Bush Says Free Trade Is Key to Meeting Needs of Poor

As thousands of demonstrators surged through the streets of this quaint 17th century city Saturday, some clashing with police, President Bush asserted that the best way to address their concerns about poverty and inequality is to bring down trade barriers across the Western Hemisphere.

“Free and open trade creates new jobs and new income. It lifts the lives of all our people, applying the power of markets to the needs of the poor,” Bush told the Summit of the Americas, a gathering attended by 34 heads of state.

Yet in a reflection of the demonstrators’ impact on the conclave, Bush also acknowledged complaints that free political and economic systems have not improved the lives of significant numbers of people in the hemisphere.

“Some complain that despite our democratic gains, there is still too much poverty, inequality. Some even say that things are getting worse, not better. For too many, this may be true,” he said.

Outside, an estimated 30,000 protesters, the majority having come in overnight, took over the streets around the summit during a second day of demonstrations. Small groups of black-clad youths again tried to breach a 2.5-mile fence of concrete and chain-link mesh erected to isolate them from the meeting in the luxurious Quebec Convention Center and the historic Citadel overlooking the St. Lawrence River.

To prevent a repeat of the tense confrontations that stretched into Friday night, police used concrete blocks to reinforce a fence they had earlier called “impenetrable.” They also welded sections closed, further limiting passage for delegates with passes.

Their tactics shifted as well. Officers with gas masks and bulletproof vests preemptively lobbed waves of tear gas as soon as protesters got within several yards of the fence, nicknamed the “Wall of Shame.” Police also sprayed protesters with water cannons and had snow-making machines and riot-control dogs ready.

More than 150 protesters have been arrested during the past two days, and 34 officers and more than 45 demonstrators have been injured, none of them seriously, according to Canadian officials. But the clashes Saturday were kept largely under control. As on the first day of the three-day summit, most demonstrators marched peacefully, almost festively, through the city of cobblestone streets and historic French buildings.

In his debut speech at an international summit, Bush pledged that he will listen to voices “inside this hall and to those outside this hall who want to join us in constructive dialogue.” He also conceded that opening up trade across all the countries of the Americas save Cuba needs to be accompanied by a “strong commitment” to protecting the environment and improving labor standards.

Bush wasn’t alone. Many of the leaders assembled to negotiate a new Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, could not avoid the issues forced onto the agenda by a protest alliance of more than 300 groups.

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso even said that he sympathized with the protesters’ causes, if not the violent tactics used by a minority of self-described anarchists. The demonstrators are “motivated by the fear of a free trade agreement or globalization without a human face,” he said.

As the region’s leaders get down to negotiating the details of the FTAA, due to go into effect in less than four years, Cardoso pledged to push for “trade openings that are reciprocal and [to] help close rather than widen the disparities in our region.”

“We will insist that the benefits of free trade are shared equally,” he said.

In blunt language, Mexican President Vicente Fox pointed out that the hemisphere includes many of the world’s poorest states as well as its richest. About 220 million people in Latin America--about a quarter of the projected FTAA’s population--live below the poverty line, he said.

“There is a lot to celebrate, but there is also a lot to lament. We need a strong expansion of economic citizenship, to democratize markets. Only by doing that can we develop the energy of the millions who have been excluded from economic development,” Fox said.

The agreement scheduled to govern trade in the hemisphere by Jan. 1, 2005, will affect 800 million people living on two continents that stretch from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn and have an economic output of about $11 trillion, according to U.S. officials.

But economic growth and progress will not last unless political systems are accepted as truly representative and open, the Mexican leader told the summit.

In an appeal from one of the hemisphere’s smaller countries, Prime Minister Owen Arthur of Barbados warned of the dangers if hemispheric trade is seen to benefit the wealthiest countries the most. Virtually echoing the protesters, he called for a “people-centered” summit to make concessions to poorer nations.

More than one voice warned that the whole concept of the FTAA could fail if basic inequities are not addressed.

“Until all the peoples of the Americas are free from hunger and fear of unemployment, we cannot celebrate the benefits of trade liberalization,” said Prime Minister Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia.

The danger may well extend to more than efforts to piece together a trade bloc expected to be the world’s most lucrative by decade’s end. Democracy also is at stake, as it faces a crisis of “legitimacy and relevance,” warned Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who is hosting the conference.

“The challenge we all face as leaders is how best to steer our government agendas back toward addressing the most critical problems facing our citizens,” he told a room full of his political peers.

To help stabilize the transition to the free-trade zone, Bush announced a series of small U.S. initiatives. An American Fellows Exchange Program will sponsor a one-year swap of civil servants by participating nations, to promote “excellence in government.” A total of three Hemispheric Centers for Teacher Excellence will be launched to improve the skills of about 15,000 teachers during the next four years.

An Inter-American E-Business Fellowship Program will aid young professionals with technology training to meet the demands of a global economy in their own societies.

“Democracy is a journey, not a destination,” Bush said. “Each nation here, including the United States, must work to make freedom succeed. We must strengthen this architecture of democracy for the benefit of all our people.”

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