Good
morning. It’s wonderful to be here to celebrate the strong ties between
Brazil and the United States, and to talk, starting this morning and
going through the day, about how we can strengthen and deepen those
ties.
I want to thank Tom Donohue and the extraordinary staff of the chamber
for the work that you do every day, and in particular, for your
commitment to this relationship. You know, as does our government, that
it is one of the most consequential relationships for the 21st
century. And I want to welcome my friend and colleague, the foreign
minister of Brazil. It’s a great pleasure to work with Antonio on a
broad range of issues, but none more important than our commitment to
seeking out new, creative, enduring ways to really bind the peoples of
our two countries together.
I am delighted that we also have this visit of President Rousseff
here today, because when I think about the extraordinary leadership she
is providing to Brazil, it makes eminent sense that she would be leading
the way for Brazil and the United States’ relationship, along with
President Obama, to find those lasting ties and illustrate in a very
public, visible way how important they are.
Everyone knows we are the two largest and most diverse democracies,
the two largest economies, in our hemisphere. But what may not be known
is that the United States and Brazil, because we are democracies, have a
special obligation to stand for our values. It is, of course, important
that we promote our economic ties, that we try in every way possible to
raise the standard of living of our two peoples, but we do so within a
strong framework of commitment to democratic values. And we increasingly
have a responsibility to work together on behalf of those values. The
policies we embrace and the investments that we make will shape our
shared future, and we are developing strong habits of partnership and
cooperation. And that is not, as you know so well, a job solely for
governments. In fact, it is actually more the job for the private
sectors, our universities, our civil societies, our citizens. And
therefore, we need to draw on all sources of our respective national
strengths to build this partnership for the future. And I look out at
this audience, and I see many Americans whom I know well who are deeply
committed to doing just that.
Now, the fact that this meeting is here at the chamber points to the
importance of our economic ties. We see in Brazil an inspiring success
story: a dynamic economy that has lifted millions of people into the
middle class; a country that is helping to fuel the global economy; that
produces everything from commodities, of course, but also aerospace
technologies, whose goods and services are facing increasing demand
across the globe.
And as the United States works to increase our own competitiveness,
create jobs here in our country, we look to our neighbors. The proximity
that we have here in the Western Hemisphere to some of the fastest
growing economies and some of the most vibrant democracies is a great
strength for us all. And we seek to be a partner, an equal partner, to
promote sustainable, diversified, innovation-driven growth that
translates into inclusive, long-lasting progress. We want, together,
Brazil and the United States, to work toward creating economic
opportunity, a system in which everyone has a fair chance to compete.
Now, as I look at what we’ve already committed to doing together, we
see those ties in action. The Brazilian company that buys materials and
components from the U.S. and the American company that opens a factory
in Brazil, many businesses have already discovered how much we have to
offer each other. And as our economic relationship continues maturing,
investment will increase in both directions, trade will grow and
diversify, more businesses from both Brazil and the United States will
find markets in the other country. I know this is a priority for both of
our presidents, and I particularly applaud President Rousseff’s
commitment, her historic pledge to end extreme poverty in her country.
Now, later today, the foreign minister and I will sign the
U.S.-Brazil Aviation Partnership Memorandum, which builds on our Open
Skies Agreement and will promote more and safer air travel between our
countries. We think that’s a win-win. It will promote not only our
aviation industries and business travel, but also more tourism and
exchanges.
And the United States will be opening two new consulates in Brazil.
Some of you know that we’ve been working very hard at the State
Department to meet the demand in two countries – Brazil and China – that
has far exceeded our capacity up until now. And we’ve made a lot of
progress, and the opening of these two consulates – one in Belo
Horizonte and one in Porto Alegre – keeps up with our expanding
relationship. We’re trying to make it easier to get those visas, easier
to travel, knock down some of the barriers that have been put up, and
continue to promote people-to-people contact.
But we know that the progress we wish to make is not going to be
measured alone by flight traffic or trade or investment figures, or even
by visas. We have to have more cooperation and partnership between and
among our universities, our science and tech sectors, our civil
societies. Now, Brazil knows how important it is for a nation to invest
in its people, and starting in the ‘90s, when I was privileged to travel
to Brazil, I have followed with great interest the innovative social
programs serving Brazil’s children. This tradition of innovation of
conditional cash transfers and other investments in the human beings of
Brazil is paying off. You can see the results. It’s not only fueled the
rapid expansion of Brazil’s middle class, but it has demonstrated that
an economy growing is not an end in itself; it is a means to improving
the lives of the people of a country, and Brazil is a model for that.
So now we want to do more to innovate together, and our two
presidents have launched path-breaking initiatives. President Rousseff’s
Science without Borders program will send 100,000 Brazilian students to
the world’s top universities to study science, technology, energy, and
math – engineering and math, the stem subjects. And we’ve already
welcomed 700 of those Brazilian students to the United States. We expect
thousands more in the next few years. And the State Department is
working with our extensive contacts in our higher education community to
pave the way. We know that the students who are here today are studying
at universities in 42 states, and many of their educational programs
are supported by the private sectors from both of our countries. This
program is an excellent complement to President Obama’s educational
initiative, which is called 100,000 Strong in the Americas. Our goal is
to increase the numbers of Latin American and Caribbean students in the
United States to 100,000 each year, and we want to send 100,000 American
students to the region over the next 10 years as well.
I personally believe that having more interaction between our young
people, going north to south, east to west within our hemisphere is one
of the keys to that shared future. Educational exchange programs like
these will help us prepare the workforce to give our students the
skills, experiences, and relationships that a global economy requires.
Consider the Brazilian company Tecsis, which makes the blades used in
wind turbines. It happens to be one of the largest blade manufacturers
in the world, founded by three Brazilian engineers. Now, all of them
attended ITA, a top Brazilian technical institute that was created with
strong support from MIT, and one of the company founders also studied at
Harvard. And I’m delighted that President Roussef will be going to both
MIT and Harvard tomorrow.
Well today, Tecsis is a leader in the U.S. market. It exports more
than half its blades to the United States. Eighty percent of the raw
material it uses to make the blades actually comes from the United
States. One of its top customers is GE. And a partnership between the
two companies has helped GE become a top wind energy equipment provider
in the United States.
So in addition to employing more than 5,000 people in Brazil, Tecsis
has created a subsidiary company in Houston which employs more than 150
workers to repair and maintain the blades used in the United States.
This kind of partnership – call it cross-pollination, if you will – is
increasingly achievable, and we want to see more of this.
The foreign minister and I were talking earlier before we came in
that our values, our common commitment to democracy, to human rights, to
freedom, to the full potential of every individual, is such an
advantage in the world today. And there is tremendous untapped potential
in both of our countries. We’ve only begun to explore how we can work
and prosper together.
So I urge all of you here for today’s conference to identify concrete
ways for collaboration in business and education, energy, and any other
critical field. And the foreign minister and I will do the same here in
Washington and then when I travel to Brazil next week, where we will
convene the next meeting of the U.S.-Brazil Global Partnership Dialogue.
Now, when we look at the rise of powers around the world, the story
of Brazil stands out. Yes, it is becoming one of the largest economies
in the world; it’s already one of the largest democracies. It
increasingly has an impact on global stability and security. We face
complex challenges in our region and beyond, and Brazil is a responsible
actor. Our countries have to be partners. We want to be. But even in
today’s world, that want is matched by need. Because whether we’re
taking advantage of shared opportunities or facing shared threats, we
have to do all we can to work effectively together.
And I am confident that this relationship will serve to stabilize our
hemisphere, our economies, but even reach far beyond. Because what we
want to see is the progress in Brazil that has been so laudable over the
last several decades continue and grow from strength to strength. And
we want to see the United States, with our great, diverse, pluralistic
population, being the kind of model inspiration that we have
historically been over our own history.
As today’s conference makes clear, the work between the two countries
is well underway. And I want to commit this government and our country
to the peace, prosperity, and progress that will, I am sure, ensue
because we will build an even stronger relationship for years to come.
Thank you all very much. (Applause.)
