WASHINGTON - The three architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement said that a free trade pact for the Western Hemisphere is the logical next step.
Former President George Bush, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gotari, who were in office when NAFTA was negotiated, reunited Monday to open a conference marking the 10th anniversary of its signing.
The three said NAFTA, signed in 1992 and effective in 1994, had set a standard for the opening of markets for the region and was a worthwhile objective despite heavy opposition at the time.
"Our countries are stronger, our economies more robust, our peoples more prosperous, our social structures more resilient, our capital markets more stable, our roles in the world more vigorous, as a result of NAFTA," Mulroney said.
The leaders agreed the next step is the completion of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which strives to create a hemisphere-wide free trade zone.
Completion of the agreement is scheduled for 2005, but it has run into opposition, including from Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Brazil and the United States are taking over chairmanship of the negotiations of the agreement.
Silva is in Washington and has a White House meeting Tuesday with President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who represents Bush on the hemispheric trade talks.
"With some 20 million jobs in the U.S. depending on trade, now is not the time to rest on our laurels," former President Bush said. "I want to live long enough to see this hemisphere totally democratic and totally free trade. I think I can make it. I really do."
Bush did not sign NAFTA into law because he lost re-election in 1992 to Bill Clinton. He praised Clinton for finishing the work and getting it approved by Congress. But he criticized another political rival, former presidential candidate Ross Perot, who predicted NAFTA would send U.S. jobs south of the border.
"There hasn't been a 'giant sucking sound' " Bush squeaked in imitation of Perot.
Instead, Bush and the two other NAFTA leaders agreed their economies were doing better under NAFTA. Canadian exports to Mexico and the United States increased 95 percent and Mexico has surpassed Japan as America's No. 2 trading partner, Mulroney said.
But some Latin American countries have complained that the United States has not been doing enough to open up certain markets, particularly agricultural ones, in the hemispheric trade talks. Mulroney agreed that opening agricultural markets was necessary for the hemispheric trade agreement to work.
The pact negotiators "need to guarantee access to our markets for the exports that matter most for our partners, particularly the export of agricultural commodities," said Mulroney, who held office from 1984-93.
"The rich countries pay out more than $300 billion a year in farm subsidies, thereby .... killing off any hope for developing countries to compete fairly," Mulroney said.
Salinas added that free trade also includes the free movement of people and pronounced support for Mexican President Vicente Fox (news - web sites), who succeeded Salinas. Salinas was Mexico's president from 1988 to 1994.
"President Fox has taken the correct position by insisting on a migration treaty," Salinas said, adding that the migration of Mexican workers is in response to U.S. demand for laborers.
In his 20-page prepared remarks, Salinas also called the trade embargo on Cuba an anachronism, but did not include that in his spoken comments.
A poll commissioned by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which organized the conference, found that almost half of Americans believe the United States has been a winner in the agreement. But in Mexico, 52 percent believe they were losers in NAFTA and 47 percent of Canadians feel their country was the loser.
Apart from the hemispheric trade pact, Mulroney said the greatest urgency for maintaining free trade is securing North America against terrorism by denying it a foothold on the continent, but ensuring the uninterrupted flow of trade and people.
"We must make our internal borders work in our shared interest rather than succumbing to the false temptation of sealing them off against each other to protect security," Mulroney said. "Doing so would be a victory for terrorists."
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