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ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Let me start off by saying I'm deeply grateful to Ambassador
Negroponte for not reciting my bio which gets longer and longer and proves only that I am
getting old and can't keep a job. Good morning, I'm delighted to be here back at one of the
premier events of the year for those of us who care about Latin America and the Caribbean:
the Council of the Americas Washington conference. For me it's an opportunity to see so many
old friends, new colleagues, and the faces of a newly confident region focused on success.
Thank you John, for that introduction, and especially my thanks to Susan and Eric for
allowing me to go ahead and speak ahead of a list of so many more distinguished speakers
that you'll hear from today.
Later today, you will hear a great perspective on this Hemisphere and our policy from Vice
President Biden, who is a passionate advocate for this region. He'll bring to this forum
a fresh and clear-eyed review of just how important the Western Hemisphere is to the
United States, and just how much is going on that should inspire all us to even greater
creativity and innovation.
But I don't want to give away the good stuff that he'll talk to you about later. Let me
instead give you a couple of quick observations from President Obama's recent trip to the
region, and what I think they mean for all of us.
It's no secret that the President's trip to Mexico and Costa Rica focused heavily on our
economic relationship. What was novel, it seems to me, is that when we were talking
trade, we were talking about what comes AFTER our own trade agreements--whether it's the
Trans Pacific Partnership, or the Trans-Atlantic one just recently launched. Everyone wanted
to be part of these next-generation trade agreements. When we turned to energy--which
was a large part of the conversations--the focus was on diversification of energy supplies,
new energy resources in the Americas, the economic viability and scaling up of renewable
energy, and the imperative for regional regulatory environments. Let's face it, these kinds of
forward-looking, globally responsible and responsive conversations were not what we
were talking about 10 years ago. The desire to be responsive to all of our citizens' dream
of a better life might have existed in the past, but the opportunity and the ability
to actually bring it about is what was new. What I heard were ten pragmatic leaders who
didn't see cooperation as zero-sum, and believe deeply, to paraphrase President Obama in Mexico
City, that we are all rooting for each others success, as it means our success too.
Even when the conversations turned to security, I heard leaders focusing on practical ways
we can cooperate, rather than accusations of blame. For years I've been asked whether
violence borne of transnational organizations in Mexico are 'spilling over' into the United
States. And for years I've pointed out that our law enforcement officials believe that
Mexican drug cartels are active in over 250 cities in the United States. So what does
"spillover" mean? How can that NOT matter to us? When President Obama was asked in Costa
Rica what have Americans sacrificed in this fight, he rightly pointed out that his hometown
of Chicago had a record number of homicides last year--many of them linked to the drug
trade. We are making progress against drug addiction and the crime and corruption it
brings here in the United States, but too many of our young people are still dying from
it. And so we make common cause with countries in our region in our shared responsibility
to combat this plague. Not because we don't want to fight it at home, but because it simply
cannot be defeated by any one of us alone.
Finally, I want to give a word on education, and its role in taking full advantage of this
moment of opportunity. There has been a great deal of talk about educating our young people
for the 21st century, for the global marketplace, for a world where innovation and entrepreneurship
win every time. And we know that to succeed in bringing still more people into the middle
class, and to satisfy the dreams of all those parents who have moved into the middle class
in the past 15 years, we're talking about both quality of education, and access to education.
So how do we get there? The answer will look different in every country, but we all have
to be pulling in the same direction. This is the reason President Obama launched the
"100,000 Strong in the Americas" student exchange initiative two years ago. We see governments
around the Hemisphere beginning to invest in education for their young people--whether
by sending them on student exchanges, by forgiving parts of their debt if they return home after
an experience abroad, or creating new partnerships between universities and the private sector
to expand education and high-tech resources.
So today I'd like to challenge each and every one of you in this room, and especially those
representing the private sector: what skills do you look for in a new employee? What particular
talent or educational background do you wish you saw more of in applicants as you grow
your businesses in the Hemisphere? For one company I recently spoke to, it was better
public sector management. For another it was health and well-being. I ask you today to
help us get there. Think about contributing to our non-profit partnership for 100,000
Strong in the Americas, with partners of the Americas and NAFSA, to contribute in specific
fields, in specific countries, wherever you'd like to invest in the promise of your future
employees--and your future customers. Even in this time of budget constraints, we convinced
the US Congress to join us in this endeavor--surely you'd like to do as well as they did!
I've picked just a couple of areas where I think we have already seen big changes in
the region, but we're poised to see even more. And I look forward to the conversations today
helping all of us better understand our role in "being the change" and in delivering on
the promises. Thank you so much.
[Applause]
I think I made the fatal mistake of leaving enough time for questions
AMBASSADOR NEGROPONTE: Yes please, any questions.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: If there aren't any, we can move on.
AMBASSADOR NEGROPONTE: Well I've got, perhaps you could talk a little bit about economic
feelings, since this was such a big emphasis, and we've had these new trade agreements go
into force with Columbia and Panama, you've got the CAFTA, you've got all the countries
that the President met with are countries that have free-trade arrangements with the
United States, so what can we expect that's new in the free-trade area going forward?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Thank you John, I appreciate that. I think there were two
main themes on the economic side specifically on trade in the conversations on this trip.
One was clearly the pace and breadth of Mexican reforms going on, and how those would enable
Mexico to really reach the full potential of NAFTA. The President spoke often about
integration, and about continuing the work that we began under NAFTA 20 years ago. And
I think this is a particularly propitious time for those of us in North America to really
concentrate even more, in many ways, on what comes next. The notion of the integrated supply
chain, we've all heard the stories about the automotive sector in particular, but it's
true in so many other areas as well. The way in which things are now North American, both
in their origin and in their ultimate market. But the other thing that was interesting was
as similar kind of conversation with Central American leaders and the Dominican Republic
in which, leaders really looked at taking CAFTA and DR and making it CAFTADR and making
it a platform for what comes next in integration, in regional action, and in connecting the
isthmus and the Dominican Republic to the global markets that they want to reach. There
was, as I mentioned, a lot of conversation about the two big initiatives by the Administration
in its second term on trade. The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the desire of many in the
Hemisphere to be part of that. Obviously although we already have 5 Western Hemisphere nations
that are participating in TPP: Chile, Peru, Mexico, Canada and the United States. But
there was also a focus on the Trans-Atlantic Initiative, the TTIP, and whether that would
include the countries within NAFTA, or could include them at the beginning. And I think
one of the main goals was to ensure that in moving ahead with the transatlantic dialogue
we not do anything that would disadvantage or hurt what we've built in NAFTA. And I think
that the President was very clear on his goal of ensuring that would not be the case moving
forward. So I think, you know, one of the most interesting things that all of us know
from our work every day in the Hemisphere is that as we move beyond just the regional
trade agreements we look towards global engagement and engaging with new markets, sort of expanding
the presence of the platform of this Hemisphere into the wider global marketplace. And I think
the Administration's trade agenda gives us ample opportunity for that and it was I think
very very satisfying for all of us to hear that our partners in this Hemisphere are very
much focused on how they can take that next step. What other measures do they need to
take, do we need to take, can we work on together to ensure that we really are projecting globally
the trade and the robust connections that we've made in this Hemisphere over the last
20 years.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: [unknown] you talk to us a bit about the US policy now with Venezuela
post Chavez and now [unknown]
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: The question if folks didn't hear it was one about Venezuela
and US policy and what happens now going forward. I think that we've all seen in the results
of the Venezuelan election and the closeness of that election. Obviously deeply polarized
Venezuelan society, one in which you have the population and the voting public roughly
evenly split. And one of the most important things that we've emphasized over and over
again is a process to try and bring reconciliation and dialogue to Venezuela and most importantly
to ensure that the 49 plus % of Venezuelans, over 7 million people who voted for the opposition,
feel like their voices have been heard. That's what I think all of us expect in democratic
process. So we are not obviously talking about specifically you know, a winner or a loser,
a preference in that score. But we're talking about democratic practices that need to be
observed, that all of us signed up to under the Inter-American Democratic Charter. This
Hemisphere having been out front in committing to those processes and ensuring that people
feel like they are a part of the democratic process. There are lots of different ways
to do that, but so far we don't see that process of dialogue beginning and that's something
that we would clearly like to see in Venezuela and obviously we're talking with lots of our
partners around the Hemisphere to try and be able to do that. We've also said repeatedly
that we would like a better, more productive, functional relationship with the Venezuelan
government. And we look forward to having that relationship but it takes both sides
to be able to do that.
AMBASSADOR NEGROPONTE: I'm afraid we've run out of time but we want to thank you for joining
us this morning and for helping us kick of this very important conference and good luck
to you as you carry out your important mission in the months and years ahead
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Thank you all.
[APPLAUSE]