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The following interview was conducted at the
headquarters of the Organization of American States. Ambassador
Paul Durand, Permanent Representative of Canada to the OAS and
current Chairman of the Permanent Council, was interview on Friday
January 23, 2004 by Mario Martinez, Luis Batlle and Canute
Malcolm. The Monterrey Summit was the focus of this interview.
Mario Martínez y Palacios: Hello
everybody, my name is Mario Martinez and we are coming to you from
the radio studios of the Organization of American States, here in
Washington DC. Our guest today is the Permanent Representative of
Canada to the OAS, Ambassador Paul Durand. Also in the studio are
Luis Batlle and Canute Malcolm from the Department of Public
Information. I would now like to talk to Ambassador Durand about
the achievements of the Special Summit of the Americas, recently
held in Monterrey Mexico. Ambassador, welcome to the program.
Ambassador Durand: Thank you very much
it’s a pleasure to be here
Mario: First of all, what can you tell us
about the achievements of this Special Summit of the Americas?
Ambassador Durand: Well there were
considerable at different levels. In the first instance it was
very important that the leaders of the hemisphere got together to
deal with the problems that have come up since Quebec. Actually
1/3 of the leaders were new. They were not at Quebec so it was
time for them to be included in the summit process, to meet the
other leaders and really to have some considered debate about the
problems in the hemisphere: economic, social and even in democracy
and to take some decisions to resolve these problems.
Mario: Since 1994, the first summit of
the Americas, we had in the agenda some items that continue to be
the items that are discussed in the summit of the Americas. Why is
it that we continue to deal with the same agenda?
Ambassador Durand: It is basically
because a lot of these issues are long term issues that are not
going to be resolved at one summit or one meeting. We have to keep
returning to them and sharpening our focus on the things that need
the most attention. At this summit, for example, it was much
shorter, there was no action plans, there was just a very concise
political declaration that focused on three areas: economic
growth, social development and democratic governance. And then
within that there were some very specific commitments by the
leaders to take action.
Mario: On the same subject, before we
throw the signals and the questions to our colleagues here. We had
regular summits of the Americas in the United States, then Chile
and then Canada, why did we need to have a special summit of the
Americas now in Monterrey?
Ambassador Durand: Well let me explain
some of the motivation why Canada decided that we had to have one
at this time. We were still the chair, the president of the summit
process after Quebec and we felt it was our responsibility to
bring leaders together because if we had waited from April 2000 or
2001 until 2005 when the next summit was due in Argentina that
would have been far too much time. We felt it was urgent. Leaders
had to get together and address these issues so that we would be
in better shape moving into the next summit in Argentina.
Mario: Ok now, we have as we mentioned at
the beginning of this conversation, Canute Malcolm.
Canute Malcolm: Ambassador Durand, you
made it clear that one of the issues that was certainly pivotal to
the discourse at the Monterrey Summit was that surrounding
democracy and governance. Like your Prime Minister, Paul Martin,
many other delegates expressed concern that democracy was on a
decline in the Americas. What are your views about that? What
factors do you think are contributing to the decline or demise of
democracy in the Americas and what do you think can be done to
resolve this decline?
Ambassador Durand: I would not agree that
there is a decline. That suggests that there is a general overall
decline and that is not really the case. There are specific
problems and the leaders had a good reason to be concerned because
we had seen difficulties in Bolivia, in Ecuador and there are some
difficulties in Venezuela as well. What can they do about it?
Exactly what they have been doing. For example, the Inter-American
Democratic Charter provides for means to react to threats to
democracy and it has various provisions for strengthening
democracy. And to give just one example, the Unit for the
Promotion for Democracy (UPD) here in the OAS, has conducted a
series of seminars on political parties- how to strengthen and
make political parties more credible and more transparent. This is
work that is going on day after day, year after year, that’s
sponsored by the OAS and it is having not headline grabbing effect
but certainly having a positive effect. Secondly, something more
specific which came directly out of the summit, I’ve just returned
from a meeting in the Bahamas that was convened by the CARICOM
leaders to try and address the problem of, the urgent problem of,
democracy in Haiti. And they met there, three of the CARICOM Prime
Ministers with a number of representatives of the political
opposition in Haiti, and I think they made very strong steps
forward on how to begin to address the problems in that country.
That came directly out of the summit.
Canute: It seems, in many ways, that
democracy and transparency are being increasingly linked together.
Another theme that is certainly linked with this is that of
corruption. The Declaration of Nuevo Leon makes several references
to corruption and it is also clear that combating corruption is
one the issues that the Canadian government is certainly
interested in. How exactly should corruption be fought? Do you
think that current hemispheric structures, such as the
Inter-American convention against corruption, are inadequate or
powerless to stop this?
Ambassador Durand: Well the Canadian
government’s view, and I think it is shared by our partners in the
OAS, is that corruption really does drain the credibility out of
the democratic process, in addition to the economic damage it does
by discouraging investment in countries or organizations hat are
corrupt. So it is very important to tackle this issue. The Inter-
American Convention against corruption is a useful instrument as
is the follow up mechanism but it hasn’t been supported well
enough. It needs more funding to be given higher priority- this
was addressed at Monterrey. The leaders also came up with some
very forward thinking language on corruption; for example to deny
safe haven to corrupt officials or individuals as well as their
assets. Now, this is ground breaking stuff; this is a new
commitment you won’t see in any other region in the world, so I
think in that we made some very good progress on corruption
Mario: Our guest is Ambassador Paul
Durand, the permanent representative of Canada to the Organization
of American States, and we are talking about the achievements of
the Summit of the Americas, the special summits of the Americas
that is, that was held recently in Monterrey, Mexico. Ambassador,
one of the other important subjects of the summit of the Americas
was trade, before we jump into the free trade area of the
Americas, what is the situation with NAFTA?-the agreement between
Canada, Mexico and the United States- which is probably the most
important agreement within the Americas towards the achievement of
the free trade area of the Americas.
Ambassador Durand: Well NAFTA, if you
measure it by the objectives that were established for it- to
increase trade and investment among the three countries- has been
a very clear success. Both trade and investment have increased
dramatically in all three counties and in that sense it is the
largest trading bloc in the world. What it doesn’t do, and what it
wasn’t intended to do, was to create and maintain social programs
and do all the other things on the other side of the coin that
have to be done if you’re going to improve the quality of life and
have an equitable society. We never pretended that NAFTA was going
to solve all the social problems but yes we did think it could
make a major contribution to providing the wealth and resources
that are needed for government to be able to make those decisions
but then it’s up to government to actually act.
Mario: The Organization of the American
States and its members have been working over the last few years
towards reaching the free trade area of the Americas; how are you
putting together powerful economies such as the Canadian, the
United States, the Mexicans, the Brazilians with small economies
such as Central America and the Caribbean?
Ambassador Durand: Well that’s certainly
part of the challenge, when you do have very small economies
competing with the largest economies within the world we have to
take certain provisions that will allow them to be prepared, such
as giving them longer time frames. But even within NAFTA we proved
that a less developed economy such as Mexico can enter into a free
trade agreement with countries such as the United States and
Canada and benefit tremendously. In fact, most studies show that
Mexico has been the main beneficiary of NAFTA. So this can work,
but you have to put in the necessary provisions
Mario: Are we going to make it in time
for the 2005 date?
Ambassador Durand: That is a good
question. It is looking more difficult now. But we did reaffirm in
Monterrey, the leaders did say that they support the Miami
agreement, where trade ministers said that yes they were going to
conclude their work by 2005. Some people think that’s going to be
pretty difficult. We will have to see.
Canute: I certainly agree with the
ambassador that NAFTA has in many ways been successful. However,
there are many who raise questions, concerning development and
healthcare within the Americas. For example, the declaration of
Nuevo Leon makes it clear that HIV/AIDS should be central to the
political dialogue in the Americas. One of the questions that I
certainly want to ask is what step is the Canadian government
undertaking to assist developing nations that are faced with this
epidemic?
Ambassador Durand: Well looking first at
the Monterrey declaration, I think the leaders made a very clear
commitment there. They said they are going to provide Anti-retral
virus therapy to all who need it in the hemisphere and that is
something like 600,000 individuals. That’s a very specific clear
commitment and they also committed to confront the stigma and
discrimination which deter people from being tested and this is
the most important approach, I think, is to have good government
public awareness program that alert people of the danger of this
scourge. Canada, itself, usually works through the international
organizations such as the World Health Organization or the Pan-
American Health Organization for these programs. We emphasize very
much that public awareness is a definite part of it.
Canute: Concerning development, once
again, many have argued that the developing nations are no longer
central to the dialogue within industrialized nations,
particularly in the post 9/11 world, where issues such as
terrorism, seem to be the central theme in the political
discourse. What do you say to individuals who argue that the
conflicts or issues surrounding developing nations are
marginalized in the post 9/11 world?
Durand: Well I think that really
underlines the importance of multilateralism, which is a very
strong tenet of Canadian foreign policy. Here in the OAS, for
example, we have 34 members that vary in different sizes and in
their process of development, but we all sit around the table with
an equal vote and we reach our agreements by consensus, and that
is very important. It is inclusive; it does bring in all the
countries of the hemisphere and you see the same process in the
Summits, all of the leaders were around the table there and
everyone had an equal voice so it did allow every country to be
represented. But yes security and terrorism have assumed greater
importance since 9/11 but we just have to find ways to incorporate
that as one of the important issues, but not the only issue, in
our multilateral discourse.
Mario: Talking about that, Ambassador
Durand, what is the most important message of the Declaration of
Nuevo Leon, out of this Special Summit of the Americas?
Ambassador Durand: To me, the most
important part, the most important facet of the summit was the
fact that it happened, that the leaders did get together. There is
a sentence in the preamble, in the first paragraph where the
leaders declare as follows, they say “with a renewed and
strengthened vision of cooperation, solidarity and integration we
will confront the continuing and growing challenges in the
hemisphere.” That to me is the phrase that tells you everything
about the summit, after that they agree on specific things to do
in different areas but the very fact that they got together and
said “we are going to work together”, “we are a hemisphere” and
“we will help each other” is very important.
Mario: The next Summit of the Americas
will be held next year in Argentina. The Special in Mexico was a
step towards the Summit in Argentina, what in your view is the
homework of the countries, of the Presidents and Prime Ministers
of the hemisphere towards the Summit of the Americas in Argentina?
Ambassador Durand: I think that the first
and most important thing to do is to ensure that the commitments
they have undertaken in Monterrey will be met by the time of the
Summit in Argentina because much of the language in the
Declaration of Nuevo Leon indicates that they will meet these
commitments or make progress towards the objectives by the time of
the next summit in Argentina.
Mario: The Organization of American
States (OAS) has a special office to follow the mandates form the
Summit of the Americas and the OAS is the Technical Secretariat of
the Summit of the Americas. Many of the mandates that the summit
created in order to improve democracy, human rights, among other
issue were given to the OAS. Is the OAS receiving sufficient funds
to comply with those mandates?
Ambassador Durand: To answer your
question, no it is not getting sufficient resources to fulfill all
of the mandates it has being given. It probably should acquire
additionally funds whether from other sources through increased
quotas or whatever, but it is obvious that they, the OAS, cannot
keep receiving mandates that are not funded.
Mario: Very good, we would like to thank
you very much Ambassador Durand for this conversation about the
achievements of the Summit of the Americas. Now we are going to
introduce Luis Battle who is going to ask you a couple of
questions in the Spanish language.
Preguntas en español
Luis Batlle: Bienvenido Embajador Durand.
Embajador Durand: Muchas gracias.
Luis: Usted cree que el orden comercial
entre los países desarrollados y los países en desarrollo es justo?
Y de no ser así cómo sería posible lograr en el hemisferio un
orden más justo donde los países más pobres podrían contar con
mercados más abiertos?
Embajador Durand: En mi opinión la
mejor opción es el ALCA porque con ALCA tendríamos mercados
abiertos, evitaríamos el proteccionismo lo cual causa un gran daño
a los mercados sobretodo a los mercados sudamericanos y sería la
mejor esperanza; un acuerdo de libre comercio donde todos los
países tienen sus obligaciones y pueden comerciar libremente.
Luis: Muchos críticos dicen, aperturas de
mercado si, préstamos no. Ya que el endeudamiento muchas veces
frena el desarrollo y termina castigando a las clases sociales
menos pudientes y le impide a los estados la inversión pública.
Cuáles serían los remedios que en la práctica sean posibles para
solucionar algunas de las inquietudes que existen?
Embajador Durand: Es un tema muy
complejo puesto que el endeudamiento es absolutamente necesario
para el crecimiento y el desarrollo de las economías, pero eso si,
siempre tienen que ser préstamos y deudas que se manejen de forma
responsable, en otras palabras, tanto el que da como el que recibe
el préstamo debe de actuar de forma responsable.
Luis: Embajador Durand, para culminar,
podría usted resumir los logros, los obstáculos o las
frustraciones de la última cumbre extraordinaria de Monterrey,
México para los oyentes en castellano?
Embajador Durand: La cumbre de Monterrey fue bastante exitosa.
En primer lugar, los líderes declararon que van a luchar juntos
contra los problemas y los desafíos del hemisferio lo cual es un
logro muy importante. A su vez, se comprometieron en varias áreas
ya sea, crecimiento económico, desarrollo social y en
gobernabilidad democrática. Cada párrafo y cada oración de la
Declaración mencionan compromisos muy específicos para mejorar la
vida de los ciudadanos de todos los países del hemisferio.
Esperemos que lleguemos a la próxima cumbre en Argentina 2005
estemos en mejor estado en el que estamos hoy.
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