[NYTr] To Make US Relevant Again in Latin America, Bush Has a Long Way to Go
 
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:57:23 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
excerpted from VIO Venezuela News Roundup - Jul 17, 2007

[[E]conomic and political analysts Nancy Birdsall and Peter Hakim laud
anti-poverty efforts by President Chavez in a Miami Herald op-ed today
that is critical of the Bush Administration's policy toward Latin
America.  They write that "the president has not begun to match the
thought, energy or resources that President Hugo ChC!vez of Venezuela is
investing in the social agenda."  Social programs like those
spearheaded by Chavez should be added to the U.S. agenda, and poverty
alleviation should gain budgetary priority over drug eradication
programs that have had little to no success.  The comments are
reminiscent of those by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunnus, who
called Chavez an inspiration and leader in the fight against global
poverty when he visited Venezuela in May. -VIO]

The Miami Herald - July 17, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/172782.html

Op-Ed:

Bush has picked right priority for U.S. action

By Nancy Birdsall and Peter Hakim

President Bush wants to make the United States relevant again in Latin
America. Last week, he hosted a White House Conference on ''Advancing
Social Justice in the Americas'' to highlight a shift in U.S. policy
priorities in Latin America.

For the past six years, Washington's limited attention to Latin America
has concentrated on free trade, narcotics trafficking and security
threats. The president now wants the United States to help its
hemispheric neighbors tackle their long-neglected social agendas -- the
pervasive poverty, inequality and race discrimination that deprives so
many Latin Americans of economic opportunity and basic rights.

Bush has picked the right priority for U.S. action. Some 40 percent of
Latin Americans live in poverty, a figure that has not changed much in
a quarter century. No other region of world has a more unequal
distribution of income. But the president has not begun to match the
thought, energy or resources that President Hugo ChC!vez of Venezuela is
investing in the social agenda. The administration's proposals so far
-- visits by a U.S. hospital ship, increased scholarships, new lending
to small enterprises -- are woefully short of well-considered strategy.
And the White House's social-justice conclave was designed to showcase
the generosity of private groups -- not to set a new U.S. policy
course. No wonder most Latin Americans remain skeptical.

Bush should start with a hard look at existing U.S. policies. In one
way or another, many of them are already relevant to Latin America's
social problems.

? U.S.-promoted free-trade agreements, for instance, are spurring
exports and investment, accelerating growth and creating jobs. Yet, the
agreements are inflexible and ungenerous and not as helpful as they
could be. They tightly restrict imports from labor-intensive
industries, like textiles and food products, which are key to poverty
alleviation.

? U.S.-subsidized grains are allowed to displace the corn and rice
sales of peasant producers. The United States needs to worry about who
gains from the trade agreements it negotiates -- and to develop
complementary policies to extend benefits to low-wage laborers,
subsistence farmers and other excluded groups. No one expects the
United States to match the European Union's support for its poorest
members (Poland alone is to receive $10 billion a year), but Washington
needs to replace its ''trade, not aid'' approach with the more
realistic ``trade plus aid.''

Indeed, the United States should be adding a robust social dimension to
all of its programs and policies in the region.

Beyond trade, changes in narcotics programs, which consume the lion's
share of U.S. foreign assistance in Latin America, could make the
biggest difference. Most anti-drug money is now spent on eradication
and interdiction, which have failed to diminish U.S. cocaine or
marijuana supplies. By shifting emphasis toward development and job
creation in drug-producing areas, Washington could turn the war against
drugs into a war against poverty (and probably do a better job of
controlling drugs).

The White House should make sure that Latin America's poor are served
by U.S. aid programs regardless of where they live. Most of the
region's poor now reside in middle income countries that do not qualify
for U.S. assistance. The most important new U.S. aid initiative, the
Millennium Challenge Account, will reach only a half dozen countries,
together accounting for 5 percent of the region's poverty.

There are many other pro-poor initiatives that Bush and his advisors
should consider -- but three priorities stand out in Latin America..

? Upgrading education. Across the region, the dismal quality of
education frustrates economic growth and social mobility, and is
reinforcing inequality almost everywhere. U.S. support for both policy
reform and public and private sector innovation would be helpful.

? Getting crime under control. Latin America's upsurge of street crime
and deadly violence may be more devastating to the region's poor than
unemployment and discrimination. Every country could make use of funds
for police training and judicial reform, and would benefit from U.S.
efforts to reduce arms exports and manage better the deportation of
convicted felons to the region.

? Banking the unbanked. The $60 billion a year in remittances sent from
the United States to Latin America are almost all transfers among
family members. They should not be counted as public or private aid.
But the U.S. government could sharply enhance their social impact by
taking measures to expand the numbers of low-income families in the
United States and the region who have bank accounts.

In the end, however, no matter how supportive U.S. policies are to
Latin America's poor majority, Washington can only make a difference if
the region's own governments, corporations and civil societies make the
social agenda their priority.

[Nancy Birdsall is president of the Center for Global Development. Peter
Hakim is president of the Inter-American Dialogue.]
       
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