This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Administrator J. Brian Atwood
New Orleans Trade Conference
New Orleans, LA, October 9, 1997
U.S. Agency for International Development
Prime Minister Esquivel, Special Assistant to President
Clinton Mack McLarty, Mayor Morial, honored guests:
I'm delighted to be here today to join with the organizers of
Encuentro Las Americas '97. I am sure we will have very
productive discussions on the subject of international trade with
the countries and peoples of Latin America. Judging from the
impressive list of attendees to this conference, and the ambitious
agenda that has been prepared, I can certainly tell that Mayor
Morial and his excellent staff have worked very hard to make the
conference a success.
I am pleased that the USAID staff will be working with
many of you over the course of this conference on how to do
business with our agency. I want to spend a little time this
morning putting the specifics of our aid and trade initiatives in a
broader policy context. I will also discuss briefly how our efforts
have impacted directly on business and trade both within the
United States and with the countries of Latin America and the
Caribbean.
As we look at events in the region in the past several years,
we should feel optimistic about the challenges. Yet, sad as it may
seem, good news receives less attention than bad news. There
has been a great deal of good news from the Latin American and
Caribbean region in the past three years which has not received
the attention that it deserves.
Nonetheless, it should be pointed out that the dramatic
transformation underway in Latin America has not gone unnoticed
by President Clinton. The President regards the commitment to
broad-based economic policies and democratic systems of
government in the region to be truly historic, part of a quiet
revolution that needs to be advanced and encouraged.
As such, the President and the First Lady plan to visit
several countries in Latin America in the next several days. The
First Lady has already departed for Panama. She will then join
the President, who will leave on Sunday for a visit to Venezuela,
Brazil, and Argentina over the course of a week. New
partnerships on a variety of fronts; trade, education, the
environment, narcotics control, democracy and human rights will
be sought as the United States seeks to broaden the prosperity and
political freedoms that are emerging throughout the region.
The President and the First Lady will hold a series of
"encuentros" being held with the Presidents, other high-ranking
officials and ordinary citizens of those countries. In that sense,
the timing of this "Encuentro" could not be better.
The evolving trend toward free markets and democratic
systems was also symbolized by the successful Summit of the
Americas, held in Miami in December, 1994 and involving 34
elected heads of state. That summit agreed that democracy is the
touchstone for partnership in the Americas; and that stable
economies based on competition, open markets, and regional
economic integration will lead to the creation of a Free Trade
Area for the Americas by 2005. Another Summit of the
Americas, to be held in Santiago, Chile in April, 1998, represents
another opportunity to assess and further advance this political
and economic direction.
This shared vision for the Western Hemisphere would have
been inconceivable only twenty years ago, when few countries
had elected civilian governments and military dictatorships and
state-directed economic systems were the norm. Today, all
peoples but Cuba have governments chosen by multi-party
elections.
The signing of the Peace Accords in Guatemala in January
1997 marked the culmination of a process of democratic
development and reconciliation in the countries of Central
America. In the same vein, the successful completion of true
multi-party democratic elections at the state and congressional
level in Mexico, marks a milestone in the democratic
development of the hemisphere.
Furthermore, recent political crises in Ecuador and Paraguay
were resolved in accordance with their respective constitutions.
This was due in no small part to the actions of the community of
democratic nations, which collectively pressed for democratic
solutions.
Democracy is not only the norm in Latin America and the
Caribbean but there is an almost universally shared consensus that
constitutional norms must be respected. This is not to say that
gains cannot be reversed. But they have not been reversed, and,
with the diligence of the people of the region, they will not be
reversed.
In parallel, there have been major developments on the
economic front. The most notable economic development in 1996
and 1997 was the strong recovery of Mexico from the foreign
exchange crisis and recession of 1995. Mexico experienced a 5
percent recovery in 1996 after a 6 percent decline in 1995, and
its growth rate has accelerated in the first part of 1997.
Mexico has thus recovered all the gains lost in the recession.
The opening of the Mexican economy to international trade and
investment may not have insulated the economy from shocks, but
it has clearly made recovery much more rapid and effective once
corrective measures were taken.
Furthermore, economic integration has been gathering
momentum and has now become a region-wide priority. If
President Clinton is successful in obtaining "fast-track" authority
from the Congress, we will be in an even better position to
participate in and help shape a hemisphere-wide movement which
will happen with us or without us.
As a result of their more open trade regimes, trade between
Latin America and the United States, and trade among Latin
American states, has been booming. U.S. exports to the region
grew by 14.5 percent in 1996 to $109.3 billion, while imports
grew by 18.7 percent, reflecting a balance of trade that has
fluctuated in recent years between a $5-6 billion surplus, and a
small deficit. By the year 2010, exports to the Western
Hemisphere are expected to be greater than to the European
Union and Japan combined.
Some of this progress is a direct result of the carefully
targeted assistance provided by USAID to the countries of the
region in the last ten years to enable them to reform their policies
and institutions. Among the notable successes have been the work
of USAID in technical assistance and privatization initiatives in
Nicaragua, and assisting legislatures of Central America to enact
liberalized telecommunications and energy laws. Other successful
programs have involved the development of a new elections law
and assistance in establishing accountable and effective electoral
institutions in the Dominican Republic, improving population,
health and nutrition in a number of Latin American countries, and
fiscal and financial stabilization programs in Haiti.
A number of countries in the region have also implemented
a combination of strong growth policies with adequate funding for
education and social services. This has significantly reduced the
incidence of poverty in those countries. Chile reduced the
proportion of its population living in poverty from 33 percent in
1990 to 24 percent in 1994. Costa Rica and Panama have made
similar progress. Brazil has begun to show progress in this area
as well, with indications that successful growth and anti-inflation
policies have begun to have an impact on poverty.
Not all the news is good, however. Poverty and inequality
remain serious threats to both sustained growth and democracy.
In the economic crisis of the 1980s, the number of poor people
increased dramatically. The most recent data, admittedly from
1994, do not yet show a significant reduction in the proportion of
populations living in poverty. In 1994, 39 percent of the
region's 470.3 million people lived in poverty, with rural
populations significantly poorer than urban populations.
The key to reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America
and ensuring political and social stability, is for us to assist the
countries of the region to implement sound policies which
promote sustained growth and which permit the poor to share in
and contribute to that growth. That requires a combination of
policy and institutional reform at the national level with targeted
interventions to assure that the poor can participate. Improved
economic performance by Latin American and Caribbean
economies will depend on empowering the poor, women, and
ethnic minorities to participate fully in their economies and their
societies.
With improved access, the poor of the region can
contribute fully to building a prosperous, just, and democratic
hemisphere. Without this access, broad-based economic growth
will elude us, and the opportunities for increased trade flows will
also diminish due to continuing political instability.
I know many of you are anxious to participate in the
working session of this conference on "Working with USAID."
We have a number of both businessmen and political leaders from
the United States and the countries of Latin America and the
Caribbean. Responsibilities to your shareholders and taxpayers
have often led to questions about the "bottom line" of foreign
assistance efforts such as those undertaken by USAID.
As such, let me give you some hard facts. For local
participants, perhaps you were unaware that in calendar year
1996, a little over $200 million worth of commodities from
Louisiana, other Mississippi River Delta states, and Texas were
shipped to foreign countries under PL-480 food programs.
Louisiana in particular, accounted for about $57.5 million of that
total, and over 360 thousand tons of those goods were shipped
through the ports of New Orleans and Lake Charles.
For other USAID activities, ongoing and new awards for the
Mississippi River Delta region and Texas, as of July of this year,
total $102 million, including projects with Tulane University here
in New Orleans, and Southern University in Baton Rouge.
Moreover, USAID projects, directed as they are at building
democracy, promoting broad-based economic growth, and helping
to raise standards of basic and higher education, play a key role
in building the enabllng environment in countries in the region,
resulting in the leveraging of trade dollars several times that of
the actual aid flows.
Our visitors from Latin America and the Caribbean know
that USAID aid levels have declined substantially in recent years.
USAID's budget has indeed been cut, and USAID's very
existence has been challenged. But within the very tight budgets
in which we work, because of our own requirements for fiscal
discipline, we have tried to maximize the impact of aid dollars.
Furthermore, success in foreign assistance efforts is often
measured by success in helping countries achieve a level of
political, economic, and social stability that enables interaction
with the United States to move away from aid flows and toward
increased trade. In many countries of Latin America and the
Caribbean, this is indeed what has happened.
Having said that, aid flows to the region remain substantial.
About $550 million is proposed to be spent by USAID in the
region this year, including funds for development assistance,
economic support, narcotics control, and food aid. We are
undertaking programs designed to build democracy, encourage
broad-based economic growth, reduce population growth,
improve health, and protect the environment.
Particularly with respect to economic growth, key features
of our program include the development of non-traditional
agricultural exports (specialty fruits and vegetables) small
business banking and lending; and assisting in the development of
policies, institutions, and regulations conducive to dynamic
economic growth. We are also investing in the quality and
efficiency of education, a vital effort to improve human capacity
and human productivity.
All of these goals and our programs to achieve them
represent key elements of a strategy that can reduce the
persistently high levels of poverty in the region. These types of
activities also in turn lead to increases in U.S. exports far in
excess of the original aid dollars provided.
I know many of you are anxious to move to the breakout
sessions so let me close by stressing again that recent political
and economic outcomes in Latin America and the Caribbean give
us both hope and an energetic policy consensus for dealing with
the remaining difficult challenges ahead. I believe strongly that
with small amounts of funding, USAID programs have been
critical in bringing about these outcomes.
I hope you will have an opportunity to get to know us better
through this conference. I hope to have the chance to speak with
at least some of you further. Thank you very much.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
 |
Last Updated on: July 18, 2001
|
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
