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Skriven 2005-06-17 23:33:24 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0506179) for Fri, 2005 Jun 17
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Radio Interview of the Vice President by Steve Gill, The Steve Gill Show
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
June 17, 2005

Radio Interview of the Vice President by Steve Gill, The Steve Gill Show
The Vice President's West Wing Office
Via Telephone



9:15 A.M. EDT

Q (In progress) of course, talk about Dick Durbin's comments and the plans
-- the suggestions by some Republicans to close Guantanamo Bay.

The Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney, with us this morning.
And, Mr. Vice President, thanks for being with us.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Good morning, Steve. Good to talk to you.

Q Good to have you with us this morning. Earlier this week, we had a caller
ask about CAFTA, and we decided to go right to the top, or at least right
next to the top to find out about this free trade agreement. We've got some
technical difficulties, I guess -- the Vice President can't hear us.

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THE VICE PRESIDENT: It sounds okay now.

Q Okay, we got it. There you go.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think we're in good shape, Steve.

Q Thank you. Appreciate your being with us, by the way, and have enjoyed
visiting with you in the past. CAFTA, this Central American Free Trade
Agreement is one of the things that some of our listeners are asking about.
Ten years ago we passed NAFTA and a lot of promises of what it would do in
terms of growing business, growing trade for America -- a lot of the good
news about NAFTA hasn't got out there. And it's going to be difficult, I
think, for us to sell CAFTA unless folks really understand what NAFTA has
done.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Right, well, NAFTA has been a -- I think a great
success in the fact of the matter in terms of promoting trade throughout
the hemisphere. And I think it has gotten a bum rap in terms of the notion
somehow it's been a negative. Employment, for example, since they signed
NAFTA in the U.S. rose over 20 million jobs. Average unemployment rate has
been 5.1 percent for the 10 years since we signed NAFTA. It was 6.4 percent
the 10 years before we signed NAFTA. Industrial production rose by 35
percent since we've signed NAFTA. So there's a series of indications there,
frankly, that it has, indeed, improved our overall economic situation.

I think you can find cases out there, I'm sure, where individual businesses
may have been hurt, but the overall impact on the U.S. economy, I think,
has been very positive.

Q One of the things that NAFTA opened up and that CAFTA will do as well is
access for our services, banking industry, insurance industry, the legal
community. We often think in terms of trade with stuff, raw materials and
manufactured goods, but opening up the service markets in Canada, in Mexico
-- with GATT into Europe and with CAFTA into these markets, that service
industry is also important.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right. In fact, once we knock down those
barriers and encourage the movement not only in goods but, as you say, in
services, as well, too, it's an enormous benefit for everybody. And
American companies have benefited directly from that, as well as a lot of
our business. You look agriculture, for example. Each day that -- NAFTA
parties today conduct about $2 billion in three-way trade between the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico. They got $2 billion a year -- a day in trade just as a
result of that agreement.

Q Yes, and when we look at extending these agreements into Central America,
we're being told is that we don't have access to those markets while our
borders are already open --about 80 percent of the goods coming from CAFTA,
just as was the case with NAFTA from Mexico and Canada, our borders were
open to their products; it's their borders that are closed to us. And
that's really what's being opened up with these trade agreements.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's right, Steve. You cited the right number, about
80 percent of their stuff is coming in right now tariff-free. What this
agreement will do is get us access to those markets on the same terms and
conditions. And remember these are small South -- Central American
countries -- we think about Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and so forth.
But all together, those five Central American countries, plus the Dominican
Republic which is included here, as well, too, come to about 44 million
people. It's a pretty good sized market out there. It's bigger than our
total exports to Russia, India, and Indonesia combined. So it's an
important market for us. Agriculture especially will benefit from this in
terms of our opportunities to trade and sell our products down there.

There's another element, though, that's very important, I think, we need to
focus on. And that's to remember that these are all relatively young
democracies in Central America. It wasn't that many years ago when we had
major problems of Communist insurgencies, for example, in Nicaragua and El
Salvador and a situation down there that was pretty bleak from the
standpoint of their overall economic capabilities, and frankly also subject
to subversion from Cuba and elsewhere. That's all changed now. They've got
democratically elected governments. Their Presidents have put their
political reputations on the line to get this agreement approved. Having
them integrated with the U.S. economy enhances not only our economic
circumstances, but also enhances our security circumstances in the
hemisphere.

Q Critics of the agreement and critics of NAFTA say that it also imposes a
loss of our sovereignty because suddenly you've got world courts, you've
got other trade partners dictating some of our environmental laws, some of
our labor laws. Now, arguably, we're also imposing some of our views on
labor laws and environmental laws on these countries, as well. But what do
you say to those who say we're losing our sovereignty, we're letting others
set rules for America?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I don't buy that at all. The fact of the matter is
the overall operations will be, I think, of significant benefit. And any
time we can enhance the economic activity and the exchanges back and forth
across borders, I think American workers can compete, and American
businesses can compete anyplace in the world as long as we got a level
playing field out there. And what these agreements are all about basically
is getting that level playing field, eliminating tariff and sometimes and
non-tariff barriers that stand in the way of increased commerce.

Q Another of the arguments in favor of NAFTA and for CAFTA, as well, is
that by growing these economies, it will help slow the flood of illegals
across the borders that come here looking for jobs and opportunities. If
their middle class, if their economic opportunities grow, they've got more
of an incentive to stay home. Obviously, with NAFTA -- and a lot of critics
of the administration -- it seems that flood of illegals has continued.
Will CAFTA do anything to help that, and will the administration focus some
on that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: We think it will, Steve. The best estimates -- I just
heard these numbers just yesterday -- out of the illegal aliens coming
across our southern borders now, roughly half come from Mexico, but about a
quarter of them -- 27 percent, 28 percent -- are estimated to come from
Central America and cross the southern border with Mexico, travel all
across Mexico and then cross our border to get into the United States. What
motivates them is primarily economic concerns. They want to be able to earn
some money so they can feed their families. And they come to the United
States because of the -- the opportunities exist here that don't exist down
there.

Well, one of the ways we deal with that -- obviously, we got to do
everything we can to secure our borders, but we also need to enhance their
opportunities back in their home areas. I think they'd prefer to say home
with their families and live down there if they could make a decent living.
And when we make it possible for those economies down there to expand, that
helps significantly reduce the pressures, I think, in terms of the illegal
immigration that we otherwise have to deal with.

Q You mentioned securing our borders, and it's not just a matter of
economics and protecting our borders from a cultural, economic standpoint
anymore, national security is an issue, as well. And obviously, in this war
on terrorism this week, we've had a lot of attention paid to what's going
on in Guantanamo Bay with some of the terrorist thugs who have conspired
against us. Dick Durbin, as you know, has made some comments comparing our
U.S. soldiers to Nazis. Yesterday, Scott McClellan, the White House
Spokesman, called his comments "reprehensible." How do you take Senator
Durbin's comments? What's your response to his comments?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, this is, I'm sure, a family program, Steve. I
have to be careful what I say. (Laughter.) I thought Durbin was totally out
of line. I watched some of his comments on the floor of the United States
Senate. For him to make those comparisons was one of the more egregious
things I'd ever heard uttered on the floor of the United States Senate. But
he -- the fact of the matter is the situation at Guantanamo is being very
well handled by our military. Remember what's happened here. We've --
during the course of our operations in Afghanistan and then the global war
on terror, we have picked up a number of people we call detainees. These
are terrorists. These are bomb-makers. These are terrorist facilitators,
members of al Qaeda, members of the Taliban from Afghanistan. We have them
down at Guantanamo, where they're well treated. They're well housed.
They're well fed. Their religious needs and desires are catered to. They're
not being tortured or mistreated, but they are a major source of
intelligence for us. Plus, we need to keep them off the streets.

Now, a couple hundred have already been released -- that is, been through a
review process. And once it's determined that they don't constitute a
threat to the United States or have no further intelligence value, then
we've, in fact, returned them to their country of origin. In some cases,
about 10 cases, some of them have then gone back into the battle against
our guys. We've had two or three that I know of specifically by name that
ended up back on the battlefield in Afghanistan where they were killed by
U.S. or Afghan forces.

Now, the key here to remember is that the 520 we've got down there, these
are -- hard-core terrorists is the only way to describe them. They're
unlawful combatants. They're out to kill Americans. And if you put them
back on the streets, that's exactly what they'll do. All the hand wringing
that we've heard from Durbin and others strikes me as totally
inappropriate. This is a wide open facility down there. There have been --
over a thousand reporters have visited it. The International Committee of
the Red Cross can visit it 24 hours a day at their discretion. We've had 11
senators and some 77 House members have been down there to visit the
facility. There are no secrets in terms of how it's being operated, and it
is being operated in a decent and humane manner. But we absolutely need to
have a facility like that to house some very violent and evil people.

Q So no plans to close it?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, sir. The President wants us to make sure we do a
continuous review of the cases down there, and that we're continually
updating our policies and so forth. But if we didn't have a place like
this, we'd have to create one.

Q We appreciate your time, Vice President Dick Cheney. And are you
surprised by the way the Democrats are not condemning Durbin's comments?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think they're swallowing hard. (Laughter.) We'll see
what happens. I watched yesterday. Of course, he had to get back on the
floor yesterday to try to defend himself. But I just -- it was so far over
the top that I'm just appalled that anybody who serves in the United States
Senate would even think those thoughts.

Q Vice President Cheney. We appreciate the time with you, look forward to
seeing you again, and appreciate your spending some time with us this
morning.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: All right, Steve. Say hello to everybody in Tennessee.

Q Will do it. Come down and see us. We don't have quite as good trout
fishing as you do out in Wyoming, but we're happy to have you come down and
wet a line sometime.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: All right. Thanks.

Q Talk to you soon, thank you.

END 9:27 A.M. EDT

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