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Skriven 2005-11-04 23:33:18 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0511043) for Fri, 2005 Nov 4
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Press Briefing by Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere
Tom Shannon on the President's Bilateral Meetings
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 4, 2005

Press Briefing by Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere
Tom Shannon on the President's Bilateral Meetings
Sheraton Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata, Argentina



1:15 P.M. (Local)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Thank you very much.

I'm battling a cold right now, so please forgive me if I start coughing, or
something.

The President had an opportunity to speak to the White House press corps
and discuss in some detail what happened in some of the meetings. I don't
know if any of you here, present, had a chance to see that, whether or not
you need me to kind of run briefly through the events, or whether or not
you just want to go to questions.

Q Please, could you read through --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Effectively, this morning the President met
with the CAFTA leaders -- the Presidents of the Central American countries
and the Dominican Republic. President Maduro of Honduras was not present in
the meeting. Largely because of recent flooding and damage that had been
done in Honduras, he believed he needed to stay in Honduras to oversee
recovery efforts. But Honduras did have a representative present.

He then met with the Argentine President, Mr. Kirchner, and members of
President Kirchner's government, and then had an opportunity to meet with
leaders of four Andean countries, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

In the meeting with the CAFTA leaders, this is the first time the
Presidents have had an opportunity to meet with President Bush since the
ratification of CAFTA, so it was an important opportunity for us to look at
how we take CAFTA, implement it in January and begin to make sure that the
Central American countries are best placed to get as much advantage as they
can from the Free Trade Agreement with the Central American countries and
the Dominican Republic. And obviously, it also gave us an opportunity to
talk with the Central Americans a bit about their own reconstruction and
recovery efforts in the aftermath of both the hurricanes and tropical
storms that have battered Central America. And the Central Americans, for
their part, wanted to talk a bit about immigration issues.

In the meeting with President Kirchner, as the President noted in his
statement following that meeting, it was, from our point of view, a very
good discussion with a very good interlocutor on not only the bilateral
relationship, but also on larger regional issues. And again, this is the
third time the President has met with President Kirchner. He's spoken with
him a variety of times by phone. They're both leaders who believe that it's
important to speak clearly and directly, and from my own experience, this
makes for very, very useful conversation, and I believe that the
conversation with President Kirchner was a useful conversation.

And finally, with the Andean leaders, again, we're in the process of
negotiating a free trade agreement with three of the Andean countries,
Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. Bolivia is acting as an observer in those
talks, and the conversations between the Presidents focused largely on how
we can move the ---- what work we can do in the region to consolidate
democratic institutions and deepen the capacity of both political society
and civil society in the Andean countries to manage the internal political
dynamics of the Andean countries, and then also, more broadly, about the
war on terrorism's link to the war on drugs.

Why don't I just stop there and take any questions you might have.

Q Does the U.S. regard Hugo Chavez's political rhetoric as just leftist
bluster, or is he taken seriously?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: You know, from my own point of view, I'm not
sure I would describe what President Chavez says as rhetoric. President
Chavez obviously believes in what he says, and I believe he is committed to
what he says. From our point of view, what's striking about some of what he
says is that it offers a vision of Venezuela, of the region, of the
Americas, that is distinct from the vision that has been expressed through
a variety of summits of the Americas. And as you're aware, starting NATO
Quebec City, the summits have been able to fashion a consensus around
democracy, free markets, and economic integration, and in the follow-up in
Monterrey and in the follow-up here, the focus of leaders has been on
looking for ways to take that commitment to democracy, free markets and
economic integration and make it real, and find a way to make sure that
democracy delivers the benefits, the economic and social benefits, to the
peoples of the Americas.

And from our point of view, and I think it's a view that's widely shared
around the hemisphere, the leaders have done a pretty good job in creating
an ambitious agenda and trying to find both the resources and the tools to
meet that agenda. But again, what's striking about the summit process is
that there really has been a common agenda and unity of purpose, and the
agenda laid out by the leaders is so ambitious that the only way we're
going to achieve it successfully is if the hemisphere is united in that
pursuit. And the degree to which there is division in the Americas, the
degree to which there are people who want to opt out of that common
consensus, it lessons the chances of successfully achieving the kind of
agenda that we have identified.

Q Can you flesh out a little bit the conflict over the IMF, what Mr.
Kirchner said to the President and what his response was on that issue?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Well, as you know, Argentina has -- I'm sorry,
the question was on the IMF and whether or not I could flesh out a little
bit President Kirchner's complaint about the IMF, and in particular, what
happened in the conversation and what we had to say. I think it's best to
go to the Argentines to find out how they feel about the IMF. But as both
President Kirchner and the President noted in his comments, Argentina has
been working hard to negotiate a series of agreements over time with the
IMF, and President Kirchner is of the opinion that Argentina has been very
successful in reenergizing its economy, creating economic growth levels
that are good for Argentine society, and in meeting his debt requirements
to the IMF. And he is of the opinion that as Argentina has moved forward
successfully in this regard, that multilateral development banks and the
IMF, in particular, should be a less intrusive partner in terms of creating
conditionalities for additional IMF assistance.

As the President noted in his remarks, several years ago when President
Kirchner first met with President Bush and had just been elected and was
dealing with the IMF, we made a conscious decision that Argentina needed to
succeed in its economic recovery effort, and that international financial
institutions needed to find a way to work with Argentina to create a basis
for Argentine success. And as the President noted, we were happy to be able
to support Argentina in its negotiations with the IMF.

The point the President made to President Kirchner is that he has been
successful; he's got the kind of economic growth levels that are
significant, and he now has a very strong hand when it comes to taking his
case back to the IMF. Because, ultimately, what are multilateral
development banks about? What are international financial institutions
about? They're about getting countries back on their feet. They're about
giving countries the means and the resources necessary to pay their bills
and to meet their other expenses. And Argentina has been pretty successful
at that.

Q Did the President offer any help in that regard?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Well, the point the President made is that
Argentina is its own best help. Argentina really doesn't need our help in
this regard, because it has the success story that it needs to take into
these kinds of negotiations. I mean, obviously, we want Argentina to
continue to be successful; we're committed to that kind of success because
a stable, democratic, prosperous Argentina is an important anchor in a
region that faces a lot of troubles at this point.

Q When the President said that he had a stronger case to make, is that --
is he suggesting that the IMF might loosen its involvement, or its
regulations?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: No, I think he's just making the point that,
as I noted earlier, international financial institutions are about getting
countries back on their feet and putting them in a position where they can
be successful, and Argentina has shown that it does that.

Q -- he hasn't taken any stand on what he thinks -- how he thinks the IMF
should respond to --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: No, he's made clear that ultimately, this is
an issue between Argentina and the IMF. But again, Kirchner is in a strong
position to make his case, and more broadly, we want Argentina to be
successful.

Q Can I ask sort of two questions that are kind of related? One is, what is
your opening proposal on the free trade area of the Americas -- what is
your proposal to get that discussion moving forward? And also, can you give
us a little bit more of a readout of the meeting with the Andean leaders,
and is that kind of a model that you're really more aggressively pursuing
-- in other words, sort of regional trade agreements -- while you're
waiting for the FTAA to come together?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: By opening proposal, what do you mean? Here in
Mar del Plata? Okay. The negotiations in terms of the summit declaration
are still ongoing, and so I'm really not in a position to be able to talk
about that. I can say, however, that it's become clear as the negotiations
have moved forward that there is significant support within the region for
economic integration and for a free trade area of the Americas. But there's
also a recognition, as I noted earlier, that what has slowed the FTA talks
down are agriculture subsidy issues that are really being addressed within
the Doha Round, and that while we think it's important to maintain our
commitment to free trade in the region and acknowledge that that free trade
is taking place at several different levels -- global, regional, and
bilaterally -- that ultimately addressing the agricultural subsidy issue
within the WTO, within the Doha Round, is going to create potentials and
possibilities in the FTA talks that will be significant.

Q -- and the Andean agreement?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Oh, I'm sorry, the Andeans. We've done several
-- we've done a regional agreement in NAFTA 10 years ago. We did the Chile
agreement; we did a regional agreement with CAFTA. So this is one of
several tracks of our free trade agenda that we're pursuing. We think we've
been pursuing them fairly successfully. The two that are still outstanding,
still being negotiated, are Panama and, as I mentioned, the Andean FTA. And
those talks are ongoing. And it was evident from the conversation in the
meeting today that everybody recognizes how important a free trade
agreement would be with the Andean countries, especially as we look towards
December 2006, when the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act
expires, and the degree to which all of our countries can come to terms
before that happens.

Q The Mexican President has suggested that 29 of the 34 countries might
move forward on the FTAA without the rest, and you just mentioned that
having countries opt out of consensus agreements might lesson their
success. So if that, indeed, occurs, how would you guys view that? Would
that be a partial success, or a success --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: I'm sorry, I didn't hear the Mexican
President's comments. What did he say?

Q The Mexican President, Vicente Fox, said that 29 of the 34 countries are
in favor of moving forward on negotiations with the FTAA, and the rest of
them would be left behind, the ones who don't want to be a part of it.
Would you all see that as a partial victory on this?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: His comments must be in reference not to the
FTA, but in reference to the declaration, itself, are they not?

Q No, they're in reference to the FTAA.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: I haven't seen the comments. But obviously, as
you move forward in negotiations, a country can opt out whenever it wants
to. I mean, although we call it free trade area of the Americas, and our
goal is to have an economically integrated hemisphere stretching from
Canada to the tip of Chile and Argentina, obviously, to the degree to which
there is any country in the region that decides it cannot join FTAA, that's
going to be their sovereign decision and there's really not much we or
anybody else can do about it.

I do think it's important, however, that the President of Mexico is
prepared -- and the Mexican government is prepared to speak clearly about
its commitment to free trade, because I think it highlights what I
indicated earlier, that we do have a larger commitment and a consensus
toward free trade in the region.

Q How do you reconcile this enthusiasm you described for these regional
free trade agreements with Chavez's growing popularity --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: These are big issues -- he asked how I can
reconcile the enthusiasm for free trade agreements in the region with what
is perceived as Chavez's popularity in some segments of Latin American
society. And I guess I would -- it's a very good question and the answer is
sociological, it's political, it's -- but I think what I would say very
quickly is that the issues we're trying to tackle in the summit process
and, more broadly, in the region, are really big issues, they're really
important issues. And as we are successful in creating a democratic
hemisphere, as we are successful, as we have been, in creating a hemisphere
that is committed to democratic government, what we found is that social --
all political, economic and social debate, and social conflict and
confrontation, get channeled through democratic institutions. And in many
ways, what we're seeing in the emergence of -- in some countries to sectors
of society that are resistant to what we consider to be a larger positive
vision for the hemisphere in terms of free trade, you're seeing an
expression of people coming into democratic systems and being able to
express themselves in a significant way.

And that's important. Because these debates are important, and ultimately,
the decisions that are going to be made are going to affect societies in
their entirety. And therefore, we welcome this kind of debate, because
ultimately, we think that what the leaders of the hemisphere have sketched
out over time in the summit process is an agenda that is positive, and it's
an agenda that, if implemented properly, will work.

Q Two questions. Is there any talk of a fifth summit somewhere? Is the
summit process going to continue? And the second question, back to Kirchner
-- in his second intervention, he described the conversation with President
Bush as, clear, sincere and raw -- cruda -- suggesting that this was
probably heated conversations about something. Can you go back to that a
little bit? Why did he use the word,"cruda," to describe a conversation
with the President?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: On the first part of the question, there's a
continuity in the summit process, and typically, over time and at the end
of each summit, a new host has been identified. This is going to be one of
the issues that the leaders address in this summit. The next host has not
been identified yet, but we certainly expect that the summit process will
continue. And especially given the number of elections that are going to be
taking place in the region over the next two years, we're looking --
depending on who you're counting, over the next two years we could have
anywhere from 11 to 16 elections, and we're going to have a whole new group
of democratically elected leaders in a couple of years. And from our point
of view, it makes a lot of sense to find ways to, as you move this summit
process forward, find ways to bring the new leaders into that process.

In regard to use of the word "cruda," I'm afraid I can't. You'll have to
ask President Kirchner why he used the word "cruda." I mean, I thought it
was an excellent conversation. These are two leaders who know each other
well, who have a reputation for speaking directly to the point, and that
creates, I think, kind of a clarity of conversation, a clarity of dialogue
that is really important to have, especially among two countries that have
so many values in common and which have been part of a larger kind of a
hemisphere project. So I'm afraid the most I can say is that I thought it
was a really good meeting.

Q How would you describe the constituency across Latin America that is
drawn to Chavez? That is, would you regard that constituency as important
in a political sense, or as a marginal sector of the population that isn't
too influential?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: The question was how I would describe Chavez'S
constituency; whether it was an important constituency, or whether it was
marginal.

Listen, I'm not quite sure who Chavez'S constituency is. I mean, it's
obvious that he has a constituency in Venezuela, because they voted for
him. In the rest of the hemisphere, it's not clear what that consistency --
what that constituency consists of. I would just note that the kinds of
demonstrations that we're going to see here in Mar del Plata are not
unusual around these kinds of larger international gatherings. If you look
back at the Quebec City Summit of the Americas, which is, today, considered
a very important summit, where leaders did agree on kind of a common
commitment and a common agenda around democracy, free markets and economic
integration, there was enormous demonstrations in the streets.

So all I can say is that we need to have a process in which people can
express themselves, and play a role in their larger societies' efforts to
come to terms with the big social and political and economic problems they
face. And it's good that people have an opportunity to express themselves.

Q The Quebec City demonstrations were before the war in Iraq. Is it your
judgment that the war in Iraq has not kind of changed the terms of the
debate and given Chavez an opportunity to enlarge his constituency?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Well, again, I'm not quite sure what the
constituency is. He, obviously, opposes a lot of our foreign policy
initiatives -- the war on terror being one of them. However, I think you're
going to see that the kinds of demonstrations held here in Mar del Plata,
at least as described by the leaders, are going to be quite different from
what took place at Quebec City. So I'm afraid I can't answer the question
better than that.

Q Are you expecting anything absolutely concrete to come out of this
meeting that would move the ball forward in any way on trade, or the trade
issues, or anything? Or is it just going to be a lot of --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: It's important to understand that this is not
a meeting about trade. This is not a meeting about trade. This is a meeting
about leaders from the democratic states in the Americas getting together
to discuss common problems, common values, and try to construct common
responses that, as I noted before, kind of deliver the goods to the people.

And trade is just one aspect of it. And it would be a mistake to focus --
to narrow the focus too dramatically to trade. Trade is obviously
important, but democratic values are important, finding ways to support
democratic institutions are important, looking for ways to increase the
capacity and capability of democratic institutions, whether they be the
formal institutions of government, or whether they be the social
institutions of political parties and civil society.

The great thing about the summit dialogue, the great thing about the
opportunity for the leaders to get together is that they really can talk
about the wide range of issues and problems that are faced. And so in that
regard, we have to be careful that we not kind of get -- have the focus
narrowed too dramatically, number one; and number two, that in the
Americas, leaders have been able to move a larger social agenda forward
incrementally in a way that really has had an impact. It's had a -- if you
look at what's going on at the macro level in the region, it's pretty
impressive in terms of economic growth, in terms of reduction in inflation,
in terms of managing the fiscal deficit.

The big challenge the region faces is in the micro area, where you really
are providing -- or translating economic growth into economic opportunity
and into jobs so that people can have the resources necessary to have
control of their own destiny. And in order for that to happen, countries
have to do -- make really tough internal domestic decisions about rule of
law, about conflict and dispute resolution, about addressing corruption,
creating the right kind of investment climate, addressing kind of rigid
labor market regimes. And these are all tough issues.

And so as we work through these summits and identify the steps that
governments can take, we're ultimately going to be measured on the success
of those steps and the degree to which our involvement and the kind of
resources we can bring to bear have a positive impact.

Q Two questions. Does President Bush plan to speak this afternoon or this
evening at the summit meetings? And two, when you see demonstrations like
here in Argentina, and presumably the ones that we'll see later on in the
trip, do you acknowledge the difference between anti-Bushism and
anti-Americanism?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: The plenary sessions are set up in such a way
that they try to promote a dialogue among leaders, as opposed to just
having leaders kind of give speeches to each other. So I fully anticipate
that the President will be speaking. However, ultimately, he's going to
decide when he speaks and on what topic. But really what we're -- what we
hope to get here is a fairly fluid dialogue between leaders.

As for distinctions, as you noted in terms of the demonstrators, I'm really
not sure how to answer that question. I'm not sure what the distinction is.
It's important to understand that Mr. Bush is the President of the United
States. He's the democratically-elected representative of the people of the
United States. So I guess I would leave my response at that.

Q Yes, back to Argentina. You were saying the President is happy about the
growth process Argentina is going through, but that growth process is
happening because Argentina went in default for tens of billions of dollars
of foreign debt, and tens of thousands of small private investors did not
recover their money. So there is a moral cause -- is the President
endorsing the choices of Argentina in not repaying its sovereign debt?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: My understanding is that Argentina engaged in
a negotiation with -- on both public and private debt issues. I'm not sure
the -- I think it would be a stretch to indicate from the President's words
that he was talking about the issue that you just raised. I think it's --
what he's trying to do is that, countries that find themselves in the kind
of economic straits that Argentina found itself, with its economy
devastated, its social fabric frayed, and its political system at risk,
that these countries have to find ways to establish a political, an
economic, and a social balance again that protects democratic institutions
and creates a basis for economic growth.

And I think what the President was saying is that Argentina has been able
to do that. All these things come at a cost, and I think what's important
to note, though, is that Argentina did not walk away from these
responsibilities, they engaged them in a context of a negotiated solution.

Q Would the President prefer 100 percent repayment happen --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: They did not talk in that level of detail on
either public or private negotiations.

Okay, great. Thank you all very much.

END 1:48 P.M. (Local)

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