A Road Map Back to Latin America

In the past two years, as the president and Congress quarreled, U.S. policy toward Latin America has swung from partnership and free trade to paternalism and protectionism. In his second term, President Clinton needs to forge a domestic partnership with Congress as a first step toward consolidating a democratic alliance with the fastest growing market for U.S. goods.

In 1993 and 1994, President Clinton improved and secured ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement; he marshaled multinational support to restore constitutional government in Haiti; and he convoked a summit of democratic presidents that pledged to complete negotiations on free trade for the hemisphere by the year 2005.

But within two weeks of the summit, U.S. policy shifted with the fall of the Mexican peso and the rise of Republicans; the American people lost interest in the Americas, and partisan bickering stalemated policy. To Latin Americans, the U.S. government became more of a drug policeman than a trading partner.

The Helms-Burton law on Cuba created more resentment with our friends than problems for Cuba. The United States retreated from NAFTA and the promise to pursue its extension to Chile. And while Washington rejected the authority of the World Trade Organization on the Cuba issue, it used the WTO against Brazil on autos and in the Caribbean on bananas.

Disappointed but pragmatic Latin governments have begun pursuing free-trade alternatives elsewhere.

Fortunately, there are signs, including the appointment of Mack McLarty as special envoy and his proposed trips to the region, that the president may decide to seize the unique opportunity in the Americas. But what, exactly, must be done?

* The president and Congress need to approve fast-track trade negotiating authority, not just for Chile but for all the Americas. We also should negotiate reciprocal but not equal agreements with the vulnerable Caribbean Basin countries.

* An international drug policy in which we grade our allies in the drug war each year weakens them and is incompatible with a policy of partnership. Instead of acting as a big brother, the United States should invite our partners to design a genuinely hemispheric drug-fighting strategy to be monitored by all.

* To deepen democracy, the electoral process should be cleansed of money. While the United States has much to learn, our neighbors can learn from us how transparency and required disclosure of “commissions” can restrain corruption.

* The hemisphere has much to learn from Chile, which in the past six years has reduced its poverty by half, and from Brazil, which increased funding to education and directed it toward elementary and secondary schools rather than universities.

* The secretary-general of the Organization of American States should empower a group of senior statesmen to propose solutions for the numerous territorial disputes that continue to threaten the region, and all of the nations should try to fashion arms restraint agreements that could be models for the developing world.

* NAFTA is the second most advanced pan-region in the world, but some adjustment is essential to ensure that the rules are fairly enforced and that the benefits of integration are shared with those who have had to pay the price.

With a full domestic and international agenda, why should the president devote his time to Latin America? Because a peaceful and prosperous hemisphere is to our advantage.

In the past five years, U.S. exports to Latin America have increased eight times faster than our exports to Japan and about 15 times faster than those to Europe. It is hard for many Americans to conceive, but this hemisphere is already nearly twice as large a market for U.S. goods as the European Union and nearly 50% above that of Asia. And this is only the beginning, because Latin America employs trade barriers that will fall faster and further than ours.

Another reason is that most new Americans come from the Americas. The cultural distance separating the U.S. from Latin America has narrowed. The prospect for a closer relationship is better now than ever.

President Clinton’s most enduring legacy can be built in this hemisphere. Progress will not be measured by the number of meetings but by concrete steps and the political will of all the nations’ leaders to make the kinds of decisions that will improve the lives of all Americans, from Canada to Argentina.