Remarks to the Caribbean Central America Action Conference

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you Jose, thank you CCAA.

It is an honor to be here today. This is an extremely important gathering that reinforces the strong ties between the United States, Central America, and Caribbean region. We have had good meetings today with several of the Senior Officials from the region. I have just been to Chile, El Salvador and Mexico with my colleagues from the U.S. Treasury and the State Department, and I return to the region later this week with a visit to Colombia and Brazil.

For me, such visits always bring into sharp focus our broad and deep mutual interests that bring us all together in what Secretary Rice in a recent speech at the Organization of American States called “the Pan American community.”

In the Caribbean and Central America and across the hemisphere there is a growing convergence around the core principles and values of democracy, opening markets, trading freely, fighting poverty and building economic growth that is shared by all parts of society. Together the countries of the hemisphere have created what President Bush called a “revolution in expectations;” expectations for prosperity and economic opportunity, as well as for social justice.

The challenge to deliver on the hopes and expectations of our hemispheric neighbors remains a core focus for all of us. Gatherings like this, to address critical issues like energy security, agriculture, small business growth and education, demonstrate the commitment we share to meet these challenges.

The United States under President Bush’s leadership is heavily engaged in the Caribbean basin and the hemisphere using all of the economic foreign policy tools of the U.S. government. What we call our Total Economic Engagement Strategy—for example:

• We have led global efforts to forgive more than $17 billion of debt to our poorest neighbors in the region;
• We have doubled our Official Development Assistance to Latin America since 2002;
• Through our Millennium Challenge Corporation we are supporting economic growth, good governance, the fight against corruption and helping our partners build democratic institutions that fight poverty and invest in their people. Many countries in Central America are Millennium Challenge Corporation countries involved in compacts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Tonight I want to briefly talk about two other tools of our Total Economic Strategy: Free Trade Agreements and our hemispheric biofuels cooperation.

First, Free Trade. The Bush Administration views free trade as the single most important engine of economic growth and poverty reduction in the hemisphere. This deeply held conviction has driven our actions and policies.

Over the past seven years -- in close partnership with the United States Congress and countries in the hemisphere -- we have achieved enormous progress in advancing free trade, whether in: (a) playing a critical role in launching the World Trade Organization’s Doha negotiations; (b) reauthorizing critical regional and global trade preference programs, or (c) negotiating Free Trade Agreements with the countries of Central America, as well as Chile, Panama, Peru, and Colombia.

As many of you know there is a tough and important debate in Washington over Congressional passage of our Free Trade Agreements with Peru, Panama, and Colombia, as well as our Free Trade Agreement with Korea. The Bush Administration from the President, Secretary Rice, Secretary Paulson, Secretary Gutierrez, United State Trade Representative Schwab, and all their subordinates -- like me and my State Department colleagues, Ambassador Charles Shapiro who is here tonight -- are extremely focused on working with Congress to pass these agreements. Indeed, it is one of our highest priorities for the hemisphere.

We were very pleased that the House of Representatives approved the Peru Free Trade Agreement with a strong bipartisan vote. We look forward to a Senate vote soon and continue to urge Congress to approve the other pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, as well as Korea. These Free Trade Agreements will clearly benefit both the United States and our partner trading countries.

As I mentioned, I was just in the region, leading a joint US State/Treasury delegation focused on looking at ways to ensure the benefits of trade are widely shared, especially with regards to smaller economies, and small to medium enterprises and small farmers. I had a great visit in El Salvador and had the opportunity to visit with the Economic Minister about a small business that was exporting papusas and tomales to the United States. This is a classic example -- a microcosm to benefits of free trade: exports have increased from about $250,000 to nearly $1 million; employment has increased; purchasing of corn has increased.

But, I asked, “Where is the equipment coming from?” And the answer is: the United States. El Salvador has seen an increase in corn purchasing, but they are purchase their seed from the United States. Who benefits? Well all do -- it is a win/win.

But free trade in the region is not just about economic prosperity. In an important and powerful speech at the Organization of American States recently, my boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated, “Trade agreements with the United States would help significantly to advance our partners’ political, economic and social development -- making their democratic institutions more transparent and accountable, more effective at fighting poverty and corruption, enforcing the law, and investing in education, health and opportunity for their people.”

And so we will continue to work extremely hard to ensure that the hemisphere continues to benefit from open market and free trade policies.

Another critical element of our Total Economic Engagement Strategy is to work together to help ensure the hemisphere is able to meet our energy needs. The United State’s views diversification of sources as types of energy as the key to energy security. President Bush has set a goal of reducing the United States’ gasoline consumption by 20% in the next ten years -- the vast majority to come from increased use of alternative fuels including biofuels.

We have chosen CCAA as the forum to advance our fruitful partnership between the United State and Brazil, and our first group of partners from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and St. Kitts-Nevis, all which are with us tonight. We have made significant progress in the nine months since Secretary Rice and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim signed this landmark agreement. The Caribbean basin is the most oil import-dependent region in the world, and so this work is timely and vital.

The U.S. and Brazil are cooperating on biofuels on three levels:

1.  Bilateral: The U.S. and Brazil are working together to advance the research and development of next generation biofuels technology. Our scientists are traveling back-and-forth between Brazil and the U.S., identifying strong opportunities for cooperation and working to develop specific projects for bilateral collaboration.
2. Global: The U.S. and Brazil have created an International Biofuels Forum, which is working with Europe, Africa and Asia, to expand the biofuels marketplace. U.S., Brazilian, and European Union standards organization are working together to deliver on an ambitious timeline to arrive at ‘compatible’ standards and codes by the end of the calendar year. This agreement will significantly reduce the variance across the properties of bioethanol and biodiesel - an essential step toward the commoditization of biofuels. This work continues.
3.  Regional/Third Countries: We are working together with our partners to stimulate private sector investment in biofuels and bring the benefits of locally produced biofuels for domestic markets to these third countries to advance employment, clean the air, and to advance regional energy security.

Over the next few days, we are bringing our regional cooperation process here to Miami, with our partners from the Inter- American Development Bank, the OAS and the UN Foundation and our Central American and Caribbean neighbors. I am pleased to announce today that the first stage of feasibility studies is completed, with work done in tandem by U.S. and Brazilian consultants.

Today and tomorrow, we are discussing here in the Inter Continental with the partner countries about what our consultants have found, and how, together, we can move forward. We are looking at:

• Technical assistance to help implement renewable fuel standards;
• Analysis on greenfield biofuels projects in two of the countries;
• The use of innovative plants like jatropha for biodiesel; as well as
• The best ways to attract investments to refineries to blend ethanol to offset the import of petroleum.
• I am also pleased to announce that, today, we have agreed with St. Kitts to begin a stream of technical assistance that will guide them in land use decisions as they move to reactivate their sugar fields for bioenergy.

The private sector will make all of the key investments in this region, and U.S. and Brazilian delegations have, and will continue to deepen our consultations with the private sector. That is why we have brought our meeting to you, and not to some government building.

The State Department is pleased to be the sponsor of CCAA’s biofuels panel on Wednesday so as to broaden this public private discussion and our teams will be here for the whole conference and are interested in hearing your views. Those included are Greg Manuel, Matt McManus, and Dr. Brenda Haendler. And so you know how to find us, let me ask our multinational team from the U.S., Brazil and the region to stand, and let’s salute them as they demonstrate the best of hemispheric cooperation.

In conclusion -- free trade and our biofuels cooperation are part of our larger strategy for the economic and social development of the Caribbean, Central America, and the rest of the hemisphere. As my State Department colleague Assistant Secretary Tom Shannon has stated, “The three evils of the Americas -- poverty, inequality, and social exclusion -- cannot be over come without the economic growth and opportunity…” Our free trade and other economic engagement tools are also essential in this effort.

There is a great deal yet to accomplish in the Caribbean, Central America, and in the hemisphere. In a room like this I am extremely optimistic that the Pan American Community we have worked to build is more than equal to the challenge.

Thank you.