Ambassador
Ambassador Gutierrez's Speeches
ARGENTINA-U.S. RELATIONS
Speech to Club Europeo by U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Lino Gutierrez
March 1, 2006
It is a real pleasure for me to be here with you this morning to share ideas about U.S.-Argentina bilateral relations. I want to thank the President of the European Club Kai Andersen and Thomas Leonhard, President of the German Club for their kind invitation. I applaud your efforts to help young people stay informed on matters of regional and global importance.
While the topic today is U.S.-Argentina relations, I did want to say a word about U.S.-European cooperation in Latin America. The United States and the EU share a common vision for Latin America and should work together with the nations of the Americas to consolidate democratic institutions, strengthen civil society and expand economic opportunity. Tom Shannon, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, was just in Brussels for talks with European Commission officials, members of the European Parliament, as well as officials of NATO and EU member states, and he highlighted the importance of U.S.-European cooperation with Latin America as well as developments in the region.
Following his consultations with the EU and NATO, Shannon said there is a general consensus as to the challenges facing Latin America as well as the broader solution to these challenges, which he identified as consolidating democratic institutions, strengthening civil society, and providing capacity in those societies so that individuals can take advantage of the economic opportunity that is created through trade agreements and economic growth. We should strive to strengthen cooperation between the U.S. and Europe with Latin America as the countries of the region work to address these fundamental issues.
Let me now turn to events closer to home, but still in a multilateral context. I want to spend a minute on the recently concluded Summit of the Americas, which as you all know, took place just four months ago in Mar del Plata, and about which much has been written and said. It is the view of the United States that our country and the vast majority of other countries in the hemisphere met most of their key goals at the Summit. The Summit Declaration and the Plan of Action made specific commitments to meet a broad range of political, economic, and social targets. In the political and social arenas, those targets included fighting terrorism, strengthening judicial systems, rooting out corruption, increasing transparency, eliminating the worst forms of child labor, and battling AIDS and other diseases. On the economic front, the goals included attracting investment and promoting competition, helping small and medium sized businesses, protecting intellectual property rights, job training, and investing in S&T research.
The FTAA is also back on center stage as a front burner issue for debate. No less than 29 countries in the hemisphere, which together account for 80% of its trade volume, stated that they want to continue with negotiations for the FTAA. The four MERCOSUR countries stated that when the legitimate issue of agricultural subsidies is addressed, they would be ready to proceed. Only one country, Venezuela, was opposed to the FTAA for ideological reasons. Ironically, Venezuela already has virtually free access to our market, being the second largest exporter of oil and refined products to the U.S. and the eighth largest beneficiary of unilateral GSP privileges for access to the U.S. market.
The world is now looking toward the WTO negotiations to see if agricultural subsidies can be addressed in that forum. If so, we may be able to move forward with FTAA negotiations in 2006, which is a U.S. objective. If not, the U.S. will continue with its efforts to promote free trade in the region. In particular, this means concluding sub-regional free trade negotiations with the Andean countries of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, and a bilateral FTA with Panama. Just two days ago, the United States reached a free trade agreement with Colombia.
Before long, the U.S. will have negotiated bilateral and regional FTAs with most of the 29 countries that want to proceed with the FTAA. It will then be simply a matter of bringing these FTAs into one single agreement.
One way or another, we will have freer trade in the hemisphere. What is not clear today is how and when we will get there. The U.S. is prepared to exercise leadership, as it has with its WTO proposal to eliminate agricultural subsidies in 15 years. The U.S. has also opened its own market on a unilateral basis, as is the case with GSP. Argentina is now the ninth largest beneficiary of GSP privileges.
The U.S. hopes that circumstances will eventually allow Argentina to move forward with the FTAA. As Assistant Secretary Shannon said here in January, the Summit offered the opportunity for a “necessary and important discussion for the hemisphere,” a discussion in which the U.S. will continue to be fully engaged.
In my position, of course, I’ve been most directly concerned with increasing cooperation between the U.S. and Argentina, so let me zero in a bit more directly on the state of relations between our two nations. I must say I have been gratified by the strength of our bilateral ties. The U.S. is engaged fruitfully and productively with Argentina on a broad range of issues. We do not, of course, agree across the board on every issue, but we have a relationship that is healthy, mature, and broad-based enough that we can work through problems and rough patches when they occur. I believe this is so because we share the same democratic values, in particular, our common belief in the rule of law, free press, freedom of religion and the importance of strong democratic institutions. It is these shared values that have built a foundation for mutual confidence and continued cooperation.
There has been no shortage of examples where that cooperation has borne benefits for both our countries. For example:
· The U.S. has worked closely with the GOA this year in its role as a rotating member of the UN Security Council. Cooperation has occurred in such areas as peacekeeping, UN reform, the Iran nuclear issue, counter-terrorism and non-proliferation.
· The U.S. and the GOA have worked together to strengthen democracy in the hemisphere. Argentina's participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti and the exemplary conduct of its armed forces there has been critical for the people of that country. Argentina's support for the government of former President Mesa in Bolivia was also critical in the preservation of democracy in that country.
· On the security front, U.S.-Argentina military relations are excellent. This was demonstrated most recently during the Summit of the Americas when the U.S. military worked closely with Argentina's armed forces to ensure that the event was held in a safe and secure environment. Argentina has also joined us in advancing the Proliferation Security Initiative, the objective of which is to halt the spread of WMD.
· The FAA and the GOA's Air Regions Command recently completed a one-year technical assistance program that helped restore Argentina's ICAO Category 1 flight safety status. This is important when Argentina receives 3.5 million tourists per year and tourism is growing at a rate of 10 percent annually. Argentine airlines are now free to add flights and routes between Argentina and the U.S. Meanwhile, U.S. carriers are now operating eight direct daily flights between Miami, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston and Buenos Aires.
· The Department of Homeland Security and the GOA's national tax authority, AFIP, recently signed an agreement to implement the Container Security Initiative in the Port of Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is the 41st port in the world and the 1st port in Latin America to participate in CSI. The GOA also has plans to purchase nine mobile and three fixed scanners to expand CSI coverage to Argentina's most important ports, airports and border crossing points.
· The Department of State and Department of Energy are negotiating an agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement the Megaports initiative in the Port of Buenos Aires to help detect the movement of radioactive materials through Argentina's ports. The implementing agencies will be the Prefectura and Customs. This initiative benefits the safety of both Argentina and the U.S.
· The FBI is cooperating with Argentine law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities in criminal investigative and terrorism matters, information sharing and training initiatives which assist in the resolution of major crimes in Argentina and the U.S. The FBI and other USG agencies have provided substantial assistance over the last 11 years in the investigation of the AMIA Center terrorist attack in Buenos Aires in 1994, and continues to do so, including forensic analysis and international investigative leads.
· The DEA works closely with the Argentine Gendarmeria, Federal Police and Prefectura to combat drug trafficking in and through Argentina. This cooperation includes the funding of the Northern Border Task Force in Salta Province to interdict the trafficking of cocaine from Bolivia.
· NASA has had a longstanding relationship with the Argentine space agency, CONAE. Today, these agencies are working as international partners on the Aquarious/SAC-D satellite mission scheduled to be launched from California in 2009.
· Speaking of satellites, NOAA recently announced in Argentina that it would shift one of its geostationary satellites to provide better, more sustained coverage of South America, thus providing earlier and improved detection of possible natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires.
· Through agencies such as the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, the United States contributed $10 million to the Pierre Auger cosmic ray observatory in Malargue, Mendoza, where U.S. and Argentine scientists are working as part of an international team of researchers.
· Argentina's White Helmet and a team of mental health professionals from the Ministry of Health provided valuable assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in September last year. After decades of the U.S. providing help to the victims of natural disasters throughout the globe, it was gratifying to receive assistance from neighbors in our own hemisphere in our own time of need.
· The bi-national Fulbright Commission manages the exchange of scholars and students between the U.S. and Argentina. Many GOA officials and business executives have been beneficiaries of this program over the years. Significantly, the GOA maintained its financial support for the Fulbright Commission even during the darkest days of the recent economic crisis. This year, the Fulbright program will celebrate its 50th anniversary in Argentina.
· The U.S. Embassy recently established an intern program where promising Argentine university students are given an opportunity to work in the policy-related sections of the Embassy. This program gives these students valuable career development experience and promotes a better understanding of the U.S.
Mention of the economic crisis compels me to say a few words about Argentina's economy. Of course the big economic news in recent days was Argentina’s decision to repay all its debt to the IMF. When one looks at where Argentina was in 2001, this cannot be anything but a welcome and impressive achievement.
No less impressive is the economic growth that continues to take place here. Argentina's economy has completed its third years of close to 9% economic growth. The economy is expected to continue solid growth of at least 7% in 2006. This growth is the result of a combination of factors: the substantial economic reforms that took place in the 1990s; a positive external environment, such as high world economic growth rates and commodity prices, low interest rates; and the adoption of a competitive exchange rate.
There are those who question the economic reforms that took place in the 1990s. Without these reforms, it would be hard to explain how the economy was able to respond so rapidly and so well to the adoption of a competitive exchange rate in mid-2002 at the beginning of the current economic recovery. Certainly, controlling inflation will be a challenge, but there is little reason to believe that any of the factors that contributed to Argentina's impressive economic growth will not continue.
A key factor that will determine the rate of Argentina's future economic growth is investment, both domestic and foreign. The GOA calculates investment to be around 20% of GDP during the first half of this year and it would like this rate to increase to 22-25% to sustain growth at around 5% per year. U.S. companies have had a long-term interest in Argentina. They forced their way into Argentina in the 19990s, they did not cut-and-run during Argentina's recent economic crisis, and the vast majority of them are still here, investing money, transferring technology and employing people in Argentina. AMCHAM has over 700 member companies whose sales last year surpassed $35 billion dollars. This is more than a fifth of the country's GDP. All told, these companies employ 230,000 Argentines.
Where does all of this bring us by way of a conclusion? My message today is that the U.S. and Argentina have a strong and vibrant relationship. We look at Argentina as a regional leader and believe that a strong Argentina is in U.S. interests and in the interests of all of the countries of the region. The U.S. will continue to work with Argentina to strengthen our ties and to cooperate on regional and global issues of mutual concern.
Thank you.