The Summits of the Americas reflect the hemisphere's progress and provide a vehicle for moving forward. It was at Quebec City that leaders called for establishment of an Inter-American Democratic Charter, our collective political commitment to promote and actively defend representative democracy.
The Summit process also gave birth to our hemisphere's vision for building prosperity through a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) . As co-chairs of the FTAA process, the United States and Brazilian governments have recently agreed to work toward renewed progress. And the United States continues to support the Hemispheric Co-operation Programme to help ensure that small and developing countries benefit from free trade.
Bush. launched the Third Border Initiative as a framework for US-Caribbean co-operation at the 2001 Quebec City Summit US contributions to trade-capacity building activities in the Caribbean have totalled over $32 million this year.
Geography, culture, security, and the environment also bring us together. That is why the Summit process is so far-reaching, with initiatives covering topics from rural development and infrastructure investment to human rights and indigenous issues, to civil society and rule of law.
Turning Words Into Actions
Leaders know that progress on these initiatives does not happen because of rhetoric. It requires specific, measurable achievements. At the Quebec City Summit, President Bush announced a plan to establish hemispheric centres for teacher training.
Three centres are now up and running, including one for the Caribbean. That facility has now trained over 1,700 teachers, meaning a better education in reading skills for as many as 70,000 primary students every year.
Leaders at each of the previous Summits of the Americas have stressed the need to respond to the threat posed by HIV/AIDS. President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief commits more than $15 billion over five years to this cause, with a focus on Haiti, Guyana and 13 other of the most afflicted countries.
In addition, to help meet the demand for health care providers trained in HIV/AIDS, we are working to establish HIV/AIDS training centres in Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago.
President Bush believes that concrete results must be at the core of each country's international commitments, and at the Special Summit, leaders agreed to take specific actions on key issues by specific dates.
Micro, small and medium-sized businesses account for most jobs in our region. But the average time for starting a business in Latin America and the Caribbean- 10 weeks - is longer than in any other region in the world, and the average cost is 60 per cent of per capita gross national income. So leaders agreed to cut red tape and reduce the time and cost of starting a business by the November 2005 Summit in Argentina.
Leaders also recognised the importance of remittances for many people - in Jamaica they account for more US dollar earnings than tourism, and in some countries equal as much as 10 per cent of national product. So, they pledged at the Summit to cut by at least half, the average cost of remittance transfers by 2008.
In the same way, leaders agreed to provide antiretroviral therapy to at least 600,000 people living with AIDS before the 2005 Summit. They committed to improving accountability by publishing reports on their education systems before the 2005 Summit, so that parents, students, and decision-makers can identify opportunities for improvement.
And they committed to deny safe haven to corrupt officials, those who corrupt them, and their assets, while strengthening hemispheric mechanisms for co-operating in the fight against corruption.
Each of these concrete commitments represents a tangible step toward implementing broader Summit mandates.
Working Together Toward The Next Summit
Our Argentine hosts for the 2005 Summit have proposed the theme, "Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance". It builds naturally on the concrete Special Summit mandates, because robust job creation requires competitive economies, effective education and health systems, and efficient, transparent governments.
In 2005, US officials will visit Caribbean countries to stimulate a dialogue on the Summit process, on how best to implement our Summit commitments, and on the shape of the next Summit - how to make sure it addresses real needs of real people in the Caribbean in concrete ways.
In June, the United States will host the OAS General Assembly in Ft Lauderdale, which will set the stage for the Argentine Summit. So my Government is already preparing for the next Summit, and we re encouraging the Caribbean to join in that effort. If the Summit of the Americas is to make a difference in people's lives, we cannot afford to wait.
Ambassador Maisto is the US permanent representative to the Organisation of American States, and the US national co-ordinator for the Summit of the Americas