July 2, 2007
HP-480

Treasury Secretary Paulson to Visit Brazil, Uruguay and Chile Next Week

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. will travel to South America next week to reinforce our strong ties with Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile and to stress our stake in the economic success of Latin America. He will meet with finance ministers and heads of state in the region, as well as local business leaders to discuss ideas on how to spread opportunity, reduce poverty, and build the middle class in the region and talk about what the United States is doing to help.

Secretary Paulson will travel to Belo Horizonte on Monday, July 9, where he plans to meet with Governor Aécio Neves and venture capitalists. On Wednesday he will be in Brasilia where he will meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, Finance Minister Guido Mantega, Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff, Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Celso Amorim. He will also attend a lunch on access to finance and local capital market development.

Paulson will spend Thursday in Montevideo where he will meet with Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez and Minister of Finance Danilo Astori. From there he will travel to Santiago to hold meetings Friday with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alejandro Foxley, Minister of Finance Andres Velasco, and Central Bank Chairman Vittorio Corbo.

These visits to Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile will be his first to those countries as Treasury Secretary. Secretary Paulson traveled to Mexico in April of 2007, Guatemala and Peru in March of 2007, and Colombia in August of 2006.