| BUSH FINALLY LOOKS TO THE SOUTH |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, April 01 2002 |
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| It's easier to make promises than to keep them. President Bush has made many promises to Latin America, and he continued making them during his recent three-country visit through the region. Bush vowed to promote free trade, lift barriers and find ways to reform U.S. immigration laws. Whether or not the president can or will live up to those promises remains to be seen, but at least he deserves an A for effort.
Bush attended the United Nations International Conference on Development, offering a $5 billion package to help fight world poverty. The conference happened to be in Monterrey, Mexico, and Bush took the opportunity to meet with his Mexican counterpart and good friend Vicente Fox and kick off a short but productive tour of Latin America.
I say productive because even though Bush went to Latin America empty-handed, he got a lot of bang for his buck. He only visited three countries, but he made headlines in the entire region. In Mexico, he met with more than 50 heads of state, excluding Fidel Castro, who left in a huff after being informed that Bush didn't want to be in the same room with him. During his visits to Peru and El Salvador, he met with nine presidents, one vice president and a prime minister.
In Peru, Bush made history by becoming the first U.S. president to visit that country. Under heavy security, he met with the region's heads of state and promised to promote extension of the Andean Trade Preference Act, which expired last December. The ATPA was created in 1991 to allow drug-producing countries to get lower tariffs, mainly for agricultural products, as an incentive to replace coca-leaf crops with others. But that decision is not up to Mr. Bush. Congress must decide if it wants to extend the benefit to the Andean countries.
In El Salvador, Bush promised the presidents of Central America and Belize to push for a free-trade agreement with that region. Administration officials acknowledged that it won't be easy and it won't be soon. There are other pending trade agreements that have priority. One of them is the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which is expected to be finalized by 2005.
As in Mexico, Bush also talked to the Central Americans about immigration. They have an advantage over the Mexicans on this issue: While most Mexican immigrants who entered the United States illegally remain illegal, many Central Americans achieved Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, either because they were running away from Cold War-era conflicts or natural disasters.
As president, Mr. Bush can only say that he will work to extend TPS. He can only suggest that a free-trade agreement be negotiated with Central America. He can only ask the Senate to consider granting preference in tariffs to the Andean countries. He can say he would like to find a way to bring together folks who are looking for work and employers who need workers, but he can't offer amnesty.
Making promises to Latin America is not a novel idea for Mr. Bush. Even before taking office, he promised in a speech in Miami that he would make Latin America a priority. He was on the right track. His first foreign trip was to Mexico, his first state dinner was in honor of President Fox and his first interview as president was not to ABC, CBS or NBC, but to Spanish-language network Univision.
Understandably, the horrific events of Sept. 11 forced Bush to change his list of priorities. But now that Latin America is once again on his radar screen, he needs to do more for his neighbors to the south than merely call them his friends and tell them, "mi casa es su casa." |
