President Bush and President Uribe of the Republic of Colombia Participate in Jo

PRESIDENT BUSH: Good morning, Mr. President. Welcome back to the White House. I appreciate your friendship and I admire your bold leadership. You have transformed your nation and you have made Colombia a powerful example of how democracy can work in our neighborhood, and I congratulate you., Colombia is one of our closest allies and we have worked together on many important issues and we will continue to do so. We worked to improve security and advance freedom. The United States supports Colombia's efforts to modernize¹ its security forces, to fight terrorists and drug kingpins, and to provide Colombians with alternatives to lives of terror and narco-trafficking.,And your efforts are working. I think it's very important for the people of the United States to hear these statistics: Since you took office, Mr. President, homicides have dropped by 40 percent, kidnappings have dropped by more than 80 percent, terrorist attacks have dropped by more than 70 percent. That is a very strong record. Because of your decisive actions the Marxist terrorist network known as the FARC has been put on the run. And our country admired greatly the rescue efforts made by your -- by your team, of 15 hostages, including three Americans. And thank you for meeting with them.,In the last few years, thousands of members of FARC have deserted³. They've realized the empty promise of the leaders of -- you know, won't be met. And you have offered these folks a better life and a better alternative.,It's also -- it's in our interest to continue to support Colombia. What happens in Colombia can affect life here in the United States. You've got a strong supporter here. And after I leave office, it's going to be very important for the next President and the next Congress to stand squarely by your side.,We're working together to open up markets and increase prosperity. Next week, the President and I will be meeting with leaders throughout our hemisphere in New York to discuss the importance of free and fair trade. We're going to send a clear message -- that increasing trade is essential to the economic well-being⁵ of every nation in our region; that our neighborhood will prosper⁴ if we trade freely. You're our fourth largest trading partner. Trade between our two nations reached $18 billion last year, and that's beneficial for the people of Colombia and it's beneficial for the people of the United States.,And I believe it's in our interest to continue to open new markets for both countries. Most of Colombia's products enter the United States today duty-free. Most of ours face tariffs⁶ up to 35 percent or higher. In essence that's -- that makes our goods and services less competitive. We negotiated an agreement in November of 2006, nearly two years ago, which leveled the playing field; our negotiators worked hard to treat each other fairly. It's in our economic interest that we -- that we have free trade and fair trade. It's in our economic interest that we continue to open up markets in our neighborhood, particularly with a nation that is growing like yours., And yet, we can't get a vote out of Congress. I've been asking the Democrat⁷ leadership in Congress for a vote, and they've consistently blocked the vote. And members of Congress from both parties have got to understand the following facts. First of all, about half our growth last year, Mr. President, was because of exports. In other words, exports have affected⁸ our economy in a positive way. If that's the case, it seems like we ought to be encouraging exports, not discouraging them.,Secondly⁹, a lot of small businesses trade -- send goods and services to Colombia. It's important for the small business sector¹⁰ to be vital and strong. Thirdly, a lot of jobs depend upon exports. If we can create exports it makes it more likely somebody is going to have good work.,And so this bill is in everybody's interest, and I urge the Congress to carefully consider not only the economic interest at stake, but the national security interest at stake of not approving this piece of legislation.,Mr. President, you've been a good friend and it has been a real pleasure to have worked with you during these years. You have done what you said you were going to do. You've been an honest man, forthright¹² and open. And you deserve the support of the United States of America. You've had it during my administration; you will have it to end of my administration. And I ask that the Congress carefully consider the importance of this relationship as they think about different pieces of legislation to pass before the term ends.,Bienvenidos.,PRESIDENT URIBE: Muchas gracias. Inmensamente agradecido.,Mr. President, I have no words to express my gratitude¹³ to you, to your team, for your permanent interest in our country, for your friendship for my country.,We have made significant progress. And one very essential portion of this progress has been your help, the help of the United States. We are working to have Colombia with more confidence -- confidence to invest in Colombia, to live in Colombia, to study in Colombia, to find jobs in Colombia. And we support confidence upon three pillars: security with democracy -- it means security with democratic values, with pluralism, with freedoms, with dissent¹⁴. The second pillar is investment -- investment with social responsibility, security and investment, create a framework for prosperity. And in a part of prosperity, it is possible to create social cohesion¹⁵, and social cohesion is the validator for security and for investment., Therefore, you see that our policy is based upon the universal democratic values we share with the United States. Your support has been very important for Colombia to face the threat of terrorists and for Colombia to maintain and to grow deeper and deeper with respect to universal democratic values.,The free trade agreement is one of the main aspects of our bilateral¹⁶ relationships. You have understood the importance of this agreement for both countries. It could be that our economy is a very small economy to be considering trade agreements. But for us, it is very important. And it is very important not only from the political standpoint but also from the economic standpoint.,Free trade agreement for us is the possibility to give certainty to investors¹⁷ for them to come to Colombia, and the more the investors come to Colombia, the less difficult for us to defeat terrorism. Investment is the real alternative to illicit¹⁸ crops. Investment is the real possibility for our people to find high-quality jobs.,Thank you, Mr. President. And please, I want to express, on behalf of all Colombians, our gratitude to you, to your team, and through you, to your people -- all the citizens in the United States.,Yesterday we were very happy when we saw again the three Americans who were in captivity¹⁹ for many years and were rescued, thanks to the heroism²⁰ of our soldiers. We are -- we were very sad when we came to United States in other opportunities, and we had no good news about the hostages. Now we are very happy because of this good news -- the rescue of the hostages. Thank you, Mr. President.,PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, sir. Thank you. Dos preguntas por cada lado.,Deb. That's two questions per each side. (Laughter.) Just strutting²¹ out my Spanish here.,Q Thank you, Mr. President.,PRESIDENT BUSH: Tengo que practicar.,Q Democrats²² are insisting that the federal bailout package include help for homeowners facing foreclosure, other assistance for middle-class citizens such as possibly expanding the jobless benefits. Is that completely out of the question?,PRESIDENT BUSH: We're going to work with Congress to get a bill done quickly. I called leaders of both chambers²³, both parties, yesterday to thank them for the initial statements coming out of the meeting that they had with Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke. I found a common understanding of how severe the problem is and how it is necessary to get something done quickly, and I think we will., And we'll continue to work with them. It is essential that the package be robust²⁴ and strong to address the problem. I know -- look, I'm sure there are some of my friends out there saying, I thought this guy was a market guy; what happened to him?,Well, my first instinct wasn't to lay out a huge government plan. My first instinct was to let the market work until I realized, upon being briefed by the experts, of how significant this problem became.,And so I decided²⁵ to act and act boldly. It turns out that there's a lot of interlinks throughout the financial system. The system had grown to a point where a lot of people were dependent upon each other, and that the collapse²⁶ of one part of the system wouldn't just affect a part of the financial markets; it would affect the average citizen -- and how. Well, it affect their capacity to borrow money to buy a house or to finance a college loan. It affect the ability of a small business to get credit. In other words, the system risk was significant, and it required a significant response, and Congress understands that. And we'll work to get something done as quickly and as big as possible.,There's going to be billions -- hundreds of billion dollars at risk. This is a big package, because it was a big problem. And, you know, I tell our -- I will tell our citizens and continue to remind them that the risk of doing nothing far outweighs²⁷ the risk of the package, and that, over time, we're going to get a lot of the money back. But right now, the government needed to send a clear signal that we understood the instability could ripple²⁸ throughout and affect the working people and the average family, and we weren't going to let that happen.,You want to call on somebody?,PRESIDENT URIBE: I never choose the --,PRESIDENT BUSH: You never choose the questioner? I will.,PRESIDENT URIBE: But here, today, I have to do this.