Bush Spreads the Love

An interesting article on the direction of the POTUS. I was wondering how long it would take before he started going further south.

Bush to Push for Trade in the Americas
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina - President Bush will make his call for liberalized trade and increased entrepreneurship in Argentina, a country that adopted such reforms in the 1990s and saw its economy collapse.

Supporters of free trade say those policies aren’t to blame for the financial crisis and resulting bloody riots four years ago. Instead, they point to other mistakes, chief among them government corruption and Argentina’s heavy borrowing.

The thousands of protesters gathered in this seaside resort to protest Bush’s visit represent the skepticism that many South Americans have toward U.S.-led negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas stretching from Alaska to Argentina.

Bush says open trade among nations in the Western Hemisphere and beyond would help alleviate poverty. He’s pushing that agenda with the 34 nations gathered at the two-day Summit of the Americas.

Demonstrators poured into Mar del Plata for Friday’s opening day. Police with riot shields redoubled security, and navy ships patrolled offshore as helicopters clattered over the luxury hotel where leaders will meet.

“We’re going to say ‘No to Bush’ and ‘No to FTAA,’” said Argentine labor leader Juan Gonzalez. “We don’t have any confidence in anything he might propose here. Whatever it is will only prolong hunger, poverty and death in Latin America.”

Bush has acknowledged that the FTAA, which was once one of his highest trade priorities, has stalled. Thomas Shannon, the new assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said aboard Air Force One on the flight to Argentina that the U.S. is still promoting the FTAA even though it has been “slowed down,” but also is pursuing regional and bilateral agreements to move the president’s free trade agenda.

Bush is highlighting his success by gathering first thing Friday with leaders of Central American nations involved in a recently approved trade pact with the United States. Later in the day, Bush has one-on-one meetings with the president of Chile, which negotiated a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S., and the host of the summit, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner.

Bush and an outspoken critic, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, were likely to meet Friday, shortly after Chavez’s speech to a demonstration of mostly anti-Bush protesters. Chavez has joked about whether Bush is afraid of him and said he might sneak up and scare Bush at the summit.

Chavez has said he would use the meeting as a stage to denounce the U.S. as a “capitalist, imperialist model” of democracy that exploits the economies of developing nations.

Bush’s trip comes as he faces the lowest job approval ratings of his presidency back home.

Argentina’s economy is recovering faster than many leading analysts expected, in part because of a boom in exports. But the country still suffers from double-digit unemployment and high poverty.

Bush applauded Kirchner, the populist leader who was elected in the political upheaval that followed the economic collapse, for being a good steward of the people’s money. But he said Kirchner shouldn’t look to the United States to help Argentina reach a new financial settlement with the International Monetary Fund.

“Since he has proven himself to be capable of performing, it seems like to me that the best policy ought to be for the Argentine government to deal directly with the IMF, without the U.S. having to be a middleman,” Bush said earlier this week.

Relations between Bush and Kirchner have been chilly. The Argentine was an opponent of the war in Iraq and said before their meeting at the last Summit of the Americas that he would “win by a knockout” in his private meeting with Bush.

Still, Argentina remains the only country in Latin America that holds “major non-NATO ally” status with the United States, exempting it from certain sanctions. The country has cooperated with the United States on fighting drug trade and terrorism, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said.

[quote]ALDurr wrote:

Bush says open trade among nations in the Western Hemisphere and beyond would help alleviate poverty. He’s pushing that agenda with the 34 nations gathered at the two-day Summit of the Americas.


Argentina’s economy is recovering faster than many leading analysts expected, in part because of a boom in exports. But the country still suffers from double-digit unemployment and high poverty.[/quote]

Hmmm. Argentina’s economy is doing better than expected in part because a boom in exports? And they are adamant about not opening up trade with the largest economy in the world?

I am not a free-trade absolutist, but if you don’t your people to be poor, you should give your people a chance to be not poor.

[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
ALDurr wrote:

Bush says open trade among nations in the Western Hemisphere and beyond would help alleviate poverty. He’s pushing that agenda with the 34 nations gathered at the two-day Summit of the Americas.


Argentina’s economy is recovering faster than many leading analysts expected, in part because of a boom in exports. But the country still suffers from double-digit unemployment and high poverty.

Hmmm. Argentina’s economy is doing better than expected in part because a boom in exports? And they are adamant about not opening up trade with the largest economy in the world?

I am not a free-trade absolutist, but if you don’t your people to be poor, you should give your people a chance to be not poor.[/quote]

I don’t think that it is a matter of wanting the people to be poor. I think that it is the case where the Argentine government does not trust the USA leadership. Our credibility is shot with many other countries due to our actions of the last several years.

There was always a level of mistrust of the USA around the world for years BEFORE Bush Jr.'s taking of office. It was the fear of the bigger, stronger country exploiting the smaller, weaker countries. It is just in recent years, it has been amplified by our country’s actions over the last several years.

I have personally been in several different countries and regions of the world due to business travel and have talked to people from there. Many have expressed a real fear of the USA and the political direction we are taking. I’m not saying that this makes me an expert, but I do have some real life experience outside the USA for feedback.

[quote]ALDurr wrote:

I have personally been in several different countries and regions of the world due to business travel and have talked to people from there. Many have expressed a real fear of the USA and the political direction we are taking. I’m not saying that this makes me an expert, but I do have some real life experience outside the USA for feedback.[/quote]

I have too, and I get a sense of disapproval as opposed to fear, but from an economic point of view, I don’t run into many that don’t trust our trading with them.

As for the political direction we are taking, opening up trade and lavishing aid money around the world is not the scariest scenario I could think of.

[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
ALDurr wrote:

I have personally been in several different countries and regions of the world due to business travel and have talked to people from there. Many have expressed a real fear of the USA and the political direction we are taking. I’m not saying that this makes me an expert, but I do have some real life experience outside the USA for feedback.

I have too, and I get a sense of disapproval as opposed to fear, but from an economic point of view, I don’t run into many that don’t trust our trading with them.

As for the political direction we are taking, opening up trade and lavishing aid money around the world is not the scariest scenario I could think of.

[/quote]

Lavishing aid money? From who?

[quote]Wreckless wrote:
Lavishing aid money? From who?[/quote]

Please tell me that you didn’t just ask that, and were serious about it. Can you be any hyooooger of a freaking moron?

[quote]rainjack wrote:
Wreckless wrote:
Lavishing aid money? From who?

Please tell me that you didn’t just ask that, and were serious about it. Can you be any hyooooger of a freaking moron?[/quote]

That should be from “whom”, but otherwise the implication that the US is low-balling is correct.

[quote]TQB wrote:

That should be from “whom”, but otherwise the implication that the US is low-balling is correct.
[/quote]

How can you lowball something you aren’t required to give?