur members Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay have resisted
Clinton's timetable for free-trade talks, preferring first to develop a regional
pact. Today, Clinton asked them not to consider it an either-or choice.
We can ''create a free-trade area of Americas consistent with Mercosur,
Clinton said. ''To me this is a false choice that we don't intend to ask the
Brazilians, the Argentinians and the other members of Mercosur to make.
don't feel threatened by it. I just want to make sure we fully compete,
he added. ''We can build on this and go forward to a free-trade area of the
Americas, he added.
Cardoso called Clinton's candor in their meetings ''a clear sign that we can
reach an understanding.
Reveling in his nation's status with other ''global traders, Cardoso said
U.S. companies would find willing trading partners in Brazil. We want imports
and exports. We don't want the zero sum gain
We want a win-win situation in
the trade arena, he said.
Clinton's visit coincided with U.N. balloting today that elected Brazil to a
two-year term starting Jan. 1. The president congratulated Brazilians and
reiterated his position that Latin America should have a revolving permanent
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seat on the U.N. security council.
On his first trip to South America, Clinton sought to overcome more than just
Mercosur reluctance to his call for creating a free-trade area of the Americas
by 2005. He had also to convince a reluctant Congress back home to give him
''fast-track'" trading authority, which would let him sign trade agreements that
lawmakers must approve or disapprove without amending them.
En route to Brazil Monday, he called the battle tough but winnable.
'It's a principle at stake here, he said. I would be fighting for it if
I thought it had no chance to win.
We made a better case for fast-track just
by being down here
Brazil is the second stop in the president's visit; he will also journey to
Argentina before returning to the United States on Sunday.
Earlier today, U.S. and Brazilian officials signed a declaration meant to
improve access to technology in rural schools, link Brazilian and American
schools by computer, and create a Brazilian equivalent of 'TechCorps, the
volunteer effort to expand technology that Clinton established in 1995.
They also signed cooperative agreements on crime-fighting, environmental
preservation, peaceful use of nuclear energy and space exploration. The space
pact provides that a Brazilian astronaut will join the U.S. space station crew
on one mission.
On trade, the president said that more open markets would bolster living
standards in emerging Latin American democracies as well as Asia, Africa and
around the globe. In Brazil, for example, Clinton noted that trade almost
doubled since 1990 to an estimated $100 billion in 1996, and the U.S. share is a
healthy 20 percent - providing fresh jobs and income to both countries.
But the picture between the United States and Brazil is not all rosy. Stark
economic disparities between rich and poor Brazilians remain, and the poor are
increasingly restive, with many living in slums.
Before Clinton arrived, Brazilians fumed at a U.S. Embassy commercial guide
posted on the Internet that said corruption was endemic here. The embassy
apologized and struck the word 'endemic.
The issue arose again at the presidents' televised news conference today,
when a Brazilian reporter asked Clinton about the pamphlet. Clinton called it an
'appalling error of judgment'' and apologized to the Brazilian people for any
slight.
To reporters traveling with him, Clinton gave advance warning of possible
rough spots in relations with Brazil, but he emphasized they were not
insurmountable.
''If there are a few scratches on the record that you hear as we go in, keep
in mind you have to see this against the background of the historic relationship
between the United States and Brazil, which was much more tense and conflicted
than it is today, Clinton said.
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AP Worldstream
October 14, 1997; Tuesday 03:22 Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 641 words
HEADLINE: Precede CARACAS Clinton sees fast-track victory, commerce across
Americas
BYLINE: SONYA ROSS
DATELINE: BRASILIA, Brazil
BODY:
Predicting a tough but winnable fight with Congress to renew his
'fast-track'' trading authority, President Clinton proclaimed he's ready to
expand the U.S. share of Latin American markets.
''It's a principle at stake here, Clinton said Monday, promoting his visit
to Brazil, the second of three South American countries on his tour. ''I would
be fighting for it if I thought it had no chance to win.
The grand idea of free-flowing commerce across the hemisphere 'relates
centrally to the way I see the world unfolding, and the ties that I've tried to
create for the United States in the Americas, he said.
Clinton was highlighting his push for free trade Tuesday in meetings with
Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso at the low-slung, futuristic
Planalto Palace. They also were expected to sign a declaration on education.
Open trade is the central theme of Clinton's weeklong trip.
'We made a better case for fast-track just by being down here, Clinton
told reporters Monday as he flew from Venezuela to Brazil.
Renewal of Clinton's fast-track authority, which allows him to sign trade
agreements that lawmakers must vote on without amending them, is stuck in a
dispute with members of his own Democratic Party, who want to impose labor and
environmental conditions. Every president since 1974 had fast-track authority
until it lapsed in 1994. Clinton has failed for the past two years to get the
Republican-controlled Congress to renew it.
'It's a tough fight, but I think we'll win, he said of his chances this
year. ''It's really a debate over principle with me.
The president said more trade would bolster living standards in emerging
Latin American democracies as well as Asia, Africa and around the globe. We
are in a new world, he declared.
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AP Worldstream, October 14, 1997
In Brazil, for example, Clinton noted that trade almost doubled since 1990 to
an estimated dlrs 100 billion in 1996, and the U.S. share is a healthy 20
percent providing fresh jobs and income to both countries.
Before a state dinner Monday night, Clinton told Cardoso that Brazil and the
United States, as the two largest nations in the hemisphere, have an obligation
to lead ''this historic revolution under way in the Americas'' of expanding
democratic and market reforms.
'America reaches out to Brazil with the hand of friendship and the pledge of
partnership, Clinton told Cardoso at the foreign ministry.
A delighted Cardoso, who made a state visit to Washington just two years ago,
reminded Clinton, 'There's no substitute for firsthand knowledge and contact
with a country.
But the picture between the United States and Brazil is not all rosy. Stark
economic disparities between rich and poor Brazilians remain, and the poor are
increasingly restive, with many living in slums.
Even before Clinton arrived, Brazilians fumed at a U.S. Embassy commercial
guide posted on the Internet that said corruption was endemic in the country.
The embassy apologized and struck the word 'endemic, and Clinton apologized
for any perceived slights.
''If we did anything we shouldn't have done, I'm sorry, he told reporters,
saying that rough spots in relations with Brazil are not insurmountable.
If there are a few scratches on the record that you hear as we go in, keep
in mind you have to see this against the background of the historic relationship
between the United States and Brazil, which was much more tense and conflicted
than it is today, Clinton said.
The president has made a point at each stop of applauding the spread of
democracy to all nations in the Americas but one Cuba. Monday evening, a noisy
group of pro-Cuba protesters outside the foreign ministry in Brasilia, shouted
their disapproval, ''Clinton out of Brazil!''
The ruckus could be heard inside, but Clinton didn't seem to
ear.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
October 14, 1997, Tuesday, PM cycle
SECTION: Business News
LENGTH: 462 words
HEADLINE: Clinton sees fast-track victory, commerce across Americas
BYLINE: By SONYA ROSS, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: BRASILIA, Brazil
BODY:
Predicting a tough but winnable fight with Congress to renew his
"fast-track" trading authority, President Clinton proclaims he's ready to expand
the U.S. share of Latin American markets.
"It's a principle at stake here, " Clinton said Monday, promoting his visit to
Brazil, the second of three South American countries on his tour. "I would be
fighting for it if I thought it had no chance to win."
The grand idea of free-flowing commerce across the hemisphere "relates
centrally to the way I see the world unfolding, and the ties that I've tried to
create for the United States in the Americas,' he said.
Clinton was highlighting his push for free trade today in meetings with
Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso at the low-slung, futuristic
Planalto Palace. They also were expected to sign a declaration on education.
Open trade is the central theme of Clinton's weeklong trip.
"We made a better case for fast-track just by being down here, If Clinton told
reporters Monday as he flew from Venezuela to Brazil.
Renewal of Clinton's fast-track authority, which allows him to sign trade
agreements that lawmakers must approve without amending them, is stuck in a
dispute with members of his own Democratic Party, who want to impose labor and
environmental conditions. Every president since 1974 had fast-track authority
until it lapsed in 1994. Clinton has failed for the past two years to get the
Republican-controlled Congress to renew it.
"It's a tough fight, but I think we'll win, " he said of his chances this
year. "It's really a debate over principle with me."
The president said more trade would bolster living standards in emerging
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The Associated Press, October 14, 1997
Latin American democracies as well as Asia, Africa and around the globe. "We are
in a new world," he declared.
In Brazil, for example, Clinton noted that trade almost doubled since 1990 to
an estimated $ 100 billion in 1996, and the U.S. share is a healthy 20 percent -
providing fresh jobs and income to both countries.
Before a state dinner Monday night, Clinton told Cardoso that Brazil and the
United States, as the two largest nations in the hemisphere, have an obligation
to lead "this historic revolution under way in the Americas" of expanding
democratic and market reforms.
"America reaches out to Brazil with the hand of friendship and the pledge of
partnership," Clinton told Cardoso at the foreign ministry.
A delighted Cardoso, who made a state visit to Washington just two years ago,
reminded Clinton, "There's no substitute for firsthand knowledge and contact
with a country. "
But the picture between the United States and Brazil is not all rosy. Stark
economic disparities between rich and poor Brazilians remain, and the poor are
increasingly restive, with many living in slums.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Copyright 1997 The Baltimore Sun Company
The Baltimore Sun
October 14, 1997, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: TELEGRAPH (NEWS), Pg. 8A
LENGTH: 797 words
HEADLINE: Brazil, U.S. must be partners in bringing reforms, Clinton says;
President reaches second stop on South American tour, attends state dinner
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
BODY:
BRASILIA, Brazil Flying into Brazil, the second stop on his weeklong South
American visit, President Clinton said yesterday that Brazil and the United
States, as the two largest nations in population in the hemisphere, have an
obligation to lead "this historic revolution under way in the Americas" of
democratic and market reforms.
Before attending a state dinner with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso,
Clinton said: "America reaches out to Brazil with the hand of friendship and the
pledge of partnership.
A delighted Cardoso, who made a state visit to Washington two years ago,
reminded Clinton: "There's no substitute for firsthand knowledge and contact
with a country."
Like Venezuela, Clinton's first stop, Brazil suffers severe economic
inequality, fueling a growing undercurrent of social unrest among the poor.
In his one-day visit to Venezuela, Clinton preached the gospel of open trade
but said more must be done to alleviate poverty and "give everyone a chance to
be a winner in the new economy."
The hillside slums overlooking Caracas' skyscrapers were dramatic evidence of
the economic inequality in the oil-rich country, which has become the United
States' biggest petroleum supplier. Eight of 10 Venezuelans live in poverty,
according to government estimates.
Clinton spoke from the steps of the National Pantheon, the church-like burial
place for South American liberation hero Simon Bolivar and many of Venezuela's
founding fathers. Bolivar led the fight to end Spanish colonial rule in
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and Peru.
"We know the hardships you have endured, but look what you have achieved,"
Clinton said.
He noted Venezuela's triumphs of the ledger -- including having cut its
national debt and inflation in half then promised: "Your determination will
pay off, in more jobs, higher incomes, and better prospects for your children in
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The Baltimore Sun, October 14, 1997
the coming century."
"Our hemisphere is growing closer every day, he declared. "We are joined in
the search for social justice within market economies. And we are all working to
leave our children a planet as healthy and bountiful as the one we inherited."
The president said no nation, including the United States, has found "the
perfect formula" but that education is an important ingredient.
Clinton delighted the crowd of several hundred people by experimenting with
Spanish, to say, "Todo esta chevere en Venezuela!" Roughly translated, it means:
"Everything is cool in Venezuela." His audience cheered.
Eight years ago, Venezuelans went on a rampage through the capital after
price increases of basic foods, in a riot that left at least 300 dead.
Disgruntled military officers mounted two unsuccessful coup attempts in 1992.
And the next year, President Carlos Andres Perez was driven from office on
corruption charges.
Corruption remains a top concern of U.S. businessmen, who lobbied for
Clinton's visit and met privately with him yesterday.
The executives who sell everything from detergent to tires -- say the lack
of an efficient judicial system leaves them vulnerable.
Clinton warned that corruption can undermine a nation's entire effort to
modernize.
Wrapping up his stop in Venezuela, Clinton and President Rafael Caldera
witnessed the signing of agreements to strengthen cooperation in energy
development and combating drugs.
The drug accord gives Venezuela more than $ 11 million in patrol boats and
surveillance planes to help spot smugglers.
The United States and Venezuela also will establish a joint intelligence
center to share information and coordinate anti-drug operations.
Although not a major center in the drug trade, Venezuela is believed by many
law enforcement officials to be a popular site for laundering drug profits, and
its terrain is used to transport narcotics manufactured across the western
border in Colombia.
The United States agreed to give Venezuela $ 500,000 for a study of
greenhouse gases, and to expand Fulbright scholarships to Venezuelan students to
study energy and the environment.
Last year, Venezuela replaced Saudi Arabia as the top U.S. oil supplier.
Because of lingering differences, the two countries were not able to conclude
agreements on investment and taxation, considered important for foreign trade.
Open trade is the central theme of Clinton's trip as well as his campaign
back home to win congressional approval for stronger "fast-track" authority to
negotiate foreign trade deals.
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The Baltimore Sun, October 14, 1997
He said the reality is "that whether we all like it or not, global economic
integration is on a fast track. "
After visits to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Clinton is scheduled to
move on to Argentina on Thursday and to return to Washington on Sunday.
Pub Date: 10/14/97
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Warm greeting: Venezuelan children cheer as
President Clinton arrives at the National Pantheon in Caracas, Venezuela.
Clinton wrapped up his visit to Venezuela yesterday and moved on to Brazil.
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Copyright 1997 Times Printing Company
The Chattanooga Times
October 14, 1997, Tuesday
SECTION: National; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 746 words
HEADLINE: Clinton's visit aids U.S. trade
BYLINE: By Terence Hunt, The Associated Press
BODY:
CARACAS, Venezuela At a monument symbolizing South America's struggle for
freedom, President Clinton preached the gospel of open trade Monday but said
more must be done to alleviate poverty and "give everyone a chance to be a
winner in the new economy."
The hillside slums overlooking Caracas' skyscrapers are dramatic evidence of
the economic inequality in this oil-rich country -- which has become the United
States' biggest petroleum supplier. Eight of 10 Venezuelans live in poverty,
according to government estimates.
"For all the progress we have made together to advance democracy, free
markets and full citizenship, we must acknowledge that a great challenge remains
to make these forces work to the benefit of all our people," Clinton said.
The president said no nation, including the United States, has found "the
perfect formula" but that education is an important ingredient.
Clinton spoke from the steps of the National Pantheon, the church-like burial
place for South American liberation hero Simon Bolivar and many of Venezuela's
founding fathers. Bolivar led the fight to end Spanish colonial rule in
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and Peru.
Apparently for security reasons, a tall screen encircled the courtyard,
blocking it from surrounding buildings and cutting off any breeze on a hot day.
Clinton delighted the crowd of several hundred people by experimenting with
Spanish, to say, "Todo esta chevere en Venezuela!" Roughly translated, it means
"Everything is cool in Venezuela." His audience cheered.
From Venezuela, Clinton flew to Brazil, second stop on his week-long visit to
South America that will include Argentina.
Before a state dinner at Brasilia, Clinton told President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso that Brazil and the United States, as the two largest nations in the
hemisphere, have an obligation to lead "this historic revolution underway in the
Americas" of democratic and market reforms.
"America reaches out to Brazil with the hand of friendship and the pledge of
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The Chattanooga Times, October 14, 1997
partnership," Clinton told Cardoso at the foreign ministry.
A delighted Cardoso, who made a state visit to Washington just two years ago,
reminded Clinton, "There's no substitute for firsthand knowledge and contact
with a country."
Like Venezuela, Brazil also suffers severe economic inequality, fueling a
growing undercurrent of social unrest among the poor. Even before Clinton
arrived, Brazilians fumed at a U.S. Embassy commercial guide posted on the
Internet that said corruption was endemic in the country.
The embassy apologized and struck the word "endemic."
Wrapping up his stop in Venezuela, Clinton and President Rafael Caldera
witnessed the signing of agreements to strengthen cooperation in energy
development and combating drugs.
The drug accord gives Venezuela more than $11 million in patrol boats and
surveillance planes to spot smugglers. The United States and Venezuela also will
establish a joint intelligence center to share information and coordinate
anti-drug operations.
The United States agreed to give Venezuela $500,000 for a study of greenhouse
gases, and to expand Fulbright scholarships to Venezuelan students to study
energy and the environment.
Last year Venezuela replaced Saudi Arabia as the top U.S. oil supplier.
"For the last 80 years, Venezuela has been a rock of stability, staying out
of the oil embargo (in 1973), stepping in to boost production in moments of
crisis from World War II to the Gulf War, Clinton said.
Because of lingering differences, the two countries were not able to conclude
agreements on investment and taxation, considered important for foreign trade.
Open trade is the central theme of Clinton's trip as well as his campaign
back home to win congressional approval for stronger "fast track" authority to
negotiate foreign trade deals.
The president said that open markets hold the promise of more jobs and higher
living standards. But he added that no nation, including the United States, has
found "the perfect formula for growing a free economy while preserving and
extending the social contract for all our people.'
"That is why we must work harder together to alleviate poverty, lift the
conditions of working people throughout the hemisphere and give everyone a
chance to be a winner in the new economy," Clinton said.
He said the reality is "that whether we all like it or not, global economic
integration is on a fast track. "
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Copyright 1997 The Dallas Morning News
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
October 14, 1997, Tuesday, HOME FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6A
LENGTH: 927 words
HEADLINE: Free trade inevitable, Clinton says;
Venezuela gets reassurance about hemispheric zone
BYLINE: Kathy Lewis, Washington Bureau of The Dallas Morning News
DATELINE: CARACAS, Venezuela
BODY:
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Clinton, responding to critics of a proposed
free trade zone from Alaska to Argentina, said Monday that global economic
integration is on a fast track whether everyone likes it or not.
"And, therefore, we must give all our people the tools necessary to compete
and succeed in it," he said.
Mr. Clinton, speaking from the steps of the bisque-colored National Pantheon
where liberator Simon Bolivar is buried, told a crowd of 2,000 that the
19th-century hero was the first to imagine a hemisphere of democracies.
But even as he was applauded, there was considerable debate under way in
Brazil, the second stop on his South American tour, about his trade policies and
visit.
Well before Air Force One landed in the capital of Brasilia on Monday night,
critics renewed their contentions that plans to create a hemispheric free trade
zone by 2005 would weaken Mercosur, the regional trade pact Brazil has with
Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Some Brazilian magazines and newspapers have blasted U.S. officials for
everything from Secret Service security demands to an embassy brochure for
business leaders that described "endemic" corruption in Brazil. The wording
later was modified.
Aboard Air Force One, en route to Brazil, Mr. Clinton said he didn't believe
he would get a bad reception there, but he noted that historically there have
been strained relations between the two countries.
"The relationship that I hope that we have with Brazil is better than it's
been in a very long time
maybe ever, and the relationship we need to build
with Brazil is critical to the future, " he said.
But at the first stop on the president's South American tour, Venezuelan
President Rafael Caldera accorded him the rare honor of speaking at the
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THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, October 14, 1997
Pantheon, where no foreign leader previously had addressed an audience.
Paying tribute to Bolivar, who led Venezuela and other nations to
independence from Spain, Mr. Clinton said the hemisphere is growing closer every
day.
The president's three-nation South America trip occurs just six months before
the Summit of the Americas, which is scheduled for April in Chile. By then, he
hopes to have received broad trade-negotiating authority from Congress.
The so-called fast-track authority means he could negotiate comprehensive
trade agreements that Congress could accept or reject, but not modify.
Those plans have been met with stiff opposition, particularly in Mr.
Clinton's own political party.
And even though the 34 democratic nations of the hemisphere have committed to
achieving that goal by 2005, skeptics on both sides of the equator question
whether it would help or hurt South American nations.
In his speech, Mr. Clinton said the economies of nations and the well-being
of their citizens will become increasingly intertwined, regardless of trade
agreements.
"While we do not have all the answers, we do know we must begin with the
reality that whether we all like it or not, global integration is on a fast
track, If he said.
The president also sought to address concerns that a hemispheric free trade
pact would harm segments of the population.
"The speedy exchange of goods, ideas and investment will bring benefits of
the new economy to all people, including the people of Venezuela - from the oil
workers of Monagas to the ranchers of Llanos to the entrepreneurs of Maracaibo,'
he said.
But Mr. Clinton cautioned that no democracy has yet found a perfect formula
for improving the economy while "preserving and extending the social contract
for all our people."
More must be done to alleviate poverty and to make sure everyone has a
chance, he said.
Mr. Clinton's day began by meeting privately with business leaders and then
witnessing the signing of cooperative agreements on energy and on combating
drug-trafficking.
Venezuela has become the largest foreign supplier of oil for the United
States and one of the biggest investors in the U.S. refining and gasoline retail
market. The Venezuelan company Citco, for example, has 15,000 U.S. service
stations.
Venezuela is seeking $ 30 billion in private investments for its oil industry
over the next 10 years.
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THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, October 14, 1997
U.S. Energy Secretary Federico Pena said that the new energy agreement builds
on a previous one and broadens the cooperation to areas such as energy
efficiency, renewable energy and regulation.
Under the new "Alliance Against Drugs, Venezuela and the United States plan
to exchange more intelligence information, curb money laundering, try to
decrease the demand for drugs and improve judicial and law enforcement anti-drug
efforts. The United States plans to give $ 11.5 million in equipment and
training for Venezuela to use in its drug fight.
Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said
Venezuela sits on one of the principal drug smuggling routes for heroin and
cocaine produced in Colombia.
U.S. and Venezuelan officials were unable to finish an investment treaty in
time for Mr. Clinton's visit.
Before addressing the outdoor crowd in front of the Pantheon, Mr. Clinton
placed a giant wreath of zinnias and carnations at Bolivar's tomb. The National
Youth Orchestra, a group established for low-income children, then played the
U.S. and Venezuelan national anthems and a John Philip Sousa march.
Mr. Clinton barely had stepped up to the microphone before he tried out a
little Spanish. "Todo esta chevere en Caracas. Todo esta chevere en
Venezuela," he said, declaring that everything is "cool" in Caracas and in
Venezuela.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (S) : (1-2 Associated Press) 1. President Clinton and Venezuelan
President Rafael Caldera arrive at the National Pantheon in Caracas on Monday.
Mr. Clinton became the first foreign leader to speak at the site. 2. Reaching
out in Venezuela: President Clinton shakes hands with members of the crowd
Monday after addressing the Venezuelan people from the steps of the National
Pantheon in Caracas. (Story on Page 6A.) (2ST-1A.)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Copyright 1997 The Financial Times Limited
Financial Times (London)
October 14, 1997, Tuesday LONDON EDITION 1
SECTION: NEWS: THE AMERICAS; Pg. 08
LENGTH: 583 words
HEADLINE: Clinton praise for region's democracy
VOW ON LATIN AMERICAN INTEGRATION:
BYLINE: By Raymond Colitt in Caracas
DATELINE: Caracas
BODY:
President Bill Clinton yesterday praised Latin America's advances in
strengthening democracy and market economies, and promised to renew US efforts
to push ahead with regional integration.
His speech in Venezuela, at the beginning of a week-long trip through South
America, was intended to showcase the benefits of trade with Latin America and
address concerns in the US Congress over the region's readiness for trade pacts
with the US.
"Every nation in the Americas but one has embraced democracy, giving its
people a vibrant free press, free elections and the rule of law. Decades of
coups and bloody civil wars have given away to the peaceful transition of power.
Stifling command economies have been replaced by free markets,' said Mr Clinton.
In an apparent allusion to US congressional concerns about authorising
fast-track trade negotiations, Mr Clinton also highlighted the efforts of
Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera in the fight against corruption and drugs.
The US administration wants fast-track to pursue trade pacts with Chile and
subsequently other South American nations.
Venezuela has played part in 'this quiet revolution'
"I am seeking the fast-track negotiating authority from Congress that every
American president has had for over 20 years so we can work with our partners to
open markets, create jobs and raise living standards for all,' said Mr Clinton.
In press briefings to US journalists accompanying Mr Clinton, cabinet members
went out of their way to underscore the close and beneficial trade links with
Latin American countries.
"For every 1 per cent growth in Latin American economy, US exports are over $
5bn [£3bn] in terms of goods and services to Latin America, and those support
100, 000 jobs in the United States,' said Federico Pena, US secretary of energy.
He pointed to the large investment opportunities for US oil companies in
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Financial Times (London) October 14, 1997, Tuesday
Venezuela.
Oil giants, including Exxon, Texaco, and Mobil, are part of a $ 30bn oil
advance into Venezuela.
Underscoring the benefits of trade in reducing US dependence on Middle East
oil, the US has emphasised that Venezuela is its main supplier of oil, and
through its state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the seventh
largest investor in the United States. Venezuelan exports to the US are
approximately $ 13bn.
For Venezuela, Mr Clinton's 23-hour stopover was a welcome recognition of its
status as the region's principal energy supplier. However the two countries
failed to reach a final agreement on investment protection and double taxation,
but instead pledged to continue their negotiations.
The US had linked the talks to Venezuela's progress on intellectual property
right protection, on which Caracas asked to be recognised for what it called a
"best effort".
"A double tax treaty is very important but implies a series of conditions
that are vital to our national interests,' said Mr Caldera in an interview.
Mr Clinton also pointed to the benefits for Latin American countries in
embracing free trade and market economies. The rewards of hardship and reform,
he told a crowd before the tomb of independence fighter Simon Bolivar in Caracas
in reference to recent austerity measures, "will pay off in more jobs, higher
income, and better prospects for your children in the coming century. Venezuela
played an "extraordinary part in this quiet revolution of the Americas", which
was paving the way for a hemispheric free trade area by the year 2005, he said.
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Copyright 1997 Gannett Company, Inc.
USA TODAY
October 14, 1997, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 9A
LENGTH: 839 words
HEADLINE: Clinton pushes 'fast-track' during visit to Venezuela
BYLINE: Bill Nichols; Paul Leavitt; With staff and wire reports
BODY:
President Clinton, ending a 24-hour state visit to Venezuela on
Monday, called for a free-trade area "from Alaska to Argentina"
by 2005. He used his visit to again pitch for "fast-track" authority
for him to negotiate trade agreements that Congress could then
only approve or reject, but not change.
Aware that many Democrats supported by labor and environmental
activists oppose trade pacts without protections for workers and
the environment, Clinton said that "whether we all like it or
not, global economic integration is on a fast track." He urged
Venezuelans to work with the United States "to intensify our
efforts for economic growth, social justice and environmental
protection."
The crowd of about 1,500 at Clinton's speech in downtown Caracas
was startlingly small. When it was apparent the plaza would be
only about one-third filled, White House aides tried to hustle
passers-by in off the street.
Late Monday, Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton flew
to Brasilia, Brazil. Bill Nichols
VOTER FRAUD: Nearly 60% of voter registrations by the immigration-rights
group Hermandad Mexicana Nacional were non-citizens ineligible
to vote, California Secretary of State Bill Jones said after an
investigation that is part of a disputed congressional election.
Jones said the group's rate of non-citizen registrations far exceeded
any other organization. Former representative Bob Dornan, a nine-term
Republican, contends his 984-vote loss to Democrat Loretta Sanchez
resulted from illegal voting by ineligible people. The House voted
this month to urge the Justice Department to bring criminal charges
against Hermandad Mexicana Nacional for defying a subpoena in
the election dispute.
CYBER SECURITY: A federal panel that was to report Monday
on how to protect critical on-line systems from attacks was granted
an extension to Oct. 20. The President's Commission on Critical
Infrastructure Protection will urge measures by the government
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and private sector to protect computers that serve such areas
as banking, the power grid and telecommunications.
NEW CHIEF: Command Sgt. Major Robert Hall was named sergeant
major of the Army, the highest noncommissioned officer whose job
is to advise the Army chief of staff on conditions and concerns
of the Army's 400,000 enlisted personnel. Hall replaces Gene McKinney,
who was removed from the post last week as the Army prepares to
try him on charges of sexual misconduct. McKinney denies wrongdoing.
Hall, a native of Gaffney, S.C., is only the 11th person to hold
the title. He was appointed by Gen. Dennis Reimer, the Army chief
of staff. During 27 years in the Army, Hall has served in Germany,
Korea and in the Persian Gulf War. His most recent post was as
command sergeant major of the U.S. Central Command at MacDill
Air Force Base in Florida.
BAKER LOBBIES FOR TOBACCO: Former Senate majority leader
Howard Baker, whose first wife died of lung cancer and other health
problems, has become a lobbyist for five tobacco companies seeking
a liability settlement with the states and Congress, The Knoxville
News-Sentinel said. Baker is comfortable with the work because
he "believes it is good for public health," an associate said.
ALSO
PROTOCOL CHIEF: President Clinton has nominated long-time
Arkansas associate Mary "Mel" French to head the State Department's
protocol office. She would replace Molly Raiser, who retired.
French coordinated Clinton's volunteer campaign during his 1990
gubernatorial race and helped run his first presidential inauguration
in 1992.
CALIFORNIA SENATE RACE: Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.,
tops three potential Republican challengers but has only a 43%
job approval rating, a Los Angeles Times poll found. Boxer's
ahead of state Treasurer Matt Fong 49% to 37%, San Diego Mayor
Susan Golding 48% to 34%, and businessman Darrell Issa 51% to
31%. "These are not stellar numbers," said poll director Susan
Pinkus.
Jones' mother questioned in pre-trial
Paula Jones accompanied her mother to a Little Rock lawyer's office
where President Clinton's attorneys began pre-trial questioning
of potential witnesses in Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against
the president.
First up was Jones' mother, Delmer Lee Corbin of Cabot, Ark. A
sister, Lydia Cathey, is scheduled to be questioned today. Details
of the testimony aren't being disclosed, but among the things
Clinton's lawyers want to know is what Jones told friends and
relatives about her allegation that Clinton exposed himself to
her and asked for oral sex in a hotel room in 1991 when he was
Arkansas governor and she was a state employee. He denies the
accusation.
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Clinton's strategy is to portray Jones as a money-grubbing liar
bankrolled by his political enemies who are out to embarrass and
humiliate him. Jones, through subpoenas to women reputed to have
had sexual relations with Clinton, is seeking to portray him as
a chronic adulterer.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, B/W, Ruth Fremson, AP; PHOTO, B/W, U.S. Army; PHOTO, B/W, AP
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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The Washington Times
October 14, 1997, Tuesday, Final Edition
SECTION: Part A; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 841 words
HEADLINE: Clinton ties social justice to fast-track trade policy;
In Venezuela, he adopts Gephardt stance
BYLINE: Warren P. Strobel; THE WASHINGTON TIMES
DATELINE: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
BODY:
CARACAS, Venezuela - Switching gears on a key policy question, President
Clinton said yesterday that the drive for free trade must be paired with
protections for the less-well-off who are suddenly thrust into the global
economy.
"Whether we like it or not, global integration is on a fast track, " Mr.
Clinton said yesterday in a speech here in the Venezuelan capital.
But, he added, "we must also recognize that no democracy, including the
United States, has yet found the perfect formula for growing a free economy
while preserving and extending the social contract for all our people. That is
why we must work harder to alleviate poverty, lift the conditions of working
people throughout the hemisphere and give everyone a chance to be a winner in
the new economy."
Mr. Clinton delivered his message that "social justice" should be a goal of
trade policy before flying off to Brasilia, Brazil, yesterday afternoon for the
second leg of his three-country South American tour. His text appeared aimed as
much at politicians in Washington as at his audience in South America.
Many in the president's own Democratic Party, allied with the AFL-CIO, and
even a number of conservative Republicans have pressed the administration to
include human rights, labor standards and environmental protections in trade
negotiations.
House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, a potential contender for the
2000 Democratic presidential nomination, received a rousing reception from
organized labor last month when he showed pictures of the horrific conditions he
encountered on a visit to the Mexican border - the byproduct, he said, of
unchecked free trade.
Mr. Gephardt has scored political points by insisting that the
"fast-track" negotiating authority to cut trade deals that Mr. Clinton wants be
accompanied by requirements for binding worker protections and environmental
standards.
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The president used the phrase "social justice" or "social contract" three
times in his relatively brief Caracas address. He spoke in front of the
National Pantheon, the burial place of Simon Bolivar, who liberated much of the
continent from Spanish rule.
The gap between rich and poor is a major concern throughout South America,
where land and industrial assets are often held in a few hands and millions work
and live in poverty, without access to education or health care.
Deputy National Security Adviser Jim Steinberg said the president would
sound the theme repeatedly as he travels in Brazil and Argentina over the next
six days.
Trade will be the major item on his agenda in Brazil, where many are wary
that Washington wants to dictate terms for a hemispheric free-trade area.
But aside from an emphasis on education as a way to spread the benefits of
economic growth, Mr. Clinton appears to have few concrete plans to offer. And
adopting Mr. Gephardt's position on fast track would only alienate the
congressional Republicans whose support he desperately needs.
From Venezuela, Mr. Clinton flew yesterday to Brazil, the second stop in
his weeklong visit to South America. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso was
host for a state dinner in Brazil's capital city. The president also will visit
Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro before moving on to Argentina.
Earlier yesterday, Mr. Clinton and Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera
witnessed the signing of agreements to cooperate in energy development and the
fight against drug trafficking. Venezuela is a major transit point for drugs,
with U.S. officials estimating that more than 100 metric tons of cocaine and 10
metric tons of heroin pass through the country yearly.
Then the two presidents went by motorcade to the Pantheon, where Mr.
Clinton, accompanied by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, laid an enormous
wreath at Bolivar's tomb.
While Mr. Clinton usually attracts huge crowds when he travels abroad, the
plaza where he addressed "the people of Venezuela" was only half full yesterday.
People filed in and out as he spoke, more intrigued by the sight of a U.S.
president than held rapt by his words.
But the crowd, which could not have numbered more than 1,500, broke into
applause when the U.S. president told them, "Todo esta chevere en Caracas.
Todo esta chevere en Venezuela" - Spanish for "Everything is fantastic in
Caracas. Everything is fantastic in Venezuela.'
There were more cheers when Mr. Clinton lauded Venezuela for its
"world-class baseball players.' Among the best known is Cleveland Indians
shortstop Omar Vizquel, who has been causing headaches for the Baltimore Orioles
in the American League Championship Series.
Mr. Clinton repeatedly invoked the memory of Bolivar, the continent's
revered "liberator," and his dream of a hemisphere free and at peace.
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"Our hemisphere is growing closer every day," said Mr. Clinton, the first
foreign leader to speak at the spot. "Driven by shared values and common
purposes, we have put the age-old dream of a democratic and prosperous family
of the Americas within our reach."
GRAPHIC: Photo, Venezuelan children cheer yesterday as President Clinton arrives
at the National Pantheon in Caracas for a speech. He then departed for Brazil.,
By AP
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Copyright 1997 U.S. Newswire, Inc.
U.S. Newswire
October 13, 1997 13:10 Eastern Time
SECTION: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DESKS
LENGTH: 1671 words
HEADLINE: Transcript of Clinton Remarks to the People of Venezuela
CONTACT: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Oct. 13
BODY:
Following is a transcript of remarks made by President Clinton today to the
people of Venezuela:
Plaza El Panteon
Caracas, Venezuela
11:10 A.M. (L)
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, let me begin by thanking you for your warm
introduction and your invitation to speak at this sacred place. I am deeply
honored to be the first foreign leader ever to address the people of Venezuela
at the Tomb of Simon Bolivar.
To the people of this city, I thank you for the extraordinary welcome you have
given to Hillary and me, and to our entire delegation. Todo esta chevere en
Caracas. (Applause.) Todo esta chevere en Venezuela. (Applause. )
Let me welcome especially all the young people who have come here today and
say a special word of appreciation to the National Youth Orchestra, which played
our National Anthems and my favorite march so magnificently. It is to the young
and their future that I wish to speak on this day. (Applause.)
It is especially fitting that we meet here at the Panteon National, for the
liberator belongs not only to Venezuela and the other nations of the Andes,
Bolivar belongs to all the Americas. He stands alongside Washington and San
Martin and the pantheon of liberty's heroes. He was the first to imagine a
hemisphere of democracies, united by shared goals and common values. His
example stirred the hearts of men and women throughout our region. Indeed,
today we in the United States can still mark the frontier of our nation in the
1820s by finding our towns, our counties, our villages named Bolivar in the
states of Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. When the liberator died,
his vision of freedom and peace in the Americas seemed an impossibility. How I
wish he were here today to see his spiritual heirs here in Venezuela and
throughout the Americas turning his dream into a reality.
Our hemisphere is growing closer every day. Driven by shared values and
common purposes, we have put the age-old dream of a democratic and prosperous
family of the Americas within our reach. In the last decade, every nation in the
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Americas but one has embraced democracy, giving its people a vibrant free press,
free elections and the rule of law. Decades of coups and bloody civil wars have
given way to the peaceful transition of power. Stifling command economies
have been replaced by free markets, giving innovation and more jobs and higher
incomes. We are joined in the search for social justice within market
economies. And we are all working to leave our children a planet as healthy and
bountiful as the one we inherited.
I come here today to salute the people of Venezuela for the extraordinary
part you are playing in this quiet revolution of the Americas, and especially to
salute President Caldera for a lifetime of leadership for liberty. You, Mr.
President, have carried the torch that Bolivar lit for more than half a century,
and we are all in your debt. (Applause.)
Other nations in our hemisphere have been drawn to the path you have
blazed. For Venezuela is a world center of energy oh, yes, petroleum, but
also energy for peace and freedom; energy for democracy and prosperity; and I
might add, energy for world-class baseball players. (Applause.)
Your democracy has weathered powerful challenges, but never wavered.
Under the leadership of President Caldera, you are building a state that is
popular, just and moral; a state in which, as Bolivar said, the rule of law will
signify the triumph of equality and freedom.
Americans look to Venezuela and see a growing economy, renewed and
strengthened by sacrifice. We know the hardships you have endured, but look
what you have achieved. you have cut your debt and cut inflation by more than
half. You are moving industries into the competitive free market. You are
opening your doors to foreign investment to create new opportunities for
Venezuelan workers. And your determination will pay off, in more jobs, higher
incomes, and better prospects for your children in the coming century.
We Americans also look to Venezuela and see an example of how different
people can come together as one community and one nation. On this day, we recall
the moment when Columbus joined the peoples of the Old World and the New World.
Venezuela shows all of us how we can draw strength from the joining of different
peoples.
From Bosnia to Central Africa, from Northern Ireland to the Middle East,
one of the greatest challenges to peace and freedom in the world comes from
people who hate others because of their religious or racial or ethnic
differences. And they claim those differences as justification for taking away
their political rights, their homes, their freedom, sometimes even their very
lives.
Venezuela has shown us a better way. Here, the children of Europeans,
indigenous Americans, and Africans live together as one people. Here, every
Venezuelan is a ciudadano. (Applause.)
For all the progress we have made together to advance democracy, free
markets and full citizenship, we much acknowledge that a great challenge remains
to make these forces work to the benefit of all our people. To do that we will
have to intensify our efforts for economic growth, social justice and
environmental protection and against the common threats to our security.
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At the Summit of the Americas in Miami, our nations pledged to create a
free trade area of the Americas by 2005, uniting the creative energies of 800
million of us, from Alaska to Argentina. We will tear down the barriers of
the past and open wide the doors of the 21st century. (Applause.)
The speedy exchange of goods, ideas and investment will bring benefits of
the new economy to all people, including the people of Venezuela - - from the
oil workers of Monagas to the ranchers of Llanos to the entrepreneurs of
Maracaibo.
I want the United States to do its part, and I am seeking the fast track
negotiating authority from Congress that every American President has had for
over 20 years, so that we can work with our partners to open markets, create
jobs and raise living standards for all. (Applause.)
We must also recognize that no democracy, including the United States, has
yet found the perfect formula for growing a free economy while preserving and
extending the social contract for all our people. That is why we must work
harder together to alleviate poverty, lift the conditions of working people
throughout the hemisphere and give everyone a chance to be a winner in the new
economy.
While we do not have all the answers, we do know we must begin with the
reality that whether we all like it or not, global economic integration is on a
fast track. And, therefore, we must give all our people the tools necessary to
compete and succeed in it.
Because we want all our people to succeed we have, from the Summit of the
Americas in Miami to next year's summit in Santiago, put education at the center
of our cooperation. All our children must be ready for tomorrow. (Applause.)
And we owe it to our children to see that today's progress does not come at
tomorrow's expense. We must do more all across the Americas to improve our
stewardship of the environment, clean our air, clear our water, keep toxic
chemicals out of our soil and reduce the volume of greenhouse gases we put into
our atmosphere, risking dramatic and dangerous changes in the climate for our
children and our grandchildren. (Applause.)
And just as we work together to seize the opportunities of this new era, SO
we must also move together swiftly and strongly against the new threats it has
produced. In both our countries drugs poison our children and threaten our
neighborhoods. The United States is working to reduce drug demand at home and
to attack drugs all along the pipeline that brings them into our streets and our
schools. Today our government signed wide-ranging agreements that join us in an
alliance against drugs. Thank you, Venezuela, for the tough stand you are
taking in this fight for our common future. (Applause.)
And I thank President Caldera for leading this hemisphere in the fight
against corruption. Corruption destroys confidence and fragile democracies,
erodes free markets, saps the strength of law enforcement. It undermines all we
are working SO hard to build. Venezuela's leadership has lead to a common
commitment to fight corruption, to beat it back, to stamp it out. (Applause.)
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To the people of Venezuela, I want you to know the United States is
determined to work with you in a spirit of respect and equality, as friends and
partners, to claim the benefits and carry the burdens of this new era.
(Applause.)
Now, on this day when we remember Columbus' remarkable arrival over 500
years ago in the Americas, we embark on a new voyage toward a new century and a
new millennium, steering our course by the stars of freedom and democracy,
partnership and respect, prosperity and security, not for just a few, but for
all our citizens. (Applause.)
Here, before the Tomb of Simon Bolivar, let us pledge to redeem in full the
vision of the liberator. More than 160 years ago, he spoke to us of a Western
Hemisphere that commanded envy and respect, as he said, "not so much by virtue
of her ahead and wealth, but by her freedom and her glory. "
Today, I pledge to you, hijos de Bolivar, that by our work, now and into
the new millennium, we will secure that freedom, and with it, the glory of all
the people of the Americas.
Thank you and God bless you. (Applause.)
END 11:40 A.M. (L)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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U.S. Newswire
October 13, 1997 20:27 Eastern Time
SECTION: NATIONAL DESK
LENGTH: 1847 words
HEADLINE: Transcript of Clinton Remarks to Press Pool Aboard Air Force One Part
2 of 2)
CONTACT: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Oct. 13
BODY:
Following is a transcript of remarks made by President Clinton today to the
press pool aboard Air Force One (Part 2 of 2) :
Q Can I switch the subject? Back to Brazil, where do you think this American
bashing is coming from? How do you account for it?
THE PRESIDENT: You mean, the recent press lately? Well, I don't know.
There is some speculation that there were some problems with the advance team in
Brasilia, something like that. Is that right? I don't know about that. I
can't comment on it. But this is a rather challenging trip for the advance team
because we have SO many members of Congress and so many Cabinet members. It's
sort of a big group to move around.
I hope that our people haven't done anything inappropriate. I know that
that's something we worked very, very hard on. When I became President, I heard
sort of generic criticisms that often the Presidential team everywhere, I
don't mean my predecessor; I mean, just generically sometimes they were
thought to be a little overbearing.
So we've done a lot of kind of training work on that topic, and we try not to
do that. So I don't know anything about the facts. If we did anything we
shouldn't have done, I'm sorry. But I can tell you this, the relationship that
I hope that we have with Brazil is better than it's been in a very, very long
time, maybe ever but certainly in a long time. And the relationship we need
to build with Brazil is
If you go back to Ron Brown's list of 10 emerging nations, go back to
anybody's analysis of which countries will really have a huge impact on the
future, particularly for us in our back yard, Brazil is one of them and one of
the leading potential candidates for a much larger role in the world in the 21st
century. And I view that as a positive thing.
I think it's an exciting, interesting place with a fabulous culture great
music. I was down here listening to my Brazilian music I brought along with me.
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Q You brought some?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes.
Q What did you bring?
THE PRESIDENT: I've got a lot of my old Antonia Carlos Sabim (phonetic)
records. But I also have some newer records back at the house. I left some of
them back.
I feel basically quite positive. I think Cardoso has been an exceptional
leader defending Brazil's national interests, understanding its unique
challenges, and trying to form a constructive partnership with us while building
a Mercosur alliance and reaching out to other countries on the South American
continent. So I feel very upbeat.
But if there are a few scratches on the record that you hear as we go in,
keep in mind you have to see this against the background of the historic
relationship between the United States and Brazil, which was much more tense and
conflicted than it is today.
Q Mr. President, for the average person back home, what would you hope that
he or she would draw from your experiences that you're having here in South
America the trip itself, your message?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I would hope that the average person would think, number
one, it's a good thing for America that these countries believe in democracy and
free markets, because that means that it's less likely that we'll have the kind
of difficulties we had 30 or 40 years actually going back to the beginning of
the century in the Americas because of political upheavals, military
dictatorships, things of that kind.
Number two, I am convinced that there is an increasing determination among
the South Americans to join us in a common fight against drug trafficking and
crime, and that's important.
Number three, I hope they will see through your reporting and the pictures
you send back that there is an enormous amount of economic potential down here,
and it's a great market for America's goods and services, and we ought to be
selling more to these people.
They have been very willing to buy our products. Seventy percent of our
increase in trade in the last year has come from Canada to the tip of South
America, and we need to do more. I hope that and I hope all of you when you
leave here will think that we made a better case for fast track just by being
down here, just by seeing the enormous economic potential and how the Latin
Americans can use things that we have to sell in ways that benefit us both.
Q until now?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think there are a lot of reasons. But I think one
problem is, there is a lot of residual over NAFTA. The people who were against
NAFTA are against this. But in the case of NAFTA, you had Mexico on our border
with 100 million people and a set of very specific terms in the trade agreement,
SO that there were a lot of winners as well as people who thought they were
going to lose. So the scales of the debate were more evenly balanced.
Plus the other consequences the political consequences, the immigration
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consequences, the drug consequences --as well as the economic benefits, were all
much more stark and immediate with Mexico and NAFTA.
The fast track vote is a process vote to give the President the power to
present other trade agreements to the Congress. Two categories of them have
generally been very popular with both Democrats and Republicans that is,
anything that expands global trade under the WTO, which is good for us because
we're competitive; and sector-specific agreements like the information
technology agreement we negotiated, which is going to create tens of thousands,
maybe even a couple hundred thousand good American jobs in the next few years.
The third category is where the controversy is. It would give Ambassador
Barshefsky the ability to try to negotiate an agreement with other individual
countries, except here, the people who weren't for NAFTA or the people who think
that it didn't work or the people who were worried about something else, they
have their worries out there, but we don't yet have the specific benefits out
there, except in a conjecture because I don't have an agreement. NAFTA was a
specific agreement.
So, in a way, the opposition can burn a little whiter heat and show a little
more intensity. And I think that that's a difficult thing for us.
I also think, in fairness to the Democrats, we have raised the issue all
of us, I'm not using the Presidential "we" our party standards and
environmental standards should have in the trade equation. And we're having an
in-house debate about what the best way to do that is.
You know, Senator Moynihan, for example, who's got a very strong pro- labor
record at home and abroad and a very strong trade record, thinks that there
shouldn't be trade sanctions applied for specific environmental or labor issues,
but we ought to be able to go at it in other ways.
Mr. Gephardt believes we shouldn't have another trade agreement unless it
contains trade sanctions for labor and environmental reasons, or at least that
we ought to try to negotiate that.
What I tried to do is to leave most of our options open there SO that I could
get the best agreement I can, but knowing that, regardless, I'm not going to
negotiate an agreement that I do not believe is in the best interest of the
United States. Congress will be able to review it and decide whether it helps
create jobs and a better future for us.
And I think that engaging these countries will increase our ability to
influence them as they try to raise labor standards and deal with environmental
issues.
The Venezuelans we were talking they understand that they can't
preserve their democracy in a free market economy unless they try to strengthen
the social compact. They've got to figure out a way for more people to do well
and they've got to figure out an intergenerational strategy that not only
supports education for children but protects the environment.
So I think that we're going in the right direction the direction that the
opponents of fast track want to go in; that is, those that are really interested
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in the labor and environmental issues.
There are some people who simply think that globalization always works to our
disadvantage, and I just don't agree with that. And I think that it's not a
realistic option. The global economy is on a fast track. The Europeans are
reaching out to the Mercosur nations. Even though our exports have grown a great
deal to Latin America, the
And their trade union movements in their country, for example, and other
people like they seem to understand that, because of what they have to sell
and because of the trade relationships, they're going to come out, net, ahead.
That's what I believe is the case in America and why I'm pushing this so hard.
Q Are you going to win?
THE PRESIDENT: I think SO. It's a tough fight, but I think we'll win. But
it's just a it's really a debate over principle with me, and I believe the
United States has to create more high-wage jobs for the future so that we can
start growing together again. The last couple of years, we've finally got some
indication that the bottom 40 percent of our workers are beginning to raise
their incomes equal to and, after taxes maybe even a little more in percentage
terms, than the upper 20 percent. But that's after 20 years of complete
stagnation.
And the evidence is not clear yet. We have to change the job mix every
year. The last two years, more than half our new jobs have paid above- average
wages dramatic contrast from the '80s and the early '90s. The only way for
us to keep that trend going and accelerate it is for us to trade more in areas
where we have a competitive advantage, where we make things that are
sophisticated with workers who make good incomes we make more of that
that's the first thing.
The second thing is, I believe the United States has to send a signal to our
allies, particularly in this hemisphere, and our allies in Asia and in Africa,
that we know we're in a new world and it's a which in which we're interdependent
and which we want to lead through partnerships.
So I think the political interest we have in having stable countries growing
more successful, being firmly democratic, working with us on issues like labor
and environmental conditions, argues overwhelmingly for the adoption of fast
track and giving the President the authority to go do this work.
There is a principle at stake here, so I would be fighting for it if I
thought I had no chance to win, because it relates centrally to the way I see
the world unfolding and the ties that I've tried to create for the United States
in the Americas, in Asia, in Africa, as well as reaffirming our historic ties
to Europe.
END 3:45 P.M. EDT
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
October 13, 1997, Monday
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1754 words
HEADLINE: Clinton takes trade talk south Visit reflects envoy role of
McLarty
BYLINE: JANE FULLERTON, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
BODY:
WASHINGTON President Clinton arrived Sunday in Venezuela on his first
visit to South America, a journey that could be a showcase for the president's
foreign policy and the man who orchestrated it, fellow Arkansan Thomas F.
"Mack" McLarty.
As Clinton's special envoy to the Americas, McLarty, a former Arkansas
natural-gas executive, has made nearly three dozen trips to Latin America since
the administration increased its focus on the region in December 1994.
McLarty's shuttle diplomacy laid the groundwork for the president's week-long
swing through Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. He has been involved with
everything from meeting with heads of state to fretting over whether soccer
great Pele will appear with Clinton at a Brazilian school.
In the words of National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, McLarty has been "all
four horsemen of this Latin American effort."
On a mild day with threatening clouds in Caracas, Venezuela, Clinton was
warmly greeted by President Rafael Caldera and a 21-gun salute at La Carlota Air
Base. Caldera hailed Clinton as "the president of the most important country of
the world" and said his visit would put Caracas, the capital, in the global
spotlight.
After reviewing a military honor guard, Clinton made a beeline to dozens of
flag-waving children. He was accompanied by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton,
Energy Secretary Federico Pena, Commerce Secretary William Daley and Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright, as well as U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson and Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, the drug policy adviser.
Clinton said the Americas, north and south, stand "united by shared values
from Alaska to Patagonia, a place the rest of the world can look to and say,
'This is where the future lives. 1
"Indeed, we are present at the future. Every country but one in our
hemisphere is now a democracy, " he said, referring to Cuba as the lone holdout.
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"Command economies have given way to free markets and the more widespread
prosperity they bring. We tear down trade barriers and create good jobs for all
our people in the Americas, north and south."
Clinton's tour of South America the first extended trip by a president
since George Bush traveled to the continent in 1990 is aimed at highlighting
the growing economies and democracies in a region that McLarty said has
undergone "a revolution as profound as the one in Eastern Europe. "
It also may provide a social studies lesson for Americans, accentuating
little-known facts about their Western Hemisphere neighbors:
m Venezuela last year replaced Saudi Arabia as the leading supplier of oil to
the United States.
m Brazil has slashed its inflation rate from 1,600 percent just seven years
ago to less than 5 percent today.
m Argentina has sent peacekeeping troops to more than a dozen U.N. missions
in the past seven years.
McLarty said those facts underscore the "profound change" and the "new set of
realities" at work in a region previously known for its military dictatorships,
political repression, human-rights violations and unstable economies.
"This is not your father's Latin America,' McLarty said. "The hemisphere that
we knew then is now a chapter in the history books. "
McLarty's role as Latin American diplomat is the latest chapter in his work
for the Clinton administration. The man who came to Washington as Clinton's
first chief of staff has drawn on both his Arkansas roots and his business
background in promoting U.S. interests in the region.
"One reason that this has been a good fit for me
is that it basically
goes back to my upbringing in Hope from my parents and from examples there about
treating people with mutual respect, noting the dignity and worth of each
person, and establishing a trust in a relationship, he said.
His position as envoy which had been developing informally but which
Clinton made official last December also has increased McLarty's public
profile in the administration. Although he has always been among the select
handful of aides with virtually unlimited access to the president, his public
presence diminished somewhat after he stepped down as chief of staff.
But this trip has returned him to the spotlight. This week he joined Berger
in briefing reporters at the White House on Tuesday, spoke to a trade conference
in New Orleans on Thursday and appeared for a roundtable discussion at the
National Press Club in Washington on Friday.
Although McLarty jokes about not yet having mastered Spanish, he has become
knowledgeable about the issues of the region.
"Throughout Latin America, you clearly find increasing political liberty, but
not fully developed democratic institutions, " he said. "And part of the purpose
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of this second of three trips to the region by the president is to support this
deepening of democracy and these developments of democratic institutions that
are SO critical in terms of strengthening democracies as well as the economies.' "
To that end, Clinton, with the his boyhood friend McLarty in a key role, is
focusing much of his second-term foreign policy agenda on Latin America.
Clinton's trip in May took him to Mexico, Costa Rico and Barbados; the third
trip, set for next May, will take him to Chile.
Next year's visit is for the fourth annual Summit of the Americas in
Santiago. That will be a follow-up to the December 1994 Summit of the Americas
in Miami, which was spearheaded by McLarty and signaled his entry into Latin
American diplomacy.
The current seven-day trip will feature stops in six cities in three
countries.
The president plans to mark Columbus Day today with a speech in Caracas
notable since Christopher Columbus, who reached North America in 1492, set foot
on Venezuelan soil six years later.
A look at the rest of Clinton's campaign-style itinerary reveals a distinctly
American-flavored trip.
The president will speak to Brazilian business leaders in Sao Paulo; visit
with Brazilian schoolchildren in a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro; hold a
televised town hall meeting from Argentina linking audiences in Buenos Aires,
Miami and Los Angeles; and use the scenic Argentine Andean setting of Bariloche
as a backdrop for environmental talks. While in the resort area, the president
may golf or go horseback riding.
The president is expected to sign environmental agreements with the various
countries a move designed to quell some of the criticism surrounding a key
trade measure backed by the White House that is pending in Congress.
The president had hoped to have "fast-track" trade authority the ability
to negotiate trade deals that Congress could only accept or reject without
altering by the time he made this trip. But the proposal is still being
debated in Congress, where many Democrats oppose it because of concerns about
its impact on U.S. labor and the environment.
Clinton has made fast-track authority a priority in his second term. He
contends it is necessary to achieve his goal of a hemisphere-wide free-trade
zone by 2005.
"We believe that open markets clearly reinforce open society, " McLarty said.
But not everyone in South America wants such a trade zone to proceed so
quickly. Some countries, including Argentina and Brazil, prefer a slower
implementation.
But U.S. officials worry about competition from their counterparts in Europe
and Japan, who already are working to build markets in South America. Among
those ahead of Clinton in paying a courting call to the region have been the
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leaders of Germany, France and Spain.
As a result, trade issues will top Clinton's agenda. McLarty said he often
cites an Arkansas example to illustrate how the marketplace is expanding.
"I attended a Wal-Mart meeting 25 years ago, and Sam Walton came to the
microphone and said, 'Associates, we are going on a bold, new adventure. We're
going to new markets in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, " McLarty said.
"If you went to that same meeting today, you might hear Rob Walton or David
Glass saying, 'Associates, we're going on a bold, new adventure. We're going to
new markets in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. '
"
The point, McLarty said, is that U.S. exports to Latin America are growing at
twice the rate they are to any other region. By 2010, American exports to Latin
America are expected to be greater than to the European Union and Japan
combined.
Wal-Mart has stores in both Argentina and Brazil, and officials from the
Bentonville-based retailer plan to be on hand for presidential events in Buenos
Aires and Sao Paulo.
"This is a natural market it's an extension of Main Street but not a
market that we can or should take for granted, " McLarty said.
While there will be plenty of attention on the prospects for improved trade
and enhanced relationships between the United States and its South American
neighbors, the trip also will include discussions about some of the common
problems faced by each of the countries.
Atop that list, McLarty said, is the supply-and-demand drug problem that
is, South American supply and U.S. demand.
"I would have to say narcotics and narcotics trafficking is a common problem,
a common challenge against a very dark and evil force
clearly, clearly we
cannot succeed in that fight without a deep cooperation," he said.
The president also is expected to address sensitive issues during his talks
with South American leaders, such as child labor in Brazil and violence against
journalists in Argentina.
And the U.S. decision to award Argentina status as a non-NATO military ally,
the first country to win that designation since the Cold War, has distressed
other countries, including Brazil and Chile. That topic and its ramifications
will be on the minds of South American officials.
As McLarty sees it, the president's trip to South America will underscore the
need for the United States to forge long-term relationships with a region that
not only has reached a milestone in its progress, but stands at a crossroads in
its development.
"What we hope to accomplish is to deepen not only the partnership, " McLarty
said, "but [to become] a true family of the Americas that will impact the
families of the Americas in a positive and meaningful way. II
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Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.
GRAPHIC: Associated Press
President Clinton, escorted by Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera (left), is
greeted by schoolchildren Sunday during ceremonies at La Carlota Air Base in
Caracasj, Venezuela. Clinton, making his first trip to sough America and fellow
Arkansan, Thomas f. "Mack" McLarty, are on a Week-long swing through Argentina,
Brazil and Venezuala.
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The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
October 13, 1997, Monday, PM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 708 words
HEADLINE: President touts anti-drug, pro-business pacts, honors Bolivar
BYLINE: By SONYA ROSS, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: CARACAS, Venezuela
BODY:
With a stab at local slang and a pitch for free trade throughout the Western
hemisphere, President Clinton said today he sees "a democratic and prosperous
family of the Americas within our reach."
The president wrapped up his 24-hour state visit with an address to the
Venezuelan people and approval of agreements on energy cooperation and
drug-fighting.
"The United States is determined to work with you
as friends and partners
to claim the benefits and carry the burdens of this new era," Clinton said.
With President Rafael Caldera at his side, Clinton also aimed a message back
home, at Congress, where he is waging an uphill battle for "fast-track" trade
authority and a stronger hand to negotiate what he called a "free-trade area of
Americas" by 2005.
"From Alaska to Argentina we will tear down the barriers of the past and open
wide the doors of the 21st century,' Clinton said. "Whether we all like it or
not, global economic integration is on a fast track. "
Clinton, the first visiting head of state invited to speak at the National
Pantheon, delighted his audience when he returned the honor in their language.
"Todo esta chevere en Venezuela!" he called to cheers. Roughly translated from
local slang, it means "Everything is cool in Venezuela."
Caldera thanked Clinton for a visit that held special significance as "an
acknowledgement of our sovereignty and the unification of our identity as Latin
America. II
Before flying to Brazil, Clinton and his wife, Hillary, claimed a symbolic
key to the city of Caracas and laid a wreath of red, white and blue carnations
at the tomb of Venezuela's most revered hero, Simon Bolivar, who led the fight
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to end Spanish rule in the early 1800s.
"He was the first to imagine a hemisphere of democracies," Clinton said.
"Today, our hemisphere is growing closer every day
We have put the
age-old dream of a democratic and prosperous family of the Americas within our
reach."
Earlier, he and Caldera presided at a signing ceremony for accords extending
cooperation against narcotics by giving Venezuela more than $ 11 million in
patrol boats and surveillance planes to spot smugglers. The United States and
Venezuela also will establish a joint intelligence center to share information
and coordinate anti-drug operations.
Venezuela is a major drug-smuggling route from Colombia to illicit markets,
handling perhaps 100 metric tons of cocaine and 10 metric tons of heroin a year.
Agreements signed today at the Miraflores Palace also included one to pursue
a treaty ensuring equal treatment under Venezuelan law of U.S. companies that do
business here; to promote diverse, competitive energy markets; and to cooperate
in science and technology.
Last year, Venezuela replaced Saudi Arabia as the United States' top supplier
of foreign oil and Clinton saluted the nation as "a rock of stability, staying
out of the oil embargo, stepping in to boost production in moments of crisis,
from World War II to the Gulf War."
The United States also agreed to provide $ 500,000 for a study of greenhouse
gases, and to expand Fulbright scholarships to Venezuelan students to study
energy and the environment.
Arriving Sunday, Clinton marveled at the way Venezuela has shaken off the
autocracies and coups of the past to become a vibrant, free land.
A 21-gun salute had greeted him at La Carlota Air Base, and on Sunday he
enjoyed the warm formality of a state dinner at Caldera's residence, La Casona
(The Big House).
The White House hopes Clinton's first journey to South America will help
persuade Congress to approve the "fast-track" trade authority he wants in order
to negotiate a hemispheric free-trade zone at next spring's Summit of the
Americas.
Administration officials say there is a huge potential for U.S. companies in
Latin America. Venezuela boasts the world's largest proven oil reserves outside
the Middle East.
American exports to the region are growing twice as fast as to any other part
of the world and - by 2010 - are projected to be greater than to the European
Union and Japan combined. The United States is pushing for the hemisphere-wide
trade zone by 2005, but Brazil - with the world's eighth largest economy -
thinks that timetable is too soon.
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materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
October 13, 1997, Monday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 816 words
HEADLINE: President preaches gospel of open trade; predicts he'll win fast
track
BYLINE: By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
DATELINE: CARACAS, Venezuela
BODY:
At a monument symbolizing South America's struggle for freedom, President
Clinton preached the gospel of open trade Monday, then later predicted he'll win
congressional authority to freely sign new foreign commerce deals.
"We made a better case for fast-track just by being down here, If Clinton told
reporters as he flew from Venezuela to Brazil. "There are some people who simply
think that globalization always works to our disadvantage, and I just don't
agree with that. The global economy is on a fast track."
To gain fast-track authority to negotiate foreign trade deals, Clinton must
overcome objections from his own Democratic Party, many of whom want to impose
country-by-country labor and environmental conditions.
"It's a tough fight, but I think we'll win," Clinton said, noting other
presidents had such power. "It's really a debate over principle with me. "
In his speech to Venezuelans, Clinton said more must be done to alleviate
poverty and "give everyone a chance to be a winner in the new economy."
The hillside slums overlooking Caracas' skyscrapers are dramatic evidence of
the economic inequality in this oil-rich country - which has become the United
States' biggest petroleum supplier. Eight of 10 Venezuelans live in poverty,
according to government estimates.
"For all the progress we have made together to advance democracy, free
markets and full citizenship, we must acknowledge that a great challenge remains
to make these forces work to the benefit of all our people, Clinton said.
The president said no nation, including the United States, has found "the
perfect formula" but that education is an important ingredient.
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Clinton spoke from the steps of the National Pantheon, the church-like burial
place for South American liberation hero Simon Bolivar and many of Venezuela's
founding fathers. Bolivar led the fight to end Spanish colonial rule in
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and Peru.
Apparently for security reasons, a tall screen encircled the courtyard,
blocking it from surrounding buildings and cutting off any breeze on a hot day.
Clinton delighted the crowd of several hundred people by experimenting with
Spanish, to say, "Todo esta chevere en Venezuela!" Roughly translated, it means
"Everything is cool in Venezuela." His audience cheered.
Brazil was Clinton's second stop on his week-long visit to South America that
will include Argentina.
Before a state dinner at Brasilia, Clinton told President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso that Brazil and the United States, as the two largest nations in the
hemisphere, have an obligation to lead "this historic revolution underway in the
Americas" of democratic and market reforms.
"America reaches out to Brazil with the hand of friendship and the pledge of
partnership," Clinton told Cardoso at the foreign ministry.
A delighted Cardoso, who made a state visit to Washington just two years ago,
reminded Clinton, "There's no substitute for firsthand knowledge and contact
with a country."
Like Venezuela, Brazil also suffers severe economic inequality, fueling a
growing undercurrent of social unrest among the poor. Even before Clinton
arrived, Brazilians fumed at a U.S. Embassy commercial guide posted on the
Internet that said corruption was endemic in the country.
The embassy apologized and struck the word "endemic. "
Wrapping up his stop in Venezuela, Clinton and President Rafael Caldera
witnessed the signing of agreements to strengthen cooperation in energy
development and combating drugs.
The drug accord gives Venezuela more than $ 11 million in patrol boats and
surveillance planes to spot smugglers. The United States and Venezuela also will
establish a joint intelligence center to share information and coordinate
anti-drug operations.
The United States agreed to give Venezuela $ 500,000 for a study of
greenhouse gases, and to expand Fulbright scholarships to Venezuelan students to
study energy and the environment.
Last year Venezuela replaced Saudi Arabia as the top U.S. oil supplier.
"For the last 80 years, Venezuela has been a rock of stability, staying out
of the oil embargo (in 1973), stepping in to boost production in moments of
crisis from World War II to the Gulf War, Clinton said.
Because of lingering differences, the two countries were not able to conclude
agreements on investment and taxation, considered important for foreign trade.
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The president said that open markets hold the promise of more jobs and higher
living standards. But he added that no nation, including the United States, has
found "the perfect formula for growing a free economy while preserving and
extending the social contract for all our people."
"That is why we must work harder together to alleviate poverty, lift the
conditions of working people throughout the hemisphere and give everyone a
chance to be a winner in the new economy," Clinton said.
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Copley News Service
October 13, 1997, Monday 15:16 Eastern Time
SECTION: Washington - general news
LENGTH: 1055 words
HEADLINE: Clinton concludes Venezuela visit with pitch for fast track
BYLINE: George E. Condon Jr.
DATELINE: CARACAS, Venezuela
BODY:
President Clinton took his trade battle with the U.S. Congress to the streets
of Caracas Monday, concluding his one-day visit by signing drug-fighting and
energy agreements and an making an appeal for free trade throughout the
hemisphere.
With the mist-covered Avila Mountains rising all around him, the president
stood outside the tomb of Simon Bolivar, the ''liberator'' of much of this
continent, and held out the promise of free trade as a modern liberator from
today's poverty.
'Whether we all like it or not, global economic integration is on a fast
track, and therefore we must give all our people the tools necessary to compete
and succeed in it, he said in a reference to his request to Congress to renew
a president's ''fast-track'" authority to negotiate future trade deals.
With such authority, he and trading partners would not have to worry about
Congress amending agreements during ratification battles.
He said its approval by Congress is essential ''so that we can work with our
partners to open markets, create jobs and raise living standards for all.
But fast-track is facing tough opposition in Congress. Many legislators
oppose it, arguing that it would allow Clinton to negotiate agreements that do
not protect American jobs. They do not want competition with foreign firms that
pay low wages in comparison to the U.S. and are not forced to spend money on
environmental protection, as U.S. firms are.
Clinton cast the free-trade treaty that he wants the United States to reach
with South America by 2005 as a natural and needed outcome of the globalization
of the economy.
''Our hemisphere is growing closer every day, driven by shared values and
common purposes, Clinton said. ''We have put the age-old dream of a democratic
and prosperous family of the Americas within our reach.
His pitch for free trade and his stab at some local slang were well received
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by the crowd gathered outside the Panteon, the burial place for Bolivar and
other national heroes. The crowd was enthusiastic, waving the red, blue and
yellow Venezuelan flag as well as the U.S. flag. But it was sparse, only a few
thousand as the government carefully screened those allowed to attend, keeping
out many ordinary Venezuelans.
The crowd warmly received the president's somewhat halting Spanish when he
used a popular local expression to describe his abbreviated stay here. Todo
esta chevere en Caracas, he said, which loosely translates to 'Everything is
cool in Caracas.
He also drew warm applause both here and Sunday night at a State Dinner when
he saluted this baseball-crazed country for its exports of players such as Omar
Vizquel of the Cleveland Indians, who are participating in the current round of
championship playoffs back home.
Prior to his speech the first ever by a foreign leader at the Panteon Clinton
joined Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera in signing agreements calling for
greater energy cooperation and striking a 'strategic alliance' between the two
countries in the war against drug trafficking.
Because the United States has successfully disrupted air delivery of drugs
from Colombia, Venezuela which is not a major producer or consumer of drugs has
become a significant transit country for Colombian drugs.
Clinton hailed the drug alliance as necessary to attack on that front as
well. To that end, he gave Venezuela more than $11 million in patrol boats and
surveillance planes to thwart smugglers.
Under the new agreement, the two countries will also establish a joint
intelligence center to share information and coordinate anti-drug operations.
The president cast the drug problem as one plaguing all governments in the
hemisphere.
Throughout the Americas, drugs threaten the very fabric of civil society,
Clinton said at the signing ceremony with Caldera. 'They destroy lives. They
spread violence to our streets and playgrounds. They corrupt and kill law
enforcement officials. They create instability that can sweep across borders.
While acknowledging that drug demand must be reduced in the United States, he
added that ' ' we must also be relentless in attacking supply.
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the U.S. office of National Drug Control
Policy, said the agreement with Venezuela is a model for the kinds of
cooperation we're trying to build in
Mexico
In particular, he hailed the formation of a permanent group to combat money
laundering. Other aspects of the alliance include greater cooperation between
law enforcement agencies, greater monitoring of chemicals used to make drugs,
and tighter controls on weapons used in drug trafficking.
The two leaders also signed an agreement on energy, recognizing that
Venezuela has now surpassed Saudi Arabia as the leading supplier of crude oil to
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the United States.
The agreement has the two countries working together to develop cleaner fuel,
cooperating in science and technology. While another treaty on investment was
not ready for signing, the two leaders agreed to pursue a treaty guaranteeing
equal treatment of American companies doing business in Venezuela.
From Caracas, the president flew Monday night to Brasilia for the second leg
of his week-long tour of South America. But, in contrast to the friendly
reception he got here, there were signs of anti-American protests waiting to
welcome him to the Brazilian capital.
Complaints there include demands by the U.S. Secret Service that they be
allowed to carry powerful weapons while guarding Clinton in Brazil. The heavy
U.S. security around Clinton sparked recollections by some Brazilians of U.S.
support for the military coup back in 1964. There also were sharp objections to
calls from Washington for Brazilian markets to open up to U.S. goods.
1 The Arrogance of the Empire, was the headline on a story in the weekly
newsmagazine Veja. Clinton, the street vendor president, plays hardball to
make Brazil buy what it does not want, said the story.
A U.S. government guide that warned American businesses of ''endemic
corruption'' in Brazil sparked a decision by the chief justice of the country's
supreme court to boycott a dinner with Clinton. And the newspaper o Globo
carried a cartoon showing Clinton as a cowboy brandishing an assault weapon and
saying, 'Hello amigos
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October 13, 1997
LENGTH: 6673 words
HEADLINE: THE WHITE HOUSE
Press briefing by Counsel to Pres, Mack McLarty on President's trip to South
America
HIGHLIGHT:
The Briefing Room
BODY:
MR. BERGER: Since you always get to ask the questions, I thought I would
begin this briefing with a small quiz. Open book exam. You can look on the
person to your right and to your left. Hold your answers. Which country is
America's largest supplier of oil? (Laughter.) Hold up. Which country has
reduced inflation from 1600 percent in 1990 - (laughter) - I had a guy in my
class just like you when I was in high school - to below 5 percent today and now
is the 8th largest economy in the world? Which country sent peacekeepers to over
a dozen missions in the last seven years, including the Persian Gulf, Haiti,
Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Central America, Western Sahara, Mozambique, and
Cyprus?
The answers, as Mr. Hunt undoubtedly knows, are Venezuela, Brazil and
Argentina, the countries we are visiting next week. This cheap little exercise
on my part has a point. In the last decade the Americas have undergone a
dramatic transformation. Not so long ago, this hemisphere was marked by military
dictatorship, repression, insurgencies, violent coups, inefficient command
economies. Today, every nation in the hemisphere is a democracy, but one. Human
rights have dramatically improved. Trade barriers have come down, and the
markets of the region are expected to grow three times as fast as our own very
healthy economy.
This trip is an opportunity to highlight South America's quiet and
impressive revolution. To capitalize on these historic trends, President Clinton
and the other leaders in the region set out a blueprint at the Miami Summit to
bring our hemisphere together around common values - democratic governments,
open markets, cooperation on common problems. In South America next week, the
President will seek to advance this hemispheric agenda, which includes trade,
education, the environment and democracy, and highlight initiatives that we hope
to develop further for the second Summit of the Americas in Santiago next April.
Now, let me take you on the magic carpet of next week. Starting on Sunday
morning, we will leave in the morning and travel to Venezuela to meet with
President Caldera, one of this hemisphere's most stalwart proponents of freedom
over the past number of years. The President will pay tribute to the people of
Venezuela for their extraordinary success in strengthening democracy and the
rule of law.
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In Venezuela, the President also will highlight our close partnership on
developing clean and reliable energy supplies for the future. As those of you
who got the first question correct know, more than half of the United States
foreign supply of oil comes from this hemisphere. In Venezuela, which last year
replaced Saudi Arabia as our top supplier of foreign oil, 18 percent, is poised
to increase its share of the U.S. market. This has important ramifications,
obviously, for U.S. security and prosperity, as does the other major item on our
agenda in Venezuela - increasing our counternarcotics cooperation by
strengthening judiciaries, expanding customs cooperation, improving maritime
cooperation and things of that sort.
Following the arrival ceremony in Caracas, a short meeting with
congressional leaders at the airport, the President will lay a wreath at the
tomb of Simon Bolivar, the hero of Venezuelan independence and a symbol of the
aspiration for South American integration. He will meet with embassy staff,
attend a state dinner and a reception at the President's home.
On Monday morning, the President will drop by a breakfast hosted by the
Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce, then hold a bilateral meeting with
President Caldera and deliver an outdoor speech.
I should say that, as with all of these trips, schedules tend to move a
little bit as you get each day closer to departure, so there may be
rearrangements here that take place. But this essentially the itinerary.
On Monday afternoon, the President will travel to Brazil, the largest
multiracial democracy in South America. The agenda there with President Cardoso
will focus on trade, education and training, and access to technology, as
President Cardoso continues his effort to both sustained growth and to create
greater equity within Brazil. We will also address the environment as well, and
Brazil's leadership, building a strong partnership with us on global and
security issues.
Let me just say, Brazil is a perfect example of the economic growth that has
been experienced in this hemisphere. In 1900 when Brazil had annual inflation of
1,600 percent - question two on your quiz - GDP growth was less than 2 percent,
foreign investment was below $1 billion. Today, inflation has dropped to under 5
percent, GDP has been over 4 percent for the last three years, and the
government projects investment levels will reach nearly $10 billion this year.
Monday evening the President will attend a reception, state dinner in
Brasilia. Tuesday morning he will meet with President Cardoso, hold a joint
press conference - both joint in terms of Cardoso and Clinton, joint in terms of
our press corps and theirs. In the afternoon, the President will pay a brief
call on the leadership of the Brazilian Congress, acknowledging Brazil's dynamic
democracy. He will then visit with the Embassy community before departing in the
afternoon for Sao Paulo.
On Wednesday morning, the President will address 1,600 business leaders and
stress the importance of open markets which have put the hemisphere squarely on
the path to improving economic growth - more jobs, more widespread prosperity.
And he'll also discuss the policies embraced here and in Brazil to try to make
sure that no one is left behind in this emerging new global economy.
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The President then will fly to Rio de Janeiro, coming from the business
meeting in the morning - in the afternoon, to Rio de Janeiro to a poorer area of
the city where he will speak to students and teachers at a model public-private
educational partnership in the shanty town of the city. And there he will
emphasize that as we open our markets, we have to also open education to all of
our children and give them the tools to succeed.
Finally, Argentina. The President will arrive there on Wednesday evening and
highlight our joint efforts to promote international peace and security and
protect the environment.
As another reflection of how far these countries have traveled in a short
time, the last American President to visit Argentina was President Bush in 1990.
He went at a time right after a failed military uprising against a civilian
government, a time of great instability. Since then, the administration and the
Argentine Congress have cut the armed forces to a third of their former
strength, deploying them largely to the international peacekeeping exercises,
missions I mentioned earlier.
In 1990, the Argentine economy was suffering runaway hyperinflation, GDP
spiraling downward. Menem embarked on a dramatic stabilization program resulting
in near-zero inflation, expanded trade and foreign investment. As a result, the
Argentine economy is expected to grow 8 percent in 1997.
On Thursday, the official schedule in Argentina begins with a wreath-laying
at Plaza San Martin. The President will make brief remarks there, highlighting
Argentina's contribution to international peacekeeping. After the bilateral with
President Menem, the President will go to a television studio for a town hall
conversation on the Americas, which will be broadcast live by the Univision
network to the entire hemisphere. The President will take questions from young
leaders in three cities - in Buenos Aires, in Los Angeles, and in Miami. And the
audience will be comprised of young leaders in education, business, the
environment, antidrug efforts, poverty groups, arts, et cetera - a very broad
cross-section.
Before the town hall, the President will meet with Jewish leaders in
Argentina, relatives of the victims of the terrorist bombings of the Israeli
Embassy and the Jewish Community Center in 1992 and 1994, respectively, which,
combined, killed I believe 115 people. He'll also meet with leaders of the
opposition alliance to demonstrate our support for the democratic process and
indicate our neutrality in the upcoming congressional elections in Argentina. He
has a state dinner and a reception that evening.
On Friday morning, the President will drop by a business leaders breakfast
hosted by the Argentine Chamber of Commerce, visit the embassy, then depart for
Bariloche, where on Saturday morning, President Clinton and President Menem will
participate in an environmental event to highlight our commitment to protect the
environment we all share.
We then get back on the plane and fly very late at night and get back in
Washington, D.C., some time Saturday night or Sunday morning.
Let me now ask Mack McLarty, who has been all four horsemen of this Latin
American effort to add a few comments.
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MR. MCLARTY: Well, Professor Berger, thank you very much. You're a great
trip director as well as a great academician.
Let me just reinforce a couple of points that Sandy made, and instead of
beginning with a pop quiz, let me begin with a commentary made by James Reston,
that Americans would do almost anything for Latin America, but read about it.
So, hopefully, this trip will be positive and helpful in that regard.
Sandy underscored the profound change that has taken place, and I have seen
that firsthand in my visits to the region in the last two and a half years. And
I think those of you who have not traveled to the region will find indeed a new
set of realities in that these countries have truly arrived on the world stage.
I think you also will find a maturing and a confident leadership in Venezuela,
Argentina and Brazil, and a maturing, more candid relationship with the United
States.
Sandy has already pointed out some of the real highlights of each of the
individual stops on our visit and the importance of them. I would make only a
couple of points in terms of the increasing democratic governance. Throughout
Latin America, you clearly find increasing political liberty, but not fully
developed democratic institutions. And part of the purpose of this second of
three trips to the region by the President is to support this deepening of
democracy and these developments of democratic institutions that are so critical
in terms of strengthening democracies as well as the economies.
From an economic standpoint, I think you will find increasingly open
markets, but not a fully developed infrastructure to support those open markets.
So it's important, as the fast track debate underscores, that we keep momentum
in the process of open and fair trade throughout this hemisphere and beyond as
we move toward our goal of a free trade area by the year 2005.
In terms of human development, clearly, I think you will see an increasing
emphasis on lifting those out of poverty with opportunity, with an emphasis on
education which I believe will be the centerpiece of the Santiago summit, and a
developing middle class.
Now, I think finally what is at stake here from a United States' standpoint
- or what Secretary Albright calls "kitchen table issues" - issues in this
hemisphere that affect the daily lives of Americans. First, on the opportunity,
the upside I think primarily is on the economic side including energy. From an
economic standpoint, our exports to the region are growing at twice the rate
that they are to any other region in the world. By the year 2010, our exports in
this hemisphere are expected to be greater than to the European Union and Japan
combined.
A couple of examples are noteworthy. We export more to Chile, a country of
14 million people, than we do to India, a country of over 900 million people. We
export more to Central America than we do to all of the former Soviet states
combined. The point I am making, this is a natural market - it's an extension of
Main Street - but not a market that we can or should take for granted.
In terms of energy development, I think Sandy covered that in a
comprehensive manner, but I would underscore to all of you today how important
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energy is to our overall economy, as well as our economic and energy security.
Finally, I think, in terms of affecting U.S. citizens' lives on a daily
basis, we will see areas of, frankly, challenge and problems, whether it be
increased cooperation on narcotics and narcotics trafficking, increased
cooperation on the environment and environmental degradation or environmental
stewardship, and increased cooperation of terrorism.
The real challenge of what the President will, I think, demonstrate in this
trip is to make cooperation work on a sustained basis. That is what clearly is
the key from the road that began in Miami at the Summit of the Americans where
an architecture was put in place for the road to Santiago in April of 1998.
I think we will hope to accomplish a deepened partnership throughout the
hemisphere, a partnership increasingly based on mutual respect and mutual trust.
This is not only a discussion of the near-term, but the longer-term. Latin
America is a young hemisphere in terms of its demographics. Half of the
population in South America is under 17 years of age, and that's really what's
at stake here in terms of the longer-term of our relationship. What we hope to
accomplish is to deepen not only the partnership, but a true family of the
Americas that will impact the families of the Americas in a positive and
meaningful way.
With those comments made, Sandy, I will open it up to questions.
Q Sandy, neither one of you specifically mentioned fast track. Do you expect
the President to use this trip to build a case for the fast track legislation?
And also, on that topic, the Brazilian Ambassador, at a briefing last week, said
they really don't care if fast track passes because if it does, that would
probably just make them open their markets more. Where does that kind of a
reaction play into this whole debate?
MR. BERGER: Well, let me answer the first part and then Mack on the
Brazilian question. First of all, Mack - I specifically heard him talk about
fast track, mention fast track. Fast track is extraordinarily important. It is
important to our continued growth in a global economy, and whether that's in
South America or whether it's in Asia or whether it is sectoral agreements like
the recent telecommunication agreement, a mature economy grows by exports and
creating jobs through exports.
It is also extraordinarily important in terms of America's leadership
position in the world, because the patterns of commerce that are developed
through trade also become the patterns of influence and importance in other
areas. And as we step out of the game of trade agreements in the past year or
two because we haven't had fast track, we've seen South America increasingly
looking to Europe, looking to Asia, and economic and political relationships
getting developed, which ought to be instead deepening American relationships.
So it's extremely important to us, extremely important to the United States.
I'm sure the President will talk about it with each of these leaders. Obviously,
the problem we have right now is one that lies with the Congress - the challenge
we have now is one that lies with the Congress, and so he's not going to sit in
Buenos Aires and talk about a political debate in the United States. But it is
clearly something that is on the mind of Latin American leaders as I think, in
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part, they see as a reflection of whether or not we are going to continue to
lead or whether we are going to withdraw and retreat. And so, I think it has an
important symbolic, as well as a very important economic, basis to it.
On the specific Brazilian comment, I think that's not an accurate quote, but
let me -
MR. MCLARTY: Terry, let me try to tie the two together very quickly. I think
we believe that open markets clearly reinforce open society, so we see the two
pillars, two of the three pillars of the Miami Summit - that is increased
democracy and economic integration - mutually supportive of each other.
We have a region in the hemisphere that wants to move toward economic
integration, and it is a natural integration. Fast track is the needed authority
to move forward with the next bilateral trade agreement, which is Chile. But I
would emphasize that broad fast track authority, as important as it is for
leadership in this hemisphere and to preserve and increase our position of
leadership, it is broad fast track authority that's also important, as Sandy
said, in the Asia Pacific region, as well as from a sectorial and WTO
standpoint.
In terms of Brazil, I met with President Cardoso last week, and I had a
discussion last night with Ambassador Flecha de Lima from Brazil. I think the
comments were some in Brazil would not be disappointed to see that fast track
would not be passed. I think President Cardoso will be very supportive of moving
toward a free trade area of the Americas by the year 2005. I think Brazil will
be supportive of launching negotiations at the Santiago Summit in April. There
are obviously some differences of views about how to get there, and we have been
consistent, as I was two weeks ago in Sao Paulo, that there are multiple paths,
different ways, either bilateral agreements, regional agreements, other
mechanisms toward achieving a deepening economic integration.
Q Does the fact that you don't have fast track before going on this trip,
which is something that folks had kind of freely talked about before, does that
alter the nature of this trip, does it diminish it in any way?
MR. BERGER: No, I don't think SO. I think that the leaders and the press and
others who will be commenting on this trip follow what's going on very carefully
in Washington. They know the President is making a strong effort to get this
enacted. We will have had passage to the Senate Finance Committee. Tomorrow, the
House Ways and Means Committee will take up a bill in which a bipartisan
agreement was achieved early this morning and we're hopeful that the House Ways
and Means Committee will adopt this bipartisan bill. So I think that they see a
strong effort being made here. They know it's a difficult and challenging debate
here in the United States, but I don't see it - the fact that it's not done, I
don't see it having effect.
Q I mean, from the standpoint of the President. He's going there under a
different set of circumstances than you had wanted. Does that limit -
MR. MCLARTY: I think - we're going back to Chile, to Santiago, next year
where we hope to launch the negotiations for a free trade area of the Americas.
As Mack pointed out, that's not - there's many ways you can get there. But the
effort, hopefully, will be launched in April. I think by that time it will be
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important for us to have this authority because if others are going to see us as
credible in engaging in that discussion beginning in April, obviously it will be
important for us to have fast track. I don't see it as that critical to this
particular trip, particularly since they will see the President making a very
strong effort to get it enacted.
I Mr. Berger, how will the President approach the human rights issue?
Specifically, former President Carter has pointed to a number of abuses -
child labor and other abuses in Brazil, specifically. And when he gets to
Argentina, will he talk about the series of murders of journalists and the
disappearances of journalists and others that have still gone on there recently?
MR. BERGER: I think unquestionably. As Mack pointed out, these are countries
that have come an enormous distance from -you think of what we knew of Argentina
or some of these other countries just 10 years ago - to elected governments, to
revival of democracy, but there are still - in many cases, these are still works
in progress, these are imperfect. And I think in every stop the President will
talk about helping to solidify democracy, helping to build civil society,
helping to establish civil rights and civil liberties and human rights - it was
a very important theme in Miami and it's very important, I think, for the
President to raise those issues as he travels through the hemisphere.
Q Do you consider the militaries of the countries that the President's going
to be visiting to be now totally under civilian control?
MR. MCLARTY: The answer is, yes, we do. The countries we're visiting clearly
have made the transition from an authoritarian military dictatorship in some
cases to a civil democracy with open, I think, and fair elections. I have had
the opportunity to visit with all of the defense ministers in each of the
countries we're traveling to, as well a the presidents, and I think you will
clearly find civil control over the military.
Q Mr. Berger, the new military status the United States will give to
Argentina during the trip seems to have raised some problems with some neighbors
in the Southern Cone - Brazil, Chile, Peru. Would you care to -
MR. BERGER: I wouldn't describe it as a new military status. There is
something called a non-NATO military ally. Let me just finish - which goes under
the enormously difficult to pronounce acronym, NMNA, and we can't give it to
many people because we can't pronounce it. (Laughter.) But this is the first
time in the post-Cold War period that we have conferred this status - or
actually at this point, we are consulting with Congress, the President's noticed
Congress on it - and this is done primarily, not completely, to recognize
Argentina's extraordinary peacekeeping role.
Increasingly, we are cooperating with countries around the world in joint
peacekeeping efforts, and I ticked off some of the 16 missions that Argentina
has been on over the past several years, from Bosnia to Haiti, to Cyprus to
Mozambique, to Cambodia. And so we are peacekeeping allies, and that is what the
status means. And I think it is understood by the Argentines in that way and
will be understood by others in the hemisphere in that way.
Q What comes with the status? I mean, it's a recognition, but do they get
anything in addition to that recognition?
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MR. BERGER: There are certain programs that traditionally have been open and
available to countries that have this designation - EDA under the Defense
Department, for example. I think it is mainly a reflection of the partnership
that we have with Argentina on peacekeeping around the world, and the leadership
that they have shown not just in their own hemisphere, but across the world.
There are very few countries that have the record that Argentina has in leading
on peacekeeping. And this is something we wanted to recognize and to embrace and
to encourage.
Q Isn't it creating a new rivalry in the region where you say there is a new
harmony -
MR. BERGER: No, I don't believe SO. First of all, it will be open to others,
this is not something that we would not do again in other circumstances to other
countries that are engaged in peacekeeping. Number two, we have very strong
relations with all of the countries in the region and particularly all the
countries in the Southern Cone, where Argentina resides near Brazil and Chile
and others. So I don't believe that needs to be the case.
Q But, Sandy - not disputing the premise of that, the Brazilians are upset,
right? What can you do to
MR. BERGER: I don't think the Brazilians have been terribly upset. I think
the Chileans have expressed some concern about it. But I think as we've
explained it to them, I think they've come to understand that this is not a
security alliance, it's not a - they're not the 20th member of NATO. This is a
designation to reflect the very close partnership that we have on peacekeeping.
MR. MCLARTY: Well, I think, John, the real issue with the Brazilians has
been the U.N. Security Council permanent seat. That has been their primary
issue. And our position, and we think the correct one, is the position that
Ambassador Richardson laid out, to expand the Permanent Council to 20 to 21
members, but to strongly support a hemispheric seat, but to have a consensus
built within the region as to who would occupy that seat if it's permanent or on
a rotating basis.
And we covered that in some detail with the Brazilians. I think they
understand that position and see it supporting the region. And I think, going
back to the earlier question in terms of cooperation regionally, I think the
cooperation from a military standpoint is at an unprecedented level in the
region, and we certainly have encouraged that and will continue to do so.
Q On the last weekend, will we see the President outline his position on the
global climate change? It's coming up in Bonn the next day and he'll have that
environmental -
MR. BERGER: I think he'll do that upon his return.
Q He'll wait until he gets back here, he won't do it in -
MR. BERGER: That's what I would expect.
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Q Can I ask two questions of Mack about your tenure? One, will you continue
in this role on to Santiago as the kind of specialist for Latin America?
MR. MCLARTY: I'm just hoping to make this big trip Sandy outlined and get
out of the briefing room.
I Well, before you get out of the briefing, can I ask you about your tenure
to this point, both as former Chief of Staff and as a participant in some of the
coffees where the videotapes show that you were one of those that -
MR. MCLARTY: Now, how are you going to tie this into the Latin America
agenda, Ann? Go ahead.
I Did it occur to you when you were a participant in some of these coffees,
and you as a former Chief of Staff know how the videotaping works around here,
that there would be videotapes of these events, and why they weren't discovered
earlier?
MR. MCLARTY: No, I don't know anything about the last part, the videotaping
- the President normally has videotaping most of the places he goes. I, frankly,
did not get into that level of detail. As far as the coffees, I understood they
were political outreach events.
Q But if the Counsel sends out a memo to all White House staffers saying
please come up with anything in your files having to do with these persons and
these occasions, would it not occur to somebody especially who had been - anyone
who had been in the Chief of Staff's Office before that there would have been
WHCA videotaping of the President's events?
MR. MCLARTY: It certainly did not occur to me. I've certainly tried to
comply to any requests that have been made of my office, however, on any data
that has been requested and will continue to do so.
Q Mr. Berger, you mentioned that Brazil is the 8th largest economy in the
world. That makes it a fairly important participant in the Kyoto Conference. But
Brazil is a developing country who has taken a position against significant and
binding reductions in greenhouse gases. Do you think that the relative positions
of U.S. and Brazil such as they've been formed will come up in the stop in
Brasilia?
MR. BERGER: I think that there's no question that the climate change issue
will be discussed in Brazil in probably all three meetings. The President has
made clear that he believes that developed countries and developing countries
each have a responsibility to contribute to the solution of this problem.
We're now in the quickening stages of a discussion leading to Kyoto, and we
hope that there can be some greater convergence between our positions and that
of some of the other developing countries.
Q Did the visit of President Clinton to South America, it's going to be here
in Congress - the date when the United States has to decide with the European
Union about the Helms-Burton law. I wonder if President Clinton is ready to
discuss this issue with the South American countries, especially with this clear
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rejection from Latin America to this unilateral action by the United States.
MR. BERGER: Well, the President has to make, under the law, his own
determination. You're referring to the waiver provision of Title III of
Helms-Burton.
Q I'm talking about Title IV with the issue of the European Union.
MR. BERGER: In either case, this is a decision the President needs to make.
There are 34 countries in the hemisphere, there are 33 democracies. There's one
conspicuous omission - Cuba. We know there are disagreements within the
hemisphere about how best to proceed, but we believe that within the
hemisphere other countries share our objective of seeing a democratic Cuba. I
don't imagine this will be the centerpiece of any of the discussions, but it's
not inconceivable that it will come up.
& - that the U.S. and Brazil will be making regarding drug trafficking?
MR. BERGER: I don't want to get into the specifics of any particular
announcement that we may be making on the trip. Let's wait until we get to
Brazil and we'll go into more detail.
Q On the different roads to hemispheric integration that Mr. McLarty
mentioned, while Brazil has stated its position, it's very skeptical regarding -
and it is at least on that time frame that has been suggested in vice
ministerial negotiations. Also, in Brazil, some of those tensions have been
interpreted as the United States having difficulty to adapt to a situation where
now in the hemisphere there are new expressions of leadership of democratic
countries around especially Mercosur. You and others have made statements to the
fact that the United States supports Mercosur, finds Mercosur a good thing.
I'd like to ask you this. Do you think this trip would be an opportunity for
the President to reaffirm that and if the United States finds Mercosur such a
good idea, to suggest that other countries - to President Cardoso - to suggest
to them to welcome other South American countries into Mercosur if those
countries SO wish?
MR. MCLARTY: I think you will find President Clinton with President Cardoso
and President Menem, both countries members of Mercosur, discussing in a
positive way the positive contribution that Mercosur has made. I think our
position has been that as long as regional trading groups, including the Andean
Pact, CARICOM, the NAFTA, the Central American Common Market, are
trade-enhancing and do not divert trade or distort trade. We believe that is a
positive step toward the goal of an FTAA or a free trade area by the year 2005.
I think also you will find both President Menem and President Cardoso
strongly supportive of achieving this goal of economic integration by the time
line. As far as additional membership in Mercosur, I do not expect that to come
up in terms of our President's participation.
Q Mr. Berger, if I could I'd like to take a quick detour to another issue,
and that's the Persian Gulf overseeing increased tensions. My first question is,
is the U.S. stepping up surveillance flights in Southern Iraq, and why are we
seeing increased tensions over this past week?
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MR. BERGER: Well, there was, as you know, I think earlier this week, Sunday
or Monday, some incursions into Iraq by Iranian planes, which attacked
anti-Iranian terrorists bases in Iraq. In response to that, there was some
activity on the part of the Iraqi Air Force, which may have violated the no-fly
zone, which we enforce in Iraq, both in the south and in the north. And we've
made it quite clear that we continue to enforce a no-fly zone, that it is - was
created in order to assure that the U.N. Security Council resolutions which
protect Iraq's neighbors from Iraq's aggression or Iraq's people from its
repression would be complied with.
And we do that in concert with allies, and we will continue to do that. And
to the extent that there are future violations of the no-fly zone which are -
those planes are subject to action by coalition planes.
Q Any today?
MR. BERGER: I don't know whether - I haven't got a report from today.
Q What about the reports that we are increasing the number of over-flights
on southern Iraq? Is that - are those reports correct?
MR. BERGER: We'll do what is necessary to apply the no-fly zone. I'm not
going to, basically, get into up-tempo here, but we have always, we have since
the Gulf War, and we will continue to do SO.
I I'm sorry, but one last question. Does that no-fly zone apply to Iranian
planes violating Iraqi airspace also?
MR. BERGER: A no-fly zone is a no-fly zone.
Q Mr. Berger, narco traffic is going to be one of the main issues discussed
on the trip. For many years, the government of the United States and President
Samper of Colombia have had very cool relations, and that's calling it mildly.
All of a sudden, General McCaffrey, as soon as this trip is over, will be in
Colombia, will meet with President Samper. There has been an articles, The
Washington Post for one, saying there was a deep division between certain
agencies of the U.S. government on whether this meeting should take place. You,
as National Security Advisor - what is the logic or the reasoning behind -
MR. BERGER: There have been - we have not changed our position with respect
to President Samper. He's been denied visas to the United States. He will
continue to be denied visas to the United States. And we've made very clear our
position. The fact is that Colombia is a major drug supplier, that we have a
very substantial antidrug, counterdrug program in Colombia, and that we have
continued to maintain contact with President Samper for that purpose - that is,
to intensify the effort in fighting the drug war and preventing drugs from
entering the United States. And it is in that context and solely in that context
that General McCaffrey is meeting with President Samper, as other administration
officials have over the past year, for this same purpose.
Q Mr. Berger, today you met the leader of Northern Ireland's biggest
political party. Are you any more optimistic after that meeting that the peace
talks in Belfast will come to a lasting peace settlement?
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MR. BERGER: I think that this is an historic and perhaps unique opportunity
that exists right now in Northern Ireland. By virtue of the leadership of the
two countries involved - i.e, England and Ireland - by virtue of the decisions
that have been taken by the IRA to reinitiate the cease-fire, by virtue of
decisions, Mr. Trimble, who I met with today, made to come into these talks -
the right decision - I think there is the potential here that hasn't existed for
a long time and may not exist for a long time after this to end this bloody war
that has so savaged that portion of the world.
And I think when the President was in Belfast and in Northern Ireland a few
years ago - some of you were with him - with 500,000 or 600,000 or 700,000
people coming out in the streets - and every one, by the way, of the Irish
leaders who comes to meet with me talk about that as being a defining moment,
because they looked around and they said, our people want peace. There's no
question in my mind that the people of Northern Ireland - Protestant, Catholic -
want peace. And now we hope that the leaders of Northern Ireland, leaders of the
various parties under the direction of former Senator Mitchell in these talks
will seize this opportunity, because I am afraid it will not come back again for
a very long time.
Q There is today a report in The New York Times on the front page regarding
the execution, the vanishing of U.S. citizens in the border area with Mexico. I
wonder if the United States government is trying to force or have some pressure
over the Mexican government of the investigation of these supposed to be
executions, made by the police of Mexico and also from the military.
MR. BERGER: I found that a very disturbing story and intend to look into it
more fully. We have never denied, nor has President Zedillo the fact that Mexico
has a deadly serious drug problem which is eating at its institutions like a
cancer. And the argument that's taken place in this country is whether we should
cooperate with Mexico in trying to deal with the problem, or whether we
shouldn't cooperate with Mexico in trying to deal with the problem. But I think
there is no - President Zedillo is the most articulate and eloquent spokesman
for the proposition that this is the number one national security issue - the
number one issue, period, that his country faces.
So there is a serious problem, and it is corrupting many of the institutions
of Mexico, which is why President Zedillo, for example, is creating an entirely
new drug police to replace the old. And I believe that together, through the
alliance that we formed with Mexico when the President was in Mexico City, that
we can make progress. And the fact is that if General McCaffrey were here rather
than in Colombia, he would I think explain very persuasively how substantially
our cooperation has increased even in the past several months. So it's a serious
problem, we need to work on it together with the Mexicans.
As to the specifics of that report, I need to find out more about them, but
they're disturbing.
Q Mr. McLarty, coming back to Colombia, it still is very strange to visit
somebody you don't want to see at your own house. Could it be seen as the
beginning of the end of the isolation of -
MR. MCLARTY: I think we have been consistent in trying to support those
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forces in Colombia who are fighting a courageous battle against narcotics and
narcotics traffickers. I think Mr. Berger has spoken to the overall relationship
with President Samper and with Colombia, but I think the general support of the
drug efforts in Colombia have been consistent with our policy in the past.
I Well, is Samper one of those people who is fighting a courageous battle?
MR. BERGER: I think it was a judgment of General McCaffrey that this would
be a useful meeting in terms of his mission, which is fighting drugs, and his
judgment's been pretty darn good so far. He's not there to have tea and coffee -
tea and crumpets.
Q You haven't mentioned at all advanced weapon sales. Following the
President's decision to do this on a case by case basis, to what extent is this
going to come up at these three stops?
MR. BERGER: It conceivably may come up. It's principally an issue right now
for Chile, of course, which we're not going to until April - Mack has us going
to Latin America about every six weeks.
MR. MCLARTY: The President does. (Laughter.)
MR. BERGER: But I think it's important to understand what the President
decided. Basically, we had a policy for Latin America that was different than
our policy for the rest of the world. And as this revolution has taken place in
Latin America, as they have become democracies, as they have become more modern
economically, as they have established in most cases civilian control over the
military, the notion that we would not entertain the possibility of helping to
modernize their air forces increasingly became obsolete. All that meant was the
Russians or others would sell them the planes and not us.
All the President has decided is that he is lifting the prohibition which
says that we won't look at this, and we will take these on a case by case basis
and look to see whether or not this is modernization, whether or not there is
clearly civilian control, what it will do to the balance of power in the region,
et cetera. And as we do that, we will equally press for confidence-building
measures in the hemisphere through the OAS and other institutions, greater
transparency among the countries of the region so that they have a greater
degree of knowledge about what each of them are doing in the military
modernization area. But a number of these countries have reached the point where
they're going to modernize their air forces and in appropriate circumstances, we
ought to consider participating in that. We have a greater degree of control
over the context if we do.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: October 14, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 249 OF 250 STORIES
Copyright 1997 The Times-Picayune Publishing Co.
The Times-Picayune
October 10, 1997 Friday, THIRD
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. C1
LENGTH: 731 words
HEADLINE: NATIONS CONVERGE FOR ENCUENTRO KICKOFF;
N.O. FUTURE ROLE IS A FOCUS
BYLINE: By JAMES WELSH Business writer
BODY:
The corridors of old Gallier Hall on St. Charles Avenue came alive again
Thursday, as government officials and business people explored the possibilities
of reinvigorating business ties between New Orleans and Latin America.
Under the tall ceilings of the 1800s-era City Hall, government and private
sector representatives from the United States and Latin America gathered to
talk, listen and trade information. The event, called Encuentro Las Americas, is
being held through today to connect business people with key government decision
makers and financing sources for international trade ventures.
About 150 companies paid the $350-per-person registration fee for the
conference, which features appearances by government officials from Costa Rica,
Belize, Nicaragua and several other nations. Throughout the day, the need to
increase global trade in New Orleans was a recurring theme.
"There is one reason we are here, " New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial said during
his Encuentro opening address Thursday morning. "Because we have to be here.'
Belize Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel, a 1962 Loyola graduate who delivered
the luncheon address Thursday, said Encuentro has helped facilitate a couple of
business deals between New Orleans companies and his small Central American
country.
But he said Miami currently holds the cards as the U.S. center for Latin
American trade, partly because of its large Cuban and Latin population and its
gateway airport to Europe and other destinations.
Esquivel said his country's ties to Hibernia National Bank in New Orleans is
a good example of ways to expand the city's role in Latin American trade.
Earlier this year the bank, along with the local equity-research firm The Lugano
Group, became a strategic financial adviser to Belize, which has been struggling
to find its niche in the new global economy.
In many ways, Encuentro's first day was as much a political cheerleading
session as a business forum. Official after official took to the lectern to urge
support for President Clinton as he pushes to have fast-track approval on trade
treaty negotiations affirmed by Congress. The approval would let the president
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The Times-Picayune, October 10, 1997
submit trade pacts to Congress for an up-or-down vote, without giving lawmakers
a chance to attach amendments.
Encuentro speakers, including Mack McLarty, the president's top adviser on
Latin America, painted a grim picture of what might happen should the
fast-track effort fail.
"Our president needs every tool available to him, " McLarty said. "The stakes
are real, and they are high for companies, workers and consumers throughout
America"
J. Brian Atwood, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International
Development in Washington, said small and large companies alike benefit from
programs at his agency, which doles out billions in aid to emerging nations each
year.
"Our foreign aid program isn't foreign any more, " Atwood said.
USAID grants and contracts to Louisiana companies and institutions reached
$2.3 million at the end of 1995. In addition, USAID spent $29.5 million in
Louisiana last year for shipping and handling of Louisiana commodities purchased
in its programs.
Louisiana farmers profit from the agency's programs as well. In 1995, the
agency paid nearly $137 million for corn, rice and other crops used for USAID
programs in 40 nations.
Local business people attending Encuentro Thursday to explore Latin trade
possibilities included Michael Russell, president of Central Analytical
Laboratories in Belle Chasse. The company conducts fruit and vegetable
inspections for food importers and exporters. Russell said he is considering a
move into Guatemala, where his company might bid on an inspection service now
being privatized by the government.
Still, trade proponents continued to complain this week that the New Orleans
business community shows scant support for foreign trade activities. "We
probably had more registrants from Mobile, Ala., than we did from New Orleans,
one Encuentro official said privately.
Atwood agreed that it's hard to get business people interested in trade, even
in a city like New Orleans that was founded as a trade destination.
"People don't fully understand how much their economy depends on trade,"
Atwood said. "It's not easy to see the connection. We have to keep reminding
people that every $1 billion in trade creates 20,000 American jobs. "
GRAPHIC: Mayor Marc Morial chats with Belize Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel
during the outdoor Encuentro Las Americas luncheon Thursday in Lafayette Square.
About 150 companies are represented at the conference. [COLOR] STAFF PHOTO BY
ELIOT KAMENITZ
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: October 11, 1997
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