TOWARD A WESTERN HEMISPHERE COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES An Address by Vice President Al Gore to Mexican, American, and Latin American Chambers of Commerce National Auditorium Mexico City, Mexico December 1, 1993 I rejoice in this visit to Mexico where -- as a young man -- I spent a lot of time learning about your country and studying your language. I hope you will be tolerant of my rudimentary linguistic skills as I begin by saying -- Viva Mexico, Viva Los Estados Unidos -- and, arriba el TLC. I'm grateful that this speech is being telecast throughout Latin America. I would like to say to those who are listening: not only thank you and gracias, but also obrigado! And I bring you greetings from President Clinton and the people of the United States. In 1947, Harry Truman became the first President of the United States ever to visit Mexico. President Truman's visit was important not only because it was a first, but because of what the President did when he was here. For at one point during his visit, Harry Truman drove to Chapultepec Castle, and walked to the stone monument honoring Los Ninos Heroes - the brave, child heroes of the Mexican-American War, who had died a hundred years before. There, he laid a floral wreath, a gesture of respect symbolizing his belief that the United States must acknowledge the heartache of our past in order to enter the future. I saw a glimpse of that future when I arrived last night and looked into the bright shining faces of 100 Mexican children of this generation. It is with our hopes for our children, for a future offering them not martyrdom but bright promise, that I stand before you. I have come to this proud and ancient city which as Tenochtitlan so astounded the Spaniards, to take another step into the future, one that Mexico, Canada, and the United States enter with the dignity of equal partners. We meet together at a unique moment in history. Change is the hallmark of our era. At the end of the Cold War, the old organizing principles through which we understood the world must be revised. I am reminded of the words of Mexico's Nobel Laureate, Octavio Paz, who has written, "The past has left us orphans, as it has the rest of the planet, and we must join together in inventing our common future. World history has become everyone's task, and our own labyrinth is the labyrinth of all mankind." For too long we have created barriers between our countries. But our nations are taking steps to create Paz's "common future." The North American Free Trade Agreement -NAFTA -- is a victory of partnership over antagonism, of optimism over fear, of the future over the past. It is also a testament to the courage and vision of Mexico. Without your willingness to embrace change under the leadership of President Salinas -- without his willingness to chart a new course -- there would be no North American Free Trade Agreement. I told President Salinas this morning that I knew his presidency would be historic and transforming. I followed his campaign closely because it had some similarities with another campaign in 1988 with which I was familiar. In that year, I campaigned throughout the United States in an attempt to convince the people of my country that a 40 year old Harvard graduate would make a great president. President Salinas' policies of change have propelled your economy in new directions. They are far-reaching policies: joining the world trade community, ridding the economy of excessive regulation, privatizing over a thousand state corporations, and generating billions of dollars for broader benefits to society. In the United States we like to say we are "reinventing government." We are trying to create a government that works better and costs less. In many ways, Mexico already has reinvented its government. Inflahon is down from 160% to single-digits. The budget is balanced. Mexico is growing again. Four years ago President Salinas addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress. There, he called for a "new relationship free of myths and mistrust, abuses and recriminations; a relationship of ongoing dialogue between our two nations, respectful of our inherent differences ... inspired in the ideals of democracy, justice and freedom which we share." As our two nations move steadily toward such a relationship, toward closer ties of cooperation, I am reminded of the words of one of your greatest leaders, Benito Juarez -words emblazoned in the halls of the Mexican Congress: "El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz -- Peace is based on respect for the rights of others." This principle underlies the modern relationship between the United States and Mexico and has made possible the agreement we celebrate today. But I have not come to Mexico City only to celebrate our historic trade agreement. In my country, NAFTA does represent a fundamental decision of the people of the United States about trade. But for our part, this decision also represents a basic choice about the future of our relationship with Mexico, our relationship to this hemisphere, and a choice about how we wish to relate to the rest of the world. Indeed, today I wish to speak specifically about the U.S. relationship to the Western Hemisphere and how that relationship affects our place in the world. Our Administration's policy toward the Western Hemisphere is a new policy that nonetheless has its roots in the best accomplishments of President Clinton's predecessors who attempted to define relations between the United States and the other nations of this hemisphere. In his 1933 Inaugural, Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed the "Good Neighbor" policy, commenting later, while in Montevideo, that "...we have not yet completed our task. New conditions will continue to arise...." Conditions have indeed changed many times since then. But the twin pillars of the Good Neighbor policy -- respect for sovereignty and cooperation with inter-American institutions founded on absolute respect for the dignity of every American nation -- are as important today as they were more than half a century ago. Three decades after Roosevelt, a young American President, John F. Kennedy, called upon all the people of the Americas to join "in a new Alliance for Progress -- Alianza par el Progreso -- a vast cooperative effort, unparalleled in magnitude and nobility of purpose." Now, on behalf of another young President, I reaffirm the principles on which these two policies are based. Building on the work of those Presidents who came before him -including President Bush -- President Clinton has worked with you and with Canada to fashion this free trade area which will increase opportunities for all our people. In so doing, he has brought the best of our old principles into the realities of our new and different times. NAFTA embodies a principle at the bedrock of President Clinton's view of relations among states: that they should be sovereign equals. This view affects not just trade. This view provides the great alternative to competition in forms that lead to intemational divisiveness and even to war. In recent years, the beliefs I describe have been under attack. There was bitter debate in the United States about NAFTA. You heard many harsh things said about our Administration and your country. One of the myths we had to discredit was the notion that free trade agreements are impossible between countries in different stages of economic development. Some of the statements made during our bruising debate were fueled by lack of information and insensitivity. Others, however, were motivated by genuine concem for the implications of the Agreement. Within my own party there was opposition from some of the most principled and internationally-minded people in political life. I think they were wrong. But there is no mistaking their sincerity and their concern for the welfare of both United States and Mexican workers. And so I say to opponents of the Agreement in both countries, in the words from Ecclesiastes, "to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven," and this is the time to heal. Meanwhile, remember what else has happened besides the divisive debate. You saw the final vote. You saw the people of the United States come to a decision. We could have voted against a closer relationship with our neighbor. We voted for one. No longer are we the "distant neighbors" of one recent book about our two countries. We have caught the crest of a wave. We now need to ride that wave into the future with you and with the people of Canada. And we will go further. Now, when we talk about trade, the word "we" will mean something new. We -- the people of the Americas -- will be able to work together to improve relations in the entire hemisphere. The NAFTA debate demonstrated the importance of dispelling myths and stereotypes conceming Latin America. It is clear to us that we must rethink the way we deal with the new Latin America that has emerged. The Clinton Administration has undertaken a broad-ranging review of U.S. policy in Latin America as we near the 21st Century. As an outgrowth of this review, and because the President believes so strongly that thinking through a new relationship should be a joint enterprise -- on his behalf, I wish to announce today that next year the United States will invite -- to a Westem Hemisphere summit meeting -- the democratically-elected heads of state of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. We will seek to make explicit the convergence of values that is now rapidly taking place in a hemispheric community of democracies; a community increasingly integrated by commercial exchange and shared political values. It will be a meeting that we hope will codify our shared principles and set forth a vision of economic and cultural progress that could serve us well in the century ahead. We will focus on how to work in partnership with our neighbors to find creative solutions to regional problems: improve our standard of living, promote trade and investment, ensure collective security, expand democratic political culture, protect the environment and address other common concerns. It will not be the first time we shared a common direction. In the early 19th century Simon Bolivar looked to the new United States' experience as a model for those desiring independence and integration with one another. We see NAFTA as another such model. We see NAFTA as a starting point for dealing with the common challenges of the Americas. These problems spare no country, no region, no community in this hemisphere. They affect our ability as a hemisphere to compete in global markets. They affect our ability to raise the standards of living for our citizens. They must be addressed by each country individually. But we will all be more successful if we also find ways to work on them together. Trade should be looked upon as one element of a strategy for growth along with education, worker training, wages, environmental protection, the survival of children, and the growth of democracy. Can such a partnership work? We are confident it can. After all, our belief in sustainable development through economic reform, trade, and democracy is rooted in the inescapable realities of the modern world. We have arrived at a concensus about the right way to grow: lower trade barriers, ensure that industries are competitive, protect the environment, and compete in international markets. They have discovered these truths in Europe. They have discovered these truths in the Pacific Rim. During the past decade, most countries here in the Americas have moved decisively to restructure, streamline, and reform their economies. Mexico, Argentina, and Chile have all placed their government finances on a sound footing. They have now banished budget deficits. Such reforms have produced tangible results. Where they have taken root, inflation has plummeted. National economies have recovered. Foreign investors, attracted by the improved economic climate, are helping make Latin America the second fastest growing region in the world. Much remains to be done in the area of economic reform. But we are confident that our partners in the region -- and especially those who have joined us in the partnership that is svmbolized bv NAFTA -- will continue to advance. Our confidence stems from another reason: the quiet revolution taking place in Latin America that is often overlooked. There is a move towards economic integration, marked by free trade agreements. Ten years ago, who would have thought that free trade agreements could be concluded between Mexico and Chile or Colombia and Venezuela? Or that Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay could have set aside their historic differences and created MERCOSUR? Now the Central American countries are accelerating their march toward regional trade and sustainable development, as they told President Clinton at the White House yesterday. These agreements represent a commitment to the principles of open trade and are a recognition of the importance of economic reform and integration as agents of positive change in Latin America. Trade within the hemisphere has become an important driver of economic growth for Latin American nations. Indeed two-thirds of export growth in Latin American countries in the last five years has been among themselves or with the United States. At the same time, Latin America resumed its place of historical importance as a market for U.S. goods, becoming our fastest growing export market between 1987 and 1992. These developments are harbingers of a future in which the United States' commercial and financial future will become increasingly entwined with the Americas -- not only with Mexico and Canada, but with the countries of Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. NAFTA can help bridge the North-South gap: drawing on the best resources and skills within the hemisphere, it will strengthen the ability of each of us to compete in world markets. Already, hundreds of thousands of citizens of both our countries know this. They are not just those who are on this platform. They are the people who already share in the partnership of our two countries. And trade is by no means the only vehicle we can pursue cooperatively to better the living standards of our citizens. The NAFTA debate in the United States made clear that increasing economic integration raises many more issues than just trading rules. There are also common social needs we must address. Prime among them is the drug problem, which undermines the health and security of all the countries in our hemisphere. * NAFTA will free up border resources engaged in monitoring commercial activity, allowing a better focus on drug control. * President Salinas has announced a new Anti-Narcotics Institute to provide the latest information technologies to Mexican police in their interdiction efforts. * The Andean initiative represents the United States' effort to provide, through trade, alternative means of employment to drug-producing countries. No issue, though, is more important to us all in this hemisphere and in the entire world than the environment. I take as my premise this inescapable conclusion: that human activities are needlessly causing grave and perhaps irreparable damage to the global environment. The earth's forests are being destroyed at the rate of one football field's worth every second. An enormous hole has been opening in the ozone layer, reducing the earth's ability to protect life from deadly ultraviolet radiation. Living species are dying at an unprecedented rate. More and more chemical wastes seep down to poison ground water -- and up to destroy the atmosphere's delicate balance. Huge quantities of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases dumped in the atmosphere trap heat and raise global temperatures. We must act -- and act now. NAFTA and the environmental side agreement create an opportunity to work together to improve the environment of North America. With the creation of the Commission on Environmental Cooperation we will be able to jointly develop solutions, to prevent future environmental problems, and involve the public of both our countries in our efforts to protect the environment. With the U.S. and Mexico working together we can clean up the border we share. With the creation of the North American Development Bank and the Border Environment Cooperation Commission, together we will be able to mobilize the substantial resources necessary to solve the environmental problems of our shared border. Recent World Bank commitments provide several billion dollars to help the Government of Mexico improve the environment throughout this country. *More broadly, multilateral development banks can be a catalyst for environmental protection throughout the hemisphere, especially in promoting sustainable economic development through reforestation and river cleanup projects. The Inter-American Development Bank is spearheading this effort with its Tiete River Basin Decontamination Project in Brazil. *The private sector also can play a large role through public-private partnerships. Our EPA is working with the U.S. Environmental Training Institute to provide substantial training opportunities for Mexican environmental professionals in Mexico. It will mean access to U.S. cutting-edge environmental technology and services for Mexico's growing environmental industry. We can stimulate constructive business-to-business exchanges in this way. President Clinton and I hope to see them spread throughout Latin America. Is this enough? Hardly. These are first steps. We will need to work as partners with each other -- and with non-govemmental organizations -- to make these side agreements work. Still, remember this: NAFTA and its side agreements constitute the first major trade negotiation to go beyond commodities and capital to take into account such factors as workers' rights and the environment. That is a revolution in itself. I have talked of economic and environmental benefits. But I believe there are other benefits as well. Civilization in Mexico, for example, was rich and advanced long before Europeans knew it existed. NAFTA promotes the free flow of ideas and art across borders and that is a benefit for the entire hemisphere. And by promoting cultural exchange and economic decentralization, it promotes democracy. We have made a beginning. It is the hope of the United States that we can move beyond "Good Neighbors" and "Alliance" -- and beyond NAFTA -- to a point in history in which all of us under democracy, all of us who treasure democracy ... can adv ance the wellbeing of our people. Geography has made us neighbors. And the swiftly changing circumstances of the modern world are forging out of our common dreams a new Westem Hemisphere Community of Democracies. We, the sovereign states of the Americas, share the same obligation -- to create nations in which all have equal access to land, jobs, and education -- and together we dream of a future in which no person is exploited for the well-being of a few. This is our vision. A vision born in our revolutionary heritage. Today we can begin to pursue those goals together. The formation of such a community of democracies from nations so varied in culture and history will not be easy. But we share a common ground. We are all children of revolutions -- rebels against the colonialism of the Old World. Earlier I mentioned Simon Bolivar. In the United States, we feel intense pride that the man known as the Great Liberator carried a portrait of George Washington in his pocket during his struggles. During World War II, most of the American nations stood together as allies in the struggle to preserve freedom from foreign tyranny. Today, we share a common dedication to national independence, social justice, and economic progress. We live in a hopeful time. Who, a decade ago, would have believed that Nelson Mandela would be free? That Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat would shake hands on the White House lawn and usher in a new era of peace? Or that Germans on both sides would take pickaxes to the Berlin Wall? Bolivar, writing from exile, said, "The veil has been torn asunder. We have already seen the light and it is not our desire to be thrust into the darkness." These thoughts inspire hope in our hearts. In our time, the light has again entered our hemisphere. And so I urge you in Mexico and throughout our hemisphere: as we approach this Third Millennium, to join us in a partnership. Let us join as equals -- El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz. Our two countries have been shaped by so many who have gone before us, whether those who wrote a Constitution in boarding houses that sweltering summer in Philadelphia or those who, in a tiny church 183 years ago, heard Father Hidalgo's Grito de Dolores. Today, in this place, let us resolve that we will move forward together tQ shape our future. Let us aspire to a Western Hemisphere Community of Democracies. Let us overcome our obstacles so the New World will again serve as a glistening beacon of freedom and progress to all the globe. Muchas Gracias.