22 September 2008

U.S.-Colombia Trade Agreement Would Enhance Security

Bush to meet with Western Hemisphere leaders at United Nations September 24

President Bush, right, meets with Colombian President Uribe at the White House September 20.

By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — Supporting Colombia's efforts to modernize its security forces, fight terrorists and drug lords and provide the Colombian people with better lives and enhanced livelihoods is an essential goal of the United States, President Bush says.

“We're working together to open up markets and increase prosperity,” Bush said when he met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the White House September 20.  They will meet again in New York September 24.

“We're going to send a clear message that increasing trade is essential to the economic well-being of every nation in our region, that our neighborhood will prosper if we trade freely,” Bush said.

Bush will discuss free trade with 12 leaders from the Western Hemisphere in New York in conjunction with the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.  The 12 leaders' nations represent two-thirds of the region's gross domestic product and one-third of global bilateral trade with the United States, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said.  “Comprehensive free-trade agreements in this hemisphere have contributed significantly to opening economies, reducing poverty and strengthening democracy,” Hadley said.

Bush has been pushing for congressional approval of free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, but Congress is pressing the White House for assurances on the effect these agreements would have on U.S. jobs and related issues.

“What happens in Colombia can affect life here in the United States,” Bush said at a joint news conference with Uribe.

Uribe said Colombia has made essential progress — due in part to help from the United States.

Uribe said his government is working to create more confidence in Colombia — “confidence to invest in Colombia, to live in Colombia, to study in Colombia, to find jobs in Colombia.”

Such confidence-building, Uribe added, rests on “security with democracy — it means security with democratic values, with pluralism, with freedoms, with dissent.” Investment, he said, must include a social responsibility component.

Security and investment “create a framework for prosperity," Uribe said.

And he said a key part of prosperity is social cohesion, which enhances the environment for foreign investment.

“Free-trade agreement for us is the possibility to give certainty to investors for them to come to Colombia, and the more investors come to Colombia, the less difficult for us to defeat terrorism,” he said.

Bush said that since Uribe became president, homicides have dropped by 40 percent in Colombia, while kidnappings have fallen more than 80 percent and terrorist attacks by 70 percent.

The transcript of remarks by Bush and Uribe is available on America.gov.