Latin America and the Caribbean may not sit high on President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy agenda, but geography, trade, investment, migration, and transnational threats draw Western Hemisphere issues inexorably closer to the top of the list. The new Administration will quickly discover opportunities and risks in the region. As a host of appointees and would-be ambassadors jockey for selection and Senate confirmation, the time is right to set down a list of 10 things Obama and the new Administration can undertake to demonstrate strong leadership for the Americas.
- Do Not Renege on Free Trade Deals: Obama should press
Congress to approve pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama,
and South Korea. These actions will send a strong signal that the
new Administration will be adopting a forward-looking trade policy
agenda that emphasizes the creation of new U.S. jobs through
expanded export opportunities. With a firm commitment to free
trade, the new President can undo the pre-election damage caused by
"fair-trade" rhetoric that targeted narrow special interest groups
(such as big labor unions) seeking protectionism to benefit
themselves at the expense of their countrymen. Liberalization of
global trade has created new markets for U.S. exports of goods and
services as well as bilateral investment. These developments, in
turn, have led to innovative new products at lower prices for
consumers as well as an improved geopolitical climate.
- Stand Firm with Mexico in the Drug Fight: The incoming
Administration should act quickly to show President Felipe Calderon
and the Mexican people that the fight against Mexico's violent drug
cartels will be a high security and law enforcement priority. The
$1.5 billion counter-drug assistance package known as the Merida
Initiative will give Mexico, Central America, the Dominican
Republic, and Haiti the support desperately needed to fight
ruthless, well-financed drug mafias. Moving swiftly to choke off
the flow of arms, bulk cash, and precursor chemicals southward from
the U.S. will also reassure our closest neighbors of our sincere
commitment to rolling back the tyranny imposed by drug
terror.
- Do Not Try to Appease Hugo Chávez: The Obama
Administration has an opportunity to articulate a tough-minded
strategy for dealing with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Chávez has adopted an anti-American agenda that seriously
weakens hemispheric cooperation in vital national security areas.
His readiness to ally himself with enemies of the U.S. (such as
Iran) and rivals (like Russia) has opened deep regional fissures.
Such rifts, in turn, may be exploited by drug traffickers and
international terrorists. Before the Obama Administration sends a
new ambassador to Caracas, it needs to remind Chávez that
clearing the bad air between the two countries involves responding
to U.S. security concerns and restoring effective counter-drug and
anti-terror cooperation.
- No Summit of the Americas Circus: Obama should not
permit the April 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago
to be hijacked by anti-American, authoritarian populists, as was
the fate of the last summit in Argentina in 2005. When it was
launched in 1994, the presidential-level summit process was
intended to consolidate democracy and facilitate negotiations for a
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement. Prospects for an
FTAA have dimmed considerably in the years since, however,
subverted by myopic special interests and hard-left opponents of
market-based democracy. The 2005 summit was disrupted by an
alliance of anti-U.S., anti-free trade, and anti-globalization
groups and leaders, including Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales,
Néstor and Cristina Kirchner, and other "21st-century
socialists." These radicals will seek to advance their destructive
agenda again in Trinidad. This time, however, Obama must thwart
them and promote the interests of the U.S. and our hemispheric
friends and trade partners.
- Continue Pathways to Prosperity: The incoming
Administration should advance the "Pathways to Prosperity in the
Americas" (PPA) program, an initiative to re-invigorate efforts to
deepen and enlarge a free trade area in the Western Hemisphere. At
a time when multilateral organizations (e.g. the World Trade
Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank,
and the International Monetary Fund) that were created to foster
trade and open markets are struggling to advance free-market
principles, and groups such as the United Nations are increasingly
ideologically sympathetic to worldwide socialism, new post-Bretton
Woods structures such as the PPA are needed to advance the
interests of the United States and other free economies in the
world. The PPA should be designed to support and enhance governing
arrangements that emphasize the basic principles of economic
freedom and market-led economic policies.
- Move Ahead with Brazil: Obama has an opportunity to
forge a more extensive alliance with Brazil; strengthening trade
ties would be a good place to start. Under President Luiz
Inácio "Lula" da Silva, Brazil has emerged as a regional
powerhouse, competently leading international peacekeeping efforts
in Haiti and acting as a "grown-up" restraining influence on a
power-hungry, anti-U.S. Hugo Chávez. Lula and his economic
team have implemented prudent fiscal and monetary policies,
attracting private investment and achieving robust economic
development while alleviating poverty. As an incentive to encourage
Brazilians to enter negotiations with the U.S. for a free trade
agreement, Congress should immediately permit duty-free imports of
Brazilian cane-based ethanol, offsetting the revenue loss by ending
price supports for the wasteful U.S. corn ethanol program, which
costs more to produce in relation to the energy it delivers, all
while harming the environment. Ending federal mandates, in turn,
will help a strong U.S. ally, Calderon of Mexico, where
ethanol-fueled corn prices have led to higher (and politically
costly) prices for corn tortillas, a Mexican dietary staple.
- Work with Haiti: Obama should lead a renewed effort to
help Haiti by personally urging Haitians to abandon their
historically corrupt ways and strengthen democratic institutions.
Deeper and stronger ties with its island neighbor, the Dominican
Republic, are absolutely vital to further rule of law and new
investment in Haiti. The Obama Administration should ensure that
other powers in the hemisphere (e.g., Canada, Brazil, Mexico,
Chile, and Argentina) pull their weight in the ongoing efforts to
end the immense poverty and suffering in Haiti without resorting to
mass out-migration. This hemispheric alliance should also fight
against the use of the island by drug traffickers flying from
Venezuela and using Hispaniola as a transit point. The new
Administration should also boost private-sector job creation in
Haiti by urging our allies to pass preferential trade agreements
such as the U.S.-Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through
Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Act.
- A Freedom Agenda for Cuba: Obama can rekindle hope of
positive change in Cuba by boldly championing human rights,
individual freedom, and free market opportunity. New flexibility
and openness to travel and wider contact with Cuban society should
bring with it a demonstrable relaxation of the political and
economic restrictions of the Castro regime that have impoverished
Cubans and left the island's economy in shambles. Efforts to remove
U.S. administrative and legislative restrictions on travel and
trade with Cuba should be calibrated with reciprocal changes that
free political prisoners, allow the growth of civil society, and
remove restrictions on speech, access to information (including the
Internet), and travel. Empowering the Cuban people rather than
giving an economic lifeline to the Communist regime must remain at
the core of any new Cuba policy.
- Keep Regional Focus on the Inter-American Democratic
Charter: The incoming Administration should work to build a
stronger commitment to democratic governance and institutions
within the Organization of American States (OAS). Eight years after
it was negotiated and signed, the Inter-American Democratic Charter
remains a unique agreement promising the people of the Americas
democratic government based on rule of law, political pluralism,
the separation of powers, and respect for human rights. Evoking the
spirit of the charter and allowing it to serve as a shared guide
for the revitalization of the OAS will keep the institution
relevant to inter-American developments.
- Do Not Neglect Central America: The Obama Administration needs to pay more attention to Central America. Persistent poverty, weak institutions, and ineffective political leadership have left Central America vulnerable to crime, corruption, and misgovernment. The situation has grown acute in Nicaragua, where the electoral fraud and increasing repression imposed by Daniel Ortega's regime is undoing democratic and economic gains made in the 1990s. Long accustomed to exporting its people, Central America needs a steadying approach that fosters good governance, political moderation, and enhanced economic linkages with the U.S.
James M. Roberts is Research Fellow for Economic Freedom and Growth in the Center for International Trade and Economics, and Ray Walser, Ph.D., is a Senior Policy Analyst for Latin America in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.