Remarks at the closing session of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Santiago

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 29, 2004

You know, we've overcome a lot in the U.S. economy. We faced a recession, coupled with terrorist attacks, which affected our capacity to grow. But we stimulated our economy by cutting taxes. And America is growing again, and people are working. And the question ahead is, how do we make sure we maintain growth.

We need legal reform in the United States. We got to make sure that those who risk capital are rewarded for taking risk and not subject to needless and frivolous lawsuits. We need regulatory reform in the United States. Our Tax Code is too complex. So I'm going to work with members of both political parties to simplify the Tax Code.

But I also understand there is concern about whether or not our Government is dedicated to dealing with our deficits, both short term and long term. I look forward to standing up in front of the Congress in my State of the Union and telling them why I submitted a budget that will help us deal with the short-term deficit of the United States, and I will do that. And I'll also work with Members of Congress to deal with the unfunded liabilities of our entitlement systems, so that we can say clearly to the world, the United States of America is committed to deficit reduction, both short term and long term.

Overall, the economy of this part of the world is expected to grow by nearly 5 percent this year. And that's good news, and the United States wanted to be a part of that growth. We can add to that progress by reducing trade barriers that I believe are an obstacle to economic growth everywhere, especially in the developing world. And so this Government and our country is strongly committed to the WTO's Doha round of negotiations. And my trade minister will be strongly committed to ensure the success of the WTO round. And we need your help in making sure that nations around the APEC table are focused on the benefits of global trade, that we put aside some differences that could prevent Doha from going forward.

We will continue to assist our Asia-Pacific partners in meeting their WTO obligations. We are encouraging Russia and Vietnam in their efforts to join the WTO. The history between our countries has changed dramatically between America and Vietnam and Russia. The tensions are no longer existing. Conflict is behind us, and we have a chance to work with those countries for the common good, and we will.

We're going to be aggressive about our bilateral trade agreements and our regional trade agreements. We've completed trade agreements with nations throughout Asia and the Americas, including Australia, Singapore, Chile, the five nations of Central America, and the Dominican Republic. We are working on new agreements with Thailand, Panama, the Andean nations of South America.

We're moving ahead with the enterprise for the ASEAN initiative, which is lowering trade barriers and strengthening economic ties in Southeast Asia. We're committed to the Bogor goals, which call for free trade among developed nations of the Asian-Pacific region by 2010 and free trade among all APEC economies by 2020. We seek free trade in the Americas, uniting the markets of all 34 free nations in the Western Hemisphere.