Posted on 12/09/2002 5:13:41 PM PST by RCW2001
WASHINGTON (AP) - The three architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement said Monday a free trade pact for the Western Hemisphere is the logical next step.
Former President Bush, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gotari, who were in office when NAFTA was negotiated, reunited to open a conference marking the 10th anniversary of its signing.
The three said NAFTA, signed in 1992 and effective in 1994, had set a standard for the opening of markets for the region and was a worthwhile objective despite heavy opposition at the time.
"Our countries are stronger, our economies more robust, our peoples more prosperous, our social structures more resilient, our capital markets more stable, our roles in the world more vigorous, as a result of NAFTA," Mulroney said.
The leaders agreed the next step is the completion of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which strives to create a hemisphere-wide free trade zone.
Completion of the agreement is scheduled for 2005, but it has run into opposition, including from Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Brazil and the United States, are taking over chairmanship of the negotiations of the agreement. Lula is in Washington and has a White House meeting Tuesday with President Bush and a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who represents Bush on the hemispheric trade talks.
"With some 20 million jobs in the U.S. depending on trade, now is not the time to rest on our laurels," former President Bush said. "I want to live long enough to see this hemisphere totally democratic and totally free trade. I think I can make it. I really do."
Bush did not sign NAFTA into law because he lost re-election in 1992 to Bill Clinton. He praised Clinton for finishing the work and getting it approved by Congress. But he criticized another political rival, former presidential candidate Ross Perot, who predicted NAFTA would send U.S. jobs south of the border.
"There hasn't been a 'giant sucking sound' " Bush squeaked in imitation of Perot.
Instead, Bush and the two other NAFTA leaders agreed their economies were doing better under NAFTA. Canadian exports to Mexico and the United States increased 95 percent and Mexico has surpassed Japan as America's No. 2 trading partner, Mulroney said.
But some Latin American countries have complained that the United States has not been doing enough to open up certain markets, particularly agricultural ones, in the hemispheric trade talks. Mulroney agreed that opening agricultural markets was necessary for the hemispheric trade agreement to work.
The pact negotiators "need to guarantee access to our markets for the exports that matter most for our partners, particularly the export of agricultural commodities," said Mulroney, who held office from 1984-93.
"The rich countries pay out more than $300 billion a year in farm subsidies, thereby .... killing off any hope for developing countries to compete fairly," Mulroney said.
Salinas added that free trade also includes the free movement of people and pronounced support for Mexican President Vicente Fox, who succeeded Salinas. Salinas was Mexico's president from 1988 to 1994.
"President Fox has taken the correct position by insisting on a migration treaty," Salinas said, adding that the migration of Mexican workers is in response to U.S. demand for laborers.
In his 20-page prepared remarks, Salinas also called the trade embargo on Cuba an anachronism, but did not include that in his spoken comments.
A poll commissioned by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which organized the conference, found that almost half of Americans believe the United States has been a winner in the agreement. But in Mexico, 52 percent believe they were losers in NAFTA and 47 percent of Canadians feel their country was the loser.
Apart from the hemispheric trade pact, Mulroney said the greatest urgency for maintaining free trade is securing North America against terrorism by denying it a foothold on the continent, but ensuring the uninterrupted flow of trade and people.
"We must make our internal borders work in our shared interest rather than succumbing to the false temptation of sealing them off against each other to protect security," Mulroney said. "Doing so would be a victory for terrorists."2002-12-09 23:46:58 GMT
From: Rep. Weldon
Date: Friday, December 06, 2002 05:21:49 PM
Subject: Response from Representative Weldon
Dear Mr. & Mrs. C
I am writing to you to update you on Congressional action regarding our country's immigration laws.
I have been working to ensure that the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not silent on border security matters nor on the issuance of visas to non-citizens.
Protecting our borders from potential terrorist threats has been an issue that I have championed in the House.
When the Senate proposed its original version of this legislation, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) inserted provisions which would have significantly altered current immigration law, liberalized the asylum process and created unprecedented opportunities for fraud and abuse. These provisions would have only created an incentive to flaunt our immigration laws.
My concerns about this provision led me to author a letter to Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, urging him to reject this provision in the final DHS bill. Thirty-six of my colleagues joined me in signing this letter. A provision making our borders more porous has no business in a bill designed to enhance our security. I am pleased that the House prevailed when the Senate was forced to remove the Kennedy provision before final passage of the bill on November 19, 2002.
Additionally, I worked to ensure that DHS personnel will be stationed in U.S. embassies and consulates to review visa applications and are given the authority to reject a visa. The DHS personnel will also develop training for State Department personnel and regulations for visa issuance. DHS legislation also eliminates the Saudi Arabia Visa Express Program which allowed three of the terrorist hijackers to obtain visas without being interviewed by American officials. I recognize that there is much more to be done to secure our borders, but I wanted you to know about these successful efforts. It is an honor to serve you in the Congress. Sincerely, Dave Weldon Member of Congress Confirmation # 1203535 **************************************************************** DISCLAIMER If this e-mail was not sent to you directly from my Congressional E-mail Account, I cannot guarantee the integrity of the text of this letter. If you have any questions about the validity of this message, please call my office: Representative Dave Weldon, Washington, DC, 202-225-3671. If you would like to reply to this e-mail or conduct further correspondences via e-mail, you can do so by going to my webpage at: www.house.gov/weldon and following the link entitled "Contacting Dave." If you want to be removed from my e-mail list, please contact me at the web address listed above or call my office and let me know. **************************************************************** .
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If biblical figures lived to be 600 or 900 years old, there's a chance Bush can also.
Apparently the writer didn't want to say that most Americans think that we have been a LOSER in the agreement.
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I think that's been established as the goal between Bush Jr. and Fox, subject to temporary inconvenience and delay caused by terrorists moving across our borders. For some reason the entire Bush family is obsessed with hispanics.
Really? Well, then the unemployment rate in the US must have soared, since 1992, huh?
Well, actually, the unemployment rate in 1992 was 7.5%, and the most recent year for which we have full figures is 2001, for which the unemployment rate was 4.8%. So exactly what got sucked away? Certainly not jobs.
What you're seeing is particular jobs that you happen to know about that were in fact lost due to trade-related issues. What you're not taking into account is all the jobs that were created because of companies boosting export-related business. Our overall unemployment figures suggest that the net effect was quite positive, regardless of the fact that some people did lose their jobs.
But that's economics in world of change. Do we get concerned that typewriter repairment are now out of jobs? Or do we rejoice over a new industry (computers) that employs millions? If you're a typewriter repairment, you might be upset, but the rest of us are way ahead.
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One of the reasons for this is because increasing proportions of our imports are coming from China instead of Japan, slowly leaving Japan out of the picture.
Hmmmm. I wonder if Bush's imitation was as good as the one the Simpsons did of him. That was almost as funny as this fantasy of his that NAFTA has been a success.
No one likes to admit when they're wrong, these three have just confirmed that... again.
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Bush wouldn't make a pimple on Ross Perot's behind. Perot started from the bottom, was president of his class at the Naval Academy, started his own business, and had the unconditional respect from men of stature throught the world.
Bush is the result of inherited wealth and country clubs who went in to politics on the basis of family contacts to deny their uselessness.
Who do they think they're kidding? Not only was it a giant sucking sound, it was a giant flush and hundreds of thousands of good American high paying jobs go to Mexico and elsewhere overseas.And elsewhere?
The NAFTA made 'em do it...
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