U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay Frank E. Baxter observes as Secretary Gutierrez addresses the media during a press conference held in Montevideo, October 9, 2007.

During his visit to Uruguay, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez participated in a joint press conference with Uruguay's Minister of Industry Jorge Lepra, held October 9, 2007 at the Radisson Hotel in Montevideo. "Uruguay has three million people, but I believe it is a much bigger country in terms of ideas and influence," Gutierrez said in response to a question by one of the journalists.

Following is translation of the press conference, held in Spanish:

(begin text)

PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE CARLOS M. GUTIERREZ
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Radisson Victoria Plaza Hotel
Montevideo

Minister Lepra: Good afternoon, members of the foreign and Uruguayan media. We are very pleased to welcome you here today and answer your questions along with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Carlos Gutierrez. In the last hours, and also part of the day yesterday, the Secretary of Commerce has developed an intense agenda, part of which I have shared, and we understood it was important to communicate with all of you, and through you inform the people of what we have done during these hours in Uruguay. Therefore, I appreciate your being with us, and invite Secretary Gutierrez to speak to you.

Secretary Gutierrez: Thank you, Minister Lepra. I also want to thank President Vázquez, Minister Astori and Minister Gargano for their time and for the meetings we've held. Yesterday, we signed a Letter of Intent to cooperate more closely in the field of innovation. This implies, on one hand, a follow-up on the visit of President Bush, and also on the Americas Competitiveness Forum held in Atlanta in June. We feel Uruguay is a very natural venue for the next meeting on innovation, and we will cooperate closely to help develop an agenda for this meeting. I would also like to say that trade and investment are growing between our two nations, and we believe that we have a great future, working together to create jobs, to create prosperity; in the end, all is about this, these are the goals and these are the objectives. We feel proud of our friendship with Minister [Lepra], with President Vázquez, and his administration, and with the Uruguayan people.

Minister Lepra: One of the most significant issues was signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the two governments to make viable and organize this forum, which will be held here in Uruguay in late March or early April 2008. The implementing office will be the newly created National Research and Innovation Agency. Among the issues we discussed with Secretary Gutierrez is the strong emphasis placed by our government in the development of innovation, having first created a Department of Innovation, and now the executive agency. In fact, all of us here had a meeting this morning with all the members of the agency to start shaping this forum to be held in the first quarter of next year. We are now ready for your questions. Thank you.

Journalist: It is said that trade should increase; however, Uruguayan exports to the United States and the region have fallen. China and Asian countries are said to be the main competitors – this question is for the Secretary of Commerce. For Minister Lepra: Could you give us greater detail on how and where to increase bilateral trade?

Secretary Gutierrez: There was a fall last year. I think we have to see the trend in the long term. But, there is no doubt there was a fall last year, and there are reasons for that fall. I believe the Minister may explain this. But the other question you made is very good, it relates to China, and I believe that we must acknowledge that the countries of our hemisphere, South America, Central America, North America, the Caribbean compete more with China than with the United States. And we must acknowledge that competition comes from China, and therefore, this is a reason why we must cooperate even further, and increase trade, increase investment, because we believe it is for the benefit of all that the hemisphere is growing in a sound manner; this begins by admitting that a great part of competition for our countries and South American countries, and Mercosur, undoubtedly comes from China.

Minister Lepra: Thank you Sena for your question. Although exports have fallen in September, there has been a very significant growth in the last three years, so much so that the United States has become at certain times the main trading partner of Uruguay in exports abroad. But as Secretary Gutierrez clearly stated, the great competitor is China, and Uruguay knows in its definitions of foreign trade that we must add value to all our products. As an example, I could mention a wool producing company that is once again exporting its products manufactured in Uruguay to Asia because it is committed to that niche, to the product with high added value. I would also talk about something that has been repeatedly mentioned, but it is important to say it: the issue of the offseason for the development of blueberry plantations. Blueberries started with very few hectares; today there are 700 hectares, there are 70 blueberry growers, with a very high sale value in European and U.S. markets, and the production for this year is estimated in $2.5: million dollars in FOB exports. I believe that the key point is to add value in the entire chain. As we discussed in a meeting with Minister Mujica this morning, we have to let foreign markets know that by the year 2009 or 2010, Uruguayan livestock will be monitored, will have electronic ear tags, and each slaughter house will have its black box where all Uruguayan cattle will be traced. This will be a great advantage for our exports in the future.

Journalist: Secretary Gutierrez, could you tell us about your conversation with President Vázquez?

Secretary Gutierrez: First of all, I transmitted President Bush's best wishes. President Bush was very glad to visit Uruguay and they have a personal relationship, so I brought his regards. The conversation had a general content. We spoke about the future, about opportunities, about innovation, about the President's plan to have one laptop for each child, which we find very interesting. We dealt with general issues but with a view to the future and a sense of close cooperation.

Journalist: I have two questions. The first one is for Secretary Gutierrez: What are the expectations regarding the meeting of the bilateral commission that will be held in November within the framework of the TIFA? Could any decision be reached – other than for blueberries - involving an improvement of trade? My second question is for Minister Lepra: Who will participate in the March forum, which normally gathers governmental authorities and representatives of the business sector?

Secretary Gutierrez: Very wide issues will be discussed. I don’t want to anticipate that a certain agreement will be reached, but our relationship undoubtedly covers areas other than blueberries. As agreements are reached and as markets are opened, the announcement will be made, but we feel that what is important here is to continue searching for cooperation opportunities, which is what we will do in our November meeting and in our March meeting.

Minister Lepra: Regarding the forum, we are working with the Innovation Agency. Three major issues to discuss will be education, innovation, the academic aspect and businesses; private companies, small and medium-size companies; and logistics. These will be the three major issues, but the agenda is being developed.

Journalist: Good afternoon. This question is for both of you. The United States Congress is currently making good progress towards the approval of an FTA with Peru, which is one of the latest FTAs subscribed in our region. This agreement includes labor provisions and environmental provisions, which, to a certain extent, is facilitating approval because of a U.S. internal agreement. This kind of agreement is completely ruled out for Uruguay. However, maybe there is some possibility in the future, and those environmental and labor provisions are already being fully complied with by Uruguay. Do you absolutely rule out the possibility to go from a TIFA to an FTA between the U.S. and Uruguay?

Minister Lepra: We have extensively explained this issue, the TIFA is the path we are currently following. The U.S. Administration has currently no authorization for new agreements. The agreements with Peru, Colombia and Panama had been negotiated before, and Pauletti is right when he states that a whole labor chapter and a whole environmental chapter have been added to new treaties, which is very interesting. I also agree with Pauletti on the fact that Uruguay fully complies with labor and environmental provisions. However, this is not what we are discussing at the moment.

Journalist: Secretary Gutierrez, the Uruguayan market does not seem very important as an expansion market for the United States. This question refers to politics. The United States has many political adversaries, mostly in Latin America. Is the U.S. approaching Uruguay and the MERCOSUR for political reasons?

Secretary Gutierrez: Well, I am the Secretary of Commerce, so my portfolio focuses on the commercial area. We have a substantial growth in the commercial area. There are 90 American companies that have invested here. We feel that Uruguay has a great future in services and in other sectors as well. However, we have many friends in the hemisphere. We have many commercial relationships in the hemisphere, we have agreements with Chile, and tomorrow I am going to Brazil. Our trade with Brazil is very strong, amounting to approximately 45 billion dollars. So, we have many friends and we are trading. Obviously, there are very important values we share with Uruguay, such as a strong commitment to democracy. Both countries highly value security, the rule of law, legal certainty, and transparency, which make us have many things in common, that’s why we are friends and cooperate with each other.

Journalist: What is your analysis about the decrease in the dollar value at a global level?

Secretary Gutierrez: As regards dollars, I have a rule: the only two people who speak about the dollar are the Secretary of the Treasury and the President. If I speak about the dollar I will be taken out of here in a plane and sent back to Washington, so please excuse me if I don't speak about this issue.

Journalist: You just mentioned that the objective of this agreement is the generation of jobs. Is there any estimate about the number of jobs?

Minister Lepra: No, there is no estimate, this is one of the things on which we are going to start working now. However, as you all know, the unemployment rate in the information technology sector is zero. We are having training problems and lack of people to fill information technology-related posts. This is a pending issue on which we are going to work together with public and private universities.

Journalist: I would like to refer to the question one of my colleagues made a while ago. Apart from a commercial interest by the United States, there must be some political interest. What is the political interest of the United States regarding an agreement with Uruguay, or trade with Uruguay, a small country with so few inhabitants?

Secretary Gutierrez: Uruguay has three million people, but I believe it is a much bigger country in terms of ideas and influence. There is obviously much more than trade in the relations of the United States with other countries. We are interested in sharing ideas concerning education, Uruguay has a very high literacy rate, health services, innovation. The key is to learn from each other. We are going to learn a lot about what you are doing here in Uruguay, and we hope you can learn from us. We are friends with neighbors, obviously for trade reasons, but also for many other interests. I don’t know if this is called political interest, but I know that there are many additional interests other than blueberries and trade.

(end text)

[See original text in Spanish]

 
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