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To further President Bush’s commitment to eliminate poverty and ensure that the people of the Western Hemisphere have the opportunity to realize their dreams, the United States will advance a series of bold new proposals to slash tarriffs, subsidies, and other trade barriers at the Sixth World Trade Organization Conference to be held in Hong Kong on December 13.
President Bush believes the important goal of increasing prosperty in the world can only be achieved by giving the developing world’s farmers and businessmen a chance to export their goods, without restrictions, to the world’s largest and wealthiest markets.
History clearly shows us that successful nations achieved wealth and prosperity for their citizens through access to trade and open markets. This important lesson has not been lost on the representatives of the 148 countries who will meet in Hong Kong to advance the Doha Development Agenda, also known as the Doha Round. Since the Doha Round negotiations began in November 2001, cabinet ministers from around the globe have been meeting under the auspices of the World Trade Organization to find a formula to open world markets for everyone’s agricultural and manufactured goods. The stated aim of the Doha Round is the reduction of poverty by making world trade rules fair for developing countries.
Doha Round negotiators should study Mexico and Chile to see just how much developing countries can achieve when barriers to trade are lifted. The North American Free Trade Agreement has transformed our hemisphere’s economy by creating wealth, jobs, and opportunities for entrepreneurs. Just last year, Mexican exports to our country exceeded U.S. exports to Mexico by US$45 million. And American firms invested more than $97 billion in Mexico since 1994. Like Mexico, Chile has a free trade agreement with the United States, and thanks to its export-driven policies, it enjoys South American’s highest standard of living.
Not everyone advocates opening markets and slashing trade barriers. Last month in Argentina, Venezuela’s president used the Summit of the Americas as a vocal forum to criticize the open market policies being adopted world wide, while advocating the failed politics of the past. Yet 29 of the 34 countries attending the Summit agreed to the idea of a hemispheric free trade agreement, including the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Chile. From 1999 to 2004, the economies of these 29 countries grew by 28.7 percent.
Advancing the Doha Round agenda to eliminate poverty will depend on the vision of all the participants attending this important meeting in Hong Kong. If we succeed, exporters and farmers in developing countries will benefit – including Mexico’s. As well, we must all work together to improve market access for industrial goods and demonstrate a greater willingness to negotiate freer trade in services.
The Doha Round will not succeed unless the European Union and G-20 countries make a commitment to cut domestic support programs and allow their citizens to purchase more agricultural goods from foreign countries. Leaving tarriff barriers in place to protect 8 percent of “sensitive tarriff lines,” as some industrial nations have proposed, will effectivly bar the developing world from exporting their agricultural goods competitively and prevent them from lifting their people out of poverty.
I believe we can make substantial progress in Hong Kong towards the goal of lifting millions of people out of poverty. Unfortunately, time is running out. Under American law, the President has until the middle of 2007 to use his congressionally-delegated authority to engage in open market and trade negotiations. Accordingly, we need a mandate from the conference to complete the Doha Round negotiations by the close of 2006, to fulfill our promise to the world’s poor. If reason, compromise, and vision are not sacrificed to a few special interest and protectionist groups, I am certain we can succeed.
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