U.S., Brazil Reach Accord on Crime, Environment

Adding an upbeat note to a somewhat awkward visit here by President Clinton, the United States and Brazil on Tuesday announced agreements on everything from fighting crime to protecting the environment.

At a news conference at Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence, Clinton and Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso applauded the two countries’ cooperation as a symbol of changing relationships in the Western Hemisphere.

“This is clearly a unique moment of opportunity in the Americas,” Clinton said during the first full day of his visit to Brazil, the largest nation in South America. Common values of democracy and free markets, he said, give “us the opportunity to advance the welfare, the freedom and the security of all of our people in a way that has not been possible before.”

Cardoso also lauded cooperation aimed at stimulating economic growth: “Prosperity for all is best for each and every one,” he said.

While the Clinton administration has described the presidential visit as a symbol of a blossoming U.S.-Brazilian friendship, the local media have played up a series of minor flaps, including a Commerce Department description of “endemic corruption” in Brazil that offended many here, and Brazilian charges of arrogance by some in the White House advance party.

Protesters chanting anti-Clinton slogans threw manure on his limousine, and a few dozen demonstrators burned Clinton in effigy as he met with legislative leaders.

Brazilian officials have looked warily at the U.S. approach to free trade, questioning whether it will conflict with the goals of Mercosur, the South American trade bloc.

Clinton sought to address the issues Tuesday. In extraordinarily strong language, he disavowed the Commerce Department description of endemic corruption--which U.S. officials had disavowed already.

“The document was wrong, and it represented an appalling error of judgment for anybody to write such a thing,” he told a news conference. “It has been decisively rejected by every American authority. . . . I thought it was terrible, and I did everything I could to correct it.”

Clinton said he welcomed the growth of trade among South Americans, and all growing nations, as a trend that could benefit the United States as well. The U.S. goal is for a hemispheric free-trade zone by 2005. But Brazil has questioned whether such plans would conflict with the policies and timetables of the South American bloc.

Under Tuesday’s accords, the U.S. and Brazil agreed to strengthen joint efforts in law enforcement; to work together on clean-energy technologies and the International Space Station; and to combine efforts on research in the Amazon.

Later Tuesday, Clinton flew to Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.