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 News from Around the Americas | August 2007 
Text of President Bush, Mexican President Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Harper
 Associated Press
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| | U.S. President George W. Bush (L) holds a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (C) and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Quebec, August 21, 2007. (Reuters/Jim Young) |
Text of President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
HARPER (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We agreed to discuss the protection of the consumer and are looking at the non-secure products entering the nations, in particular those going to our children.
We also recognize the fact to find practical, pragmatic solutions to our mutual environmental challenges, our countries are working to find our own sustainable energies and to find national standards on energy efficiency.
Finally, and this is particularly important for Canada, we realize that border security must not threaten the friendly relations that we have.
We undertook agreements on cooperation, standards, regulations ... intellectual property, and research in the energy field in the framework of this summit.
We met the North American Competitiveness Council. Their leaders provided us with valuable information on how we could exploit our partnership in the field of security and prosperity to strengthen our economies and to create good jobs here in North America.
Our discussions did not merely deal with North America. We also discussed a number of other international and hemispheric questions – climate change – and to the next meeting of the Middle East discussions, where our countries are defending democracy and freedom and protecting the have-nots.
This summit enabled us to discuss our singular bilateral discussions.
President Bush and I met yesterday afternoon. We discussed several matters, including our joint commitment to a secure border that remains open to the exchange of goods and services and the interaction of our people.
President Calderón and I met last night. First, let me take the opportunity to thank the president, his wife, Margarita, and their children – Maria, Felipe and Juan Pablo – for spending some time this past weekend with our family.
I understand you're cutting your visit short, given the impact of Hurricane Dean on your country. I regret the cost of this terrible natural disaster.
At the same time, we appreciate the efforts of the Mexican authorities to secure the evacuation of Canadian citizens.
I'm grateful we were able to arrange our schedules yesterday to meet and discuss matters formally before your departure. We had the opportunity to discuss many issues related to the growing relationship between Canada and Mexico that we're going to lead forward together.
Canada, the United States and Mexico are good neighbors and good friends. As sovereign countries in the modern world, we are both independent and interdependent. And we're committed to working together on mutual security, continued economic growth and expanding our unique North American relationship.
President Bush?
BUSH: Thank you, Prime Minister. Thanks for having us here.
I too want to thank the good folks of Montebello for their wonderful hospitality. Their food was good; their hospitality was warm. You picked a great place to come.
I express my country's concerns for the citizens whose lives will be affected by Hurricane Dean. I respect the fact that President Calderón has decided to get back to Mexico as quickly as possible in a safe way.
I want you to know that U.S. agencies are in close touch with the proper Mexican authorities, and if you so desire help, we stand ready to help.
The American people care a lot about the human condition in our neighborhood. And when we see human suffering, we want to do what we can to help alleviate that. So we wish you all of luck.
These meetings are – I'm not going to try to reiterate what Stephen said. He went through the list of the meetings. And he's a – he's right, that we talked about a lot of issues.
I just want to give you the spirit of the discussions and why I think they're important.
It's in our people's interests that Canada and Mexico work closely together. In other words, there's a good reason why our leaders should come together on a regular basis.
First reason why is to figure out ways to continue to enhance prosperity. It's in our interests that the Canadian lifestyle be as strong as it is and it's in our interests that prosperity spread to Mexico.
If you're a U.S. citizen, you want people that live close to you to be prosperous. The more prosperity there is in your neighborhood, the more hopeful your neighborhood is.
NAFTA, which has created a lot of political controversy in our respective countries has yielded prosperity. Since NAFTA came to be, trade between our respective countries has grown from $293 billion a year to $883 billion a year.
Now, for some those are just numbers, but for many it's improved wages and a better lifestyle, and more hope. And the question that we're faced with is, how do we continue to enhance prosperity so the average citizen understands the benefits of three countries working together?
And I think we've made some good progress toward eliminating barriers and to harmonizing regulations to the point where more prosperity will come to be.
And we discussed of – other issues – we discussed bilateral issues. Stephen and I talked about border issues. Of course, Felipe Calderón and I talked about border issues and migration. These are complicated issues, but they're issues that we can work out in good spirit as friends.
One reason one meets is to reconfirm friendships, is to make sure that not only at the leaders' level is there conversations taking place that are friendly, but that that spirit translates throughout our governments.
And I think we've accomplished that objective today.
We also talked, as Stephen mentioned, about international issues, issues concerning South America, the Middle East.
These are meaningful discussions. I'm glad I came. And I'm looking forward to hosting them next year.
Matter of fact, it's in the interest of our countries that we have these meetings on an annual basis and that have working groups follow through on the discussion items during our meetings with the business leaders, our own cabinet secretaries.
And so, thanks for having me. It's been worthwhile. I appreciate it.
CALDERON (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Thank you, Prime Minister Harper and President Bush.
In the first place, I would like to thank very specifically – I would like to thank you for the solidarity, the understanding and the support that I have received from you in order to, well, adjust my schedule to exhaust pending matters and allow me to return in good time in order to personally tend to the emergency situation that we have to face in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Your understanding and support is also accompanied by the offers of help and solidarity to the victims of this national disaster. So far, it would be too early to assess the scope of the damages. So far, there have been no fatal victims. We can't be sure yet.
But we are monitoring the situation every minute, monitoring the hurricane. And as a matter of fact, I'm returning to Yucatan right away, as soon as my aircraft can land, and supervise the rescue missions.
I would also like to thank, very sincerely – thank you for the hospitality and the human warmth, for the very welcoming attitude of Mr. Harper's family.
And I do value this. It was a marvelous weekend for my family at such a typically Canadian place. Typically Canadian places are amongst the most beautiful in the world. |
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