Gran Salon Bolivar
Hilton Hotel
Cartagena, Colombia
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, I want to thank President Santos
and the people of Colombia for the extraordinary hospitality in the
beautiful city of Cartagena. We're having a wonderful time. And
usually when I take these summit trips, part of my job is to scout out
where I may want to bring Michelle back later for vacation. So we'll
make sure to come back sometime in the near future. (Applause.)
I want to acknowledge Luis Moreno of IDB, as well as Luis Villegas of
the National Business Association of Colombia, for helping to set this
up, and everybody who's participating.
As President Rousseff indicated, obviously we've gone through some very
challenging times. These last three years have been as difficult for
the world economy as anything that we've seen in our lifetimes. And it
is both a result of globalization and it is also a result of shifts in
technology. The days when we could think of each of our economies in
isolation, those days are long gone. What happens in Wall Street has an
impact in Rio. What happens in Bogota has an impact in Beijing.
And so I think the challenge for all of our countries, and certainly
the challenge for this hemisphere, is how do we make sure that that
globalization and that integration is benefiting a broad base of people,
that economic growth is sustainable and robust, and that it is also
giving opportunity to a growing, wider circle of people, and giving
businesses opportunities to thrive and create new products and new
services and enjoy this global marketplace.
Now, I think the good news is this hemisphere is very well positioned
in this global economy. It is remarkable to see the changes that have
been taking place in a relatively short period of time in Latin and
Central America and in the Caribbean. When you look at the
extraordinary growth that's taken place in Brazil, first under President
Lula and now under President Rousseff, when you think about the
enormous progress that's been made here in Colombia under President
Santos and his predecessor, what you see is that a lot of the old
arguments on the left and the right no longer apply.
And what people are asking is, what works? How do we think in
practical terms about delivering prosperity, training our people so that
they can compete in the global economy? How do we create rule of law
that allows businesses to invest with some sense of security and
transparency? How do we invest in science and technology? How do we
make sure that we have open and free trade at the same time as we're
making sure that the benefits of free trade are distributed both between
nations but also within nations?
And the good news is I think that, through various international
organizations and organizations here within the hemisphere, we've seen
enormous progress. Trade between the United States and Latin, Central
-- South America, Central America and the Caribbean has expanded 46
percent since I came into office -- 46 percent.
Before I came to Cartagena, I stopped in Tampa, Florida, which is the
largest port in Florida. And they are booming and expanding. And the
reason is, is because of the enormous expansion of trade and commerce
with this region. It's creating jobs in Florida, and it's creating jobs
in Colombia, and it's creating jobs in Brazil and throughout the
region. Businesses are seeing that if they have an outstanding product
or an outstanding service, they don’t have to restrict themselves to one
market, they now have a regional market and ultimately a global market
in which they can sell their goods and succeed.
A couple of things that I think will help further facilitate this
productive integration: Number one, the free trade agreement that we've
negotiated between Colombia and the United States is an example of a
free trade agreement that benefits both sides. It's a win-win. It has
high standards -- (applause) -- it's a high-standards agreement. It's
not a race to the bottom, but rather it says each country is abiding by
everything from strong rules around labor and the environment to
intellectual property protection. And so I have confidence that as we
implement this plan, what we're going to see is extraordinary
opportunities for both U.S. and Colombian businesses.
So trade agreements of the sort that we have negotiated, thanks to the
leadership of President Santos and his administration, I think point the
way to the future.
In addition, I think there is the capacity for us to cooperate on
problems that all countries face, and I'll take just one example -- the
issue of energy. All of us recognize that if we're going to continue to
grow our economies effectively, then we're going to have to adapt to
the fact that fossil fuels are a finite resource and demand is going up
much faster than supply. There are also, obviously, significant
environmental concerns that we have to deal with. So for us to
cooperate on something like joint electrification and electric grid
integration, so that a country like Brazil, that is doing outstanding
work in biofuels or hydro-energy, has the ability to export that energy
but also teach best practices to countries within the region, create new
markets for clean energy throughout the region -- which benefits those
customers who need electricity but also benefit those countries that are
top producers of energy -- that's another example of the kind of
progress that we can make together.
On the education front, every country in the region recognizes that if
we're going to compete with Asia, if we're going to compete with Europe,
we've got to up our game. We have to make sure that we've got the
best-trained workers in the world, we've got the best education system
in the world. And so the work that President Rousseff and I are doing
together to try to significantly expand educational exchanges and send
young people who are studying science and engineering and computer
science to the United States to study if they're Brazilian, down to
Brazil to study best practices in clean energy in Brazil -- there's
enormous opportunity for us to work together to train our young people
so that this hemisphere is filled with outstanding entrepreneurs and
workers, and allows us to compete more effectively.
So there are a number of areas where I think cooperation is
proceeding. Sometimes it's not flashy. I think that oftentimes in the
press the attention in summits like this ends up focusing on where are
the controversies. Sometimes those controversies date back to before I
was born. (Laughter.) And sometimes I feel as if in some of these
discussions or at least the press reports we're caught in a time warp,
going back to the 1950s and gunboat diplomacy and Yanquis and the Cold
War, and this and that and the other. That's not the world we live in
today.
And my hope is, is that we all recognize this enormous opportunity that
we've got. And I know the business leaders who are here today, they
understand it; they understand that we're in a new world, and we have to
think in new ways.
Last point I want to make -- I think when you think about the
extraordinary success in Brazil, the success in Colombia, a big piece of
that is governance. You can't, I believe, have, over the long term,
successful economies if you don't have some basic principles that are
being followed: democracy and rule of law, human rights being observed,
freedom of expression. And I think -- and also personal security, the
capacity for people to feel as if they work hard then they're able to
achieve, and they have motivation to start a business and to know that
their own work will pay off.
And I just want to compliment both Brazil and Colombia, coming from
different political traditions, but part of the reason why you've seen
sustained growth is governments have worked effectively in each
country. And I think that when we look at how we're going to integrate
further and take advantage of increased opportunity in the future, it's
very important for us not to ignore how important it is to have a clean,
transparent, open government that is working on behalf of its people.
And that's important to business as well. The days when a business
feels good working in a place where people are being oppressed --
ultimately that's an unstable environment for you to do business. You
do business well when you know that it's a well-functioning society and
that there's a legitimate government in place that is going to be
looking out for its people.
So I just want to thank both of my outstanding partners here. They're
true leaders in the region. And I can speak, I think, for the United
States to say that we've never been more excited about the prospects of
working as equal partners with our brothers and sisters in Latin America
and the Caribbean, because that's going to be the key to our success.
(Applause.)
* * * *
MR. MATTHEWS: President Santos, I guess there are some issues in
America -- we have a very large Hispanic population. Ten percent of our
electorate is going to be Hispanic in background. We are the
second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world after Mexico.
People have dual languages in the United States, of course, but there is
so much Spanish speaking. You have the chance to sit next to President
Obama now. Do you want to ask him about the ways you think the United
States could help your country in the drug war?
* * * *
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Do you want me to respond?
MR. MATTHEWS: Yes, sir.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, this is a conversation that I've had with
President Santos and others. Just as the world economy is integrated,
so, unfortunately, the drug trade is integrated. And we can't look at
the issue of supply in Latin America without also looking at the issue
of demand in the United States. (Applause.)
And so whether it's working with President Santos or supporting the
courageous work that President Calderón is doing in Mexico, I,
personally, and my administration and I think the American people
understand that the toll of narco-trafficking on the societies of
Central America, Caribbean, and parts of South America are brutal, and
undermining the capacity of those countries to protect their citizens,
and eroding institutions and corrupting institutions in ways that are
ultimately bad for everybody.
So this is part of the reason why we've invested, Chris, about $30
billion in prevention programs, drug treatment programs looking at the
drug issue not just from a law enforcement and interdiction issue, but
also from a public health perspective. This is why we've worked in
unprecedented fashion in cooperation with countries like Mexico on not
just drugs coming north, but also guns and cash going south.
This is one of the reasons why we have continued to invest in programs
like Plan Colombia, but also now are working with Colombia, given their
best practices around issues of citizen security, to have not just the
United States but Colombia provide technical assistance and training to
countries in Central America and the Caribbean in finding ways that they
can duplicate some of the success that we've seen in Colombia.
So we're mindful of our responsibilities on this issue. And I think it
is entirely legitimate to have a conversation about whether the laws in
place are ones that are doing more harm than good in certain places.
I personally, and my administration's position, is that legalization is
not the answer; that, in fact, if you think about how it would end up
operating, that the capacity of a large-scale drug trade to dominate
certain countries if they were allowed to operate legally without any
constraint could be just as corrupting if not more corrupting then the
status quo.
Nevertheless, I'm a big believer in looking at the evidence, having a
debate. I think ultimately what we're going to find is, is that the way
to solve this problem is both in the United States, us dealing with
demand in a more effective way, but it's also going to be strengthening
institutions at home.
You mentioned earlier, the biggest thing that's on everybody's minds --
whether it's the United States, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica --
is, can I find a job that allows me to support my family and allows my
children to advance and feel secure. And in those societies where
you've got strong institutions, you've got strong business investment,
you've got rule of law, you have a law enforcement infrastructure that
is sound, and an economy that's growing -- that country is going to be
like a healthy body that is more immune than countries that have weak
institutions and high unemployment, in which kids see their only future
as participating in the drug trade because nobody has actually trained
them to get a job with Google, or Pepsi, or start their own small
business.
And so I think that it's important for us not to think that if somehow
we look at the drug issue in isolation, in the absence of dealing with
some of these other challenges -- institutional challenges and barriers
to growth and opportunity and the capacity for people to climb their way
out of poverty, that we're going to be able to solve this problem. The
drug issue in this region is, in some ways, a cause, but it's also, in
some ways, an effect of some broader and underlying problems. And we as
the United States have an obligation not only to get our own house in
order but also to help countries in a partnership to try to see if we
can move in a better direction. (Applause.)
* * * *
MR. MATTHEWS: Mr. President, do you want to respond? I think the
question that seems to be apparent here in the last couple of days is,
first of all, tremendous enthusiasm, a zeitgeist here that's almost
unusual in the world for positive optimism about the development in this
part of the world. It's not like it was -- just isn't the way it was
we grew up with.
The challenge I think you just heard from the President of Brazil was
the notion that Latin America is not interested in being our
complementary economy anymore -- the agricultural end while we do the
industrial end; they do the provision of raw materials and we do the
finest and highest-level high-tech work. How do we either respond to
Brazil's demand, really, to be partners and rivals -- they want to use
our educational resources, they want to come north to learn how to
compete with us -- right, Madam President? You want to be equals. You
want to learn everything we know, and then take it back and shove it at
us, right? (Laughter.) Isn't that it?
Well, anyway, that's the response -- I'd ask you for your response. (Laughter.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Chris, I'm not sure you're characterizing what
President Rousseff said -- (laughter) -- but this is what happens when
you get some of our U.S. political commentators moderating a panel.
(Laughter.) They try to stir up things that may not always be there.
(Applause.) And Chris is good at it. He's one of the best.
(Laughter.)
But, look, this is already happening. This is already happening.
Brazil has changed, Colombia has changed -- and we welcome the change.
The notion somehow that we see this as a problem is just not the case,
because if we've got a strong, growing, prosperous middle class in Latin
America, those are new customers for our businesses. (Applause.)
Brazil is growing and that opportunity is broad-based, then suddenly
they're interested in buying iPads, and they're interested in buying
Boeing airplanes and -- (laughter.)
PRESIDENT ROUSSEFF: Boeing -- Embraer. (Laughter and applause.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I was just trying to see how she'd respond to that.
(Laughter.) But the point is, is that that's a market for us. So we in
the United States should welcome not just growth, but broad-based
growth, of the sort that President Rousseff described.
I'll give you just -- I said I was in Tampa. All those containers that
are coming in, they have, in some cases, commodities coming from Latin
America, but they also have finished products that are coming in from
Latin America. We have commodities that are going into Latin America
that we're sending back on those containers, as well as finished
products. And so this is a two-way street.
When I came into office, one of my first decisions was to say that the
G20 was not a temporary thing to respond to the world economic crisis;
this should be the permanent forum for determining and coordinating
direction in the world economy. And frankly, there were some folks who
were members of the G8 who were upset with me about that determination,
but realistically you can't coordinate world economic issues if you
don't have China and Brazil and India and South Africa at the table --
and Mexico. That's not possible.
So the world has changed. I think the United States and U.S.
businesses stand to benefit from those changes. But it does mean that
we have to adapt to that competitive environment. And all the
advantages that President Rousseff mentioned we have as the United
States -- its flexibility, our scientific edge, our well-educated
workforce, our top universities -- those are the things that we continue
to have to build and get better at. And that's true for every country
here.
Every one of the businesses here are going to be making determinations
about where you locate based on the quality of the workforce, how much
investment you have to make in training somebody to handle a
million-dollar piece of equipment. Do you feel as if your intellectual
property is going to be protected? Do you feel as if there's a good
infrastructure to be able to get your products to market? And so I
think this is a healthy competition that we should be encouraging.
And what I've said at the first summit that I came to, Summit of the
Americas that I came to, was we do not believe there are junior partners
and senior partners in this situation. We believe there are partners.
And Brazil is in many ways ahead of us on something like biofuels; we
should learn from them. And if we're going to be trying to mount a
regional initiative, let's make sure that Brazil is taking the lead. It
doesn’t have to be us in every situation.
Now, the flip side is -- and I'll close with this -- I think in Latin
America, part of the change in mentality is also not always looking to
the United States as the reason for everything that happens that goes
wrong. (Applause.)
I was in an interview -- several interviews yesterday. These were
actually with Spanish-speaking television stations that have broadcast
back in the United States. And the first interviewer said, why hasn't
the United States done more to promote democracy in the region, because
you've done a lot in the Arab Spring but it seems as if you're not
dealing with some of the problems here in Latin America. The next
questioner said, why are you being so hard on Cuba and promoting
democracy all the time? (Laughter and applause.) That’s an example, I
think, of some of the challenges we face that are rooted in legitimate
historical grievances. But it gets -- it becomes a habit.
When it comes to economic integration and exchanges, I am completely
sympathetic to the fact that there are challenges around monetary policy
in developed and less-developed countries. And Brazil, for example, has
seen the Real appreciate in ways that had been hurtful. I would argue a
lot of that has to do with the failure of some other countries to
engage in rebalancing, not the United States. But having said that, I
think there's not a country in Latin America who doesn’t want to see the
United States grow rapidly because we're your major export market.
And so most of these issues end up being complicated issues. Typically,
they involve both actions in the United States as well as actions in
the other countries if we're going to optimize the kind of growth and
prosperity and broad-based opportunity that both President Santos and
President Rousseff have spoken about.
And the United States comes here and says: We're ready to do
business. We are open to a partnership. We don’t expect to be able to
dictate the terms of that partnership, we expect it to be a negotiation
based on mutual interest and mutual respect. And I think we're all
going to benefit as a consequence of that. (Applause.)
MR. MATTHEWS: Thank you very much, President Rousseff, President
Santos, and my President, President Obama. Thank you. It's been an
honor.
