11 March 2009

Summit of the Americas Expected to Focus on Economic Crisis

Future U.S.-Cuban relations also will be discussed at April 17–19 summit

Regional leaders at the fourth Summit of the Americas in Argentina in 2005

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — A central concern facing the 34 nations at the fifth Summit of the Americas in April will be the global economic crisis and whether the United States will take Latin America's needs into account, say a panel of U.S. specialists on Latin America policy.

“It is not only that fixing the U.S. economy will moderate and shorten Latin America's ordeal. Washington can also help by resisting protectionist measures that would curb imports or overseas investment," Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy research entity, told a March 11 hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The United States also should use its influence to encourage expanded resources and flexibility for the multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Inter-American Development Bank, Hakim said. And the United States needs to coordinate economic policy approaches with the region's governments, he added.

President Obama “should also urge the region's governments to resist protectionist temptations and manage their economies responsibly,” Hakim said.

The fifth Summit of the Americas will be held in Port-of-Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago, April 17–19. It will be Obama's first hemispheric forum to engage with leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean. The summits have been held irregularly since 1994.

“The Port-of-Spain summit will also be the first meeting of all 34 democratic heads of government from Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada and the United States since the contentious 2005 summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina,” says Peter Meyer, a Latin American affairs analyst with the U.S. Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress.

To date there have been four summits of the Americas, two special summits of the Americas, and a number of ministerial-level summits held since 1994, Meyer said in a recent report on the summits. The Clinton administration hosted the first regional leaders' meeting at the Miami summit 15 years ago.

Cuba's leader, Raul Castro, has not been invited to attend.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman said at the hearing that Obama will try to change the regional dynamic at his first meeting with hemisphere leaders. “We have a unique voice in this region, and we need to reestablish leadership on the positive things we believe in,” Berman said. “But gone are the days when our influence or authority permitted us to raise our voice and get our way.”

Hakim said that while regional leaders are concerned about the economic and financial crisis, they will be equally anxious to hear Obama's positions on Cuba, organized crime and the illicit drug trade, immigration and international trade.

Also testifying before the committee, Thomas McLarty, president of McLarty Associates and former White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration, said this summit offers the Obama administration a chance for “a new beginning in a region that is of enormous importance and potential.”

“Latin American and Caribbean countries buy a fifth of all U.S. exports and supply a fifth of its imports,” McLarty said. “Our sales to Latin America each year are four times what we export to China.”

McLarty said the United States now obtains more than 50 percent of its energy imports from the Western Hemisphere, and more than half of that from Latin American and Caribbean suppliers.

These factors make the U.S. economy and the current crisis the Number 1 priority of the summit, McLarty said. “Our summit partners will want to know our plans for restoring stability and growth because economic and financial decisions we make in Washington will affect their citizens. They want and deserve regular consultation,” he said.

The Latin America and Caribbean region represents a vibrant part of the world — with 34 countries and 600 million people — that has unique resources, culture and ethnic diversity, he said.

McLarty said that immigration is a “hot button issue domestically and internationally,” and needs to be addressed in comprehensive immigration reform. To do that will require the United States to work closely with hemispheric neighbors and especially Mexico if the efforts are to succeed, he said.

“Effective immigration policy must begin with securing and safeguarding our borders, but must also reflect our labor force needs, as well as include support for economic development in migrant-exporting countries,” McLarty said.

And McLarty said that Cuba should be placed on the summit's agenda. Recently, Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the United States to rethink its strict trade embargo on Cuba.

“We must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests,” Lugar said in February as he released a special report compiled by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff who analyzed U.S.-Cuban policies.

McLarty said it is time to review U.S. policies toward Cuba, and those that restrict travel, communications and remittances need to be lifted. “I respect that this is an emotional issue, but I believe most Americans' aspirations for a free and democratic Cuba are the same; where we differ is in how best to get there,” he said.

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