SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE EVENT IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at American Chamber of Commerce Business Community Event

Remarks

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Manila, Philippines

December 17, 2013

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Well, Rick, thank you very, very much. Thank you for a great welcome here to the combined Chamber of Commerce and the Makati Business Club. And I’m really honored by the distinguished guests who are here. Thank you very much, all of you, for taking time to come and join us. And for the executives from various businesses, thank you for taking a minute away. And I hope our exchange here this afternoon, though it isn’t going to be the longest in the world, will give us a chance to share a few thoughts and a vision about the relationship between the Philippines and the United States, and the future.

We are obviously living in an extraordinary time in terms of business. And during my confirmation hearing to be Secretary of State, I made it very clear that in my judgment, foreign policy today is economic policy to a large degree – not always everything, but very significantly. And good economic policy is also good foreign policy. So it really goes hand-in-hand. We’re living in a voracious, competitive marketplace. The spoils go to the nimble and the creative, and you need to be able to get out into the market and project and win your market share and do it everywhere. That’s the difference of the world that we’re living in now. And you can’t just be big and powerful and win all the time, as we’ve learned. It used to be you could make mistakes but you’d still kind of lumber along. I don’t think that’s true in today’s world. It’s very unforgiving, as most of you know, so – and not unlike the world politics, I might add.

So I’m very, very happy to be here, and I really just want to begin by thanking all of you for your extraordinary efforts with respect to trying to save lives and bring relief to the victims of Typhoon Yolanda. I know there are many in the American business community, along with our Embassy staff, who I am grateful to say – and I say thank you today – served as powerful ambassadors of our nation’s character and our compassion.

I want to thank Coca-Cola for donating trucks for the delivery of relief supplies which were some of the very first vehicles that were able to get on the road after the disaster. I want to thank Proctor & Gamble for partnering with Coca-Cola to get the sari-sari stores back up and running and provide an immediate boost to the local economy. I want to thank Dow for donating a generator to power Tacloban’s water plant, which ensured that many residents who had no access to water were not going to go thirsty and possibly even worse. And I want to thank FedEx for donating space on your airplanes in order to be able to deliver relief supplies. And Cargill is also donating $500,000 to help the devastated agricultural sector to be able to recover. Citibank donated $230 – $250,000 to the Philippine Red Cross immediately after the typhoon struck, and I understand that Citi is going to make an announcement soon about an additional donation and long-term commitment with the Philippine Red Cross.

So we’re really grateful for those kinds of efforts. That is great corporate citizenship, global citizenship, and we’re proud that the United States of America and American citizens that aren’t corporations reached out with not just their hearts and their words, but with their actions.
I also want to thank everyone at AmCham Foundation for helping to direct donations from across the American business community to professional relief organizations and to areas where support was absolutely needed the most. By the way, tomorrow, I will be going down to Tacloban and personally viewing what is happening there, and we will be adding our efforts as a government to try to provide additional assistance. The support from the American business community in the aftermath of the disaster, I believe, is really symbolic, a powerful symbol of the strength of the relationship between the United States and the Philippines.

And this is not a new relationship, as we all know. Rick was telling me a moment ago that etched in stone at the chamber is the early date of 111 years ago when the chamber started its activities here. And from that moment on, we have really stood shoulder-to-shoulder, particularly in a distinguished way during the course of World War II. I just came from the cemetery where more than 17,000 – 17,201, I think – Filipino and American men and women are interred in the largest war cemetery in the world, for America at least. And so there are 29 Medal of Honor winners interred at that cemetery, and that is a significant statement about how we stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the wake of World War II and against tyranny. And then we stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the wake of one of the world’s worst natural disasters. And we stand today, two vibrant democracies that are committed to each other’s strength and prosperity. And I think so many of you in this room today are contributing to that and have over the years.
In the first half of this year, the economy of the Philippines was among the fastest-growing economies in the world. And with our work together, I believe and President Obama believes that we can ensure that the Philippines continues in that direction in spite of everything that the nation has endured and lost over the course of the last months. The Philippines proves the kind of transformation that is possible when free markets and free people and a free marketplace of ideas, combined together to be able to unleash the creative entrepreneurial spirit of individual human beings. It’s a winning combination, and that’s why the country’s success sends a powerful message not just throughout the region, but on a global basis.

It wasn’t too long ago, I will tell you, that there was a very different Philippines, and I knew it and knew it well. 1986, when I was in my first two years as a senator, the first place I traveled to as a senator was come here to the Philippines. And I came here for a number of different reasons and became involved in the effort to try to promote reform. And I remember a long meeting, maybe a five-hour meeting with then-President Marcos, which inspired me to go back and change the law with respect to our relationship to the Philippines. (Laughter.) And that evolved into his calling a snap election and I then became involved with NAMFREL, the national movement for a free Philippines, and involved with Jose Concepcion and others and built a system to have accountability in that election.

Ultimately, I was sitting in the Manila – in the hotel when a young woman in tears came up to me and pleaded with me to come down to the cathedral to meet with some young women, and I did. I went to the sacristy and met with those women, and it was a stunning story that unfolded as they, in tears and fearing for their life, told me they were putting vote tallies into the computer but none of those tallies were coming out on the tote board. And that was the beginning of the end of the Marcos regime at that time. We went back to America, reported it to Ronald Reagan, he sent Senator Laxalt over, and the rest is history. And that was when Cory Aquino came to power, somebody I knew, worked with, and appreciated because of her having lived right next to my hometown in Boston, having lived in Newton.

So that’s my link here. The truth is there’s an even earlier link because way back when, I had – my grandfather’s cousin was actually the governor of the Philippines in the 1900s, and so I always had this connection and sense of this country.

Now is a critical moment for the Philippines and the next chapter of our history together. What I’m referring to is the potential of the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has an ability to be able to raise standards of doing business, open up new opportunities, and put 40 percent of the GDP of the world into one economic group that has an ability to be able to affect global trade, and obviously create millions of jobs. We will welcome a Philippine delegation to Washington at the end of January for the start of technical consultations regarding this. And the TPP, as I said, will bring 40 percent of the world’s economy – the world’s economy – together in one historic high-standard trade agreement. The TPP will ensure that high standards will be set for workers and consumers, and the environment will be the standard for the most dynamic economic region in the world, and that will set an example to the rest of the world.
So on every front, the Philippines and the United States have an opportunity to forge a stronger foundation for economic growth and development, and that’s why we are working with our counterparts on intellectual property issues to make it possible for the removal of the Philippines from the Special 301 list. In addition, that’s why we are committed to working with the Government of the Philippines so that the nation can return to the FAA’s Category 1 list, making the travel and exchange between our two countries much more efficient and much easier.

Each of these initiatives that I just mentioned has the potential to expand exchange between the United States and Philippines, and each of them has the ability to drive your businesses to even greater success and drive greater prosperity between our countries.
So today, I want to hear from you. I want to take a moment just to walk around, have a chance to talk for a little while. Let me thank you all for the extraordinary work that you are already doing for helping to build this deeper dynamic economic relationship between our countries. And I hope that in the next few minutes – I’ve already picked up a couple of things I need to work on. FedEx has an issue and some other things. (Laughter.) So I expect to be importuned in the next few moments, and I look forward to hearing from you all.

Thanks for the privilege of being here again, and it’s great to see you all. I appreciate you coming. Thank you. (Applause.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT AMERICAN CENTER IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks to Members of the American Chamber of Commerce and Fulbright Economic Teaching Program Participant
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
American Center
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
December 14, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: Mr. Ambassador, David, thank you very, very much. And thank you so much for your great leadership these past years. Xin chao, Vietnam. I’m very, very happy to be here and to be back. It’s an honor for me to be here with so many people who’ve really been taking part in and contributing to the great transformation and the great success that is taking place here in Vietnam.

I’ll just share a little bit of – a little bit of nostalgia with you. When I first came back here around 1990, this was a very different country. The United States and Vietnam were still very stuck. There was an embargo, and we had not resolved difficult issues that remained from the war. Many of us dreamed of a time back then when we would think of Vietnam not in terms of war, but of only a country and the normal things that countries engage in. And I am proud and pleased to say that today, certainly for me, represents that moment.

The last time I was here was in the year 2000 with President Clinton when we came right after the normalization had taken place, and the embargo had been lifted some years earlier with President Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush. And a number of us – Senator John McCain and myself – were involved in that journey from the beginning. There were very difficult issues to still resolve. We had prisoner of war/missing in action issue which was felt deeply, as it should have been and was, by people all across America. And of course, there were issues here in Vietnam about Agent Orange and the residuals of the war.

I can’t think of two countries that have worked harder, done more, and done better to try to bring themselves together and change history and change the future and provide a future for people which is now very, very different. There are still things to be achieved, things to be done. I’ll say a few words about that. But I can remember when I touched down in Hanoi back then. I could still see all the craters from bombs. There was almost no motorbikes. Everything was a bicycle; very, very few cars. Not a stoplight worked in Hanoi at that point in time, and there were just a couple of hotels. It was a place that had been frozen in time.

No one can help but marvel at the modern Vietnam. What has taken place in just a little over 20 years is extraordinary. And so this is not a transformation that just happens by coincidence, may I say. It’s a product of the commitment and the vision of a lot of people here in this room.

I want to thank David for his job as ambassador and the work that all of our embassy personnel and consular personnel, Foreign Service, Civil Service, local hires, third national country. Everybody joins together as a team and works very, very effectively to do things.

Our ties are growing stronger every day we continue to work. We have the educational exchanges that we talked about today. And I believe that, actually, David participated in not one but I think three educational exchange programs in Asia, just as an example of the background and depth that can help to contribute to these kinds of efforts.

It is, frankly, why the vision of educators and education has been so important to this transformation. And I just want to take a moment to say that I can’t think of anyone who’s done more to help make that happen than the combined team of Tom Vallely and Ben Wilkinson, who are leading Harvard’s – Harvard University’s efforts here in Vietnam, and the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, a program I was proud to first support as a senator. And we put it in place and it was built into the largest Fulbright program in the world. Today, I think it’s the second-largest program in the world, and we’ve got to see if we can’t make it the largest again if we keep working at it. But I want to thank Tom and Ben for all that they do to contribute to this transformation.

I also want to thank the American Chamber of Commerce, and the American Chamber of Commerce Vietnam and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and industry have also made just a gigantic difference here. AmCham’s experience in Vietnam has really ushered in a new era of cooperation for the bilateral trade agreement in 2001, to the WTO session in 2007, and now we are working on the TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership. I’ll say a word about it.

But just think about this for a minute: Our bilateral trade has grown 50-fold, 50 times since 1995, to more than $25 billion a year now, and we are on track to meet our target of doubling our U.S. exports to Vietnam in five years, which was the goal that President Obama set five years ago. Vietnam has the potential to become one of the United States’ leading economic partners in the region, and we’re going to continue to work at that.

Today, we’re on the doorstep of another great transformation that could open more doors to opportunity, and it could make our partnership much more vibrant, and frankly, could make our markets a lot more energized and rewarding. What I’m talking about are the opportunities that would come from the Trans-Pacific Partnership from the high-standard trade pact that Vietnam and the United States are negotiating with 10 of our Pacific partners. The partnership’s high standards would maintain the momentum that has been created for market reforms, for modernization, for regional integration that the Government of Vietnam has actually made a priority. It will also complement Vietnam’s efforts to transform state-owned enterprises and important sectors of the economy like energy and banking, which will attract greater investment.

And today, I am happy to announce that we will provide an initial $4.2 million for USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth. It’s a program to help implement the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is not aid. I want to make that clear. This is an investment, and it’s an investment in broad-based and sustainable growth.

And I think this is just one more way that the United States wants to support Vietnam as it grows its own role in the global economy. And just think about it; you’ll see it out in the streets walking around. Forty percent of the population here is younger than 25. I was thinking about it as I was driving in, watching all the motorbikes. And I said a lot of the people riding those motorbikes were eight, nine, and ten years old when I was last here, just to give you an example of growth and time passing.

To create high-paying jobs and economic opportunity, there are a number of essential things, and I want to say something about it. You need a free market. You need a free marketplace of ideas. People need to be able to express their thoughts. You need to be able to dare to fail. You need to be able to be creative. You need to be able to talk and promote new ideas about trade and development and creation of new products.

And the United States believes firmly, as we have seen from Slovenia all the way to South Korea, that building a society that is more open and more free is critical to a country’s long-term strength and success. Vietnam has proven that greater openness is a great catalyst for a stronger and more prosperous society, and today Vietnam has an historic opportunity to prove that even further. A commitment to an open internet, to a more open society, to the rights of people to be able to exchange their ideas, to high-quality education, to a business environment that supports innovative companies, and to the protection of individual people’s human rights and their ability to be able to join together, express their views – all of these things create a more vibrant and a more powerful economy as well as a society. It strengthens a country; it doesn’t weaken it. And the United States urges leaders here to embrace that possibility and to protect those rights.

American institutions of higher learning in Vietnam already provide some of the highest-quality education in the world, and I have long supported this program, the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Ho Chi Minh City, which has provided a huge number of Vietnamese officials in government now opportunities to study economic policy. And this exchange process is a wonderful way for people to see what the rest of the world is doing and bring back ideas to their own country, and not be afraid of change and of the possibilities of the future.

When I met with today’s foreign minister of Vietnam in New York City – actually, when I met him in Washington – he came to meet me first in Washington – the foreign minister handed me a photo. And I looked at the photo and I saw a young, black-haired, brown-haired John Kerry and a young foreign minister standing together outside of Tuft’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where I first met him on one of these exchanges 30 years ago or 20-whatever years ago.

That’s how it works, folks. And now there are foreign ministers, prime ministers, environment ministers, finance ministers, presidents of countries all over the world who have shared their educational experience in a different place. I’m very pleased that the leadership of the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program is here today, and I look forward to working with the Vietnamese Government to establish a Fulbright University of Vietnam in the near future.

We also see a lot of innovative American companies here, and I had a chance to meet with a number of you who are engaged in entrepreneurial activity. Chad Ovel here today from AA Corporation, which has helped to introduce sustainable forestry to Vietnam and he’s helped to show that we don’t have to choose between being pro-environment and pro-economic; they go hand in hand, and the future will demand that they go hand in hand. The success of Sherry Boger at Intel and Khoa Pham at Microsoft highlights how high standards for intellectual property help to make innovation and job creation possible.

And we just did a wonderful signing ceremony in there with General Electric. General Electric is another American company that is benefitting from growing economic ties but also helping Vietnam to grow at the same time. And GE signed a deal with Vietnam Airlines back in October to sell this country’s flag carrier 1.7 billion in aircraft engines for the Boeing 787 aircraft. And a few minutes ago, as some of you saw, we just signed an agreement worth approximately $94 million for the Cong Le company to provide a second tranche of turbines for a signature wind farm project in Bac Lieu province. This project, with financing that comes from the U.S. Import-Export Bank and the Vietnam Development Bank, will help meet Vietnam’s growing demand for electricity, but it does so bringing clean power generation to the Mekong Delta and can set an example for the ways in which the new energy paradigm can be defined.

So whether – here in Vietnam, whether we are talking about our commitment to economic exchange, greater educational exchange, or our support for young entrepreneurs and a cleaner environment, I’m proud that the United States is putting a full complement of our diplomatic tools to work. And it’s clear that the partnership between Vietnam and the United States is stronger than ever, and most exciting, I am convinced we’re only just beginning. This is the beginning, and there are just enormous possibilities ahead of us. With the continued commitment of all of you in this room and your partners across the country, I am absolutely convinced the bonds between the United States and Vietnam can be the pillars of much greater prosperity and of a shared prosperity for decades to come.

And I’ll tell you something. Years ago, that vision we all had that we wanted to be able to think of Vietnam – when we said the word “Vietnam,” for years and years you’d say, “Vietnam,” and wow, you just thought about a war. And a lot of us didn’t want to do that. Now you say the word “Vietnam” and you think about a country and you think about a very changed playing field where this is one of the growing, contributing, transforming nations of the world. And I think the possibilities for the future are just gigantic. So with the right focus on the openness and freedom of the society, with the right respect for people and their rights, and with the right focus on growth and education, there is no question in my mind that all of that energy and all of that effort invested in trying to set this new direction is going to pay off big-time.

So it’s my honor to be here. Thank you very much, all of you, for joining in this. And thank you particularly to the entrepreneurs who are the ones really making this difference on the ground. It’s great to be with you. Thank you. (Applause.)

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN'S REMARKS TO AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN CHINA AND U.S.-CHINA BUSINESS COUNCIL

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 
Remarks by the Vice President at a Breakfast with the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and the U.S.-China Business Council

St. Regis Hotel
Beijing, People's Republic of China

10:12 A.M. (Local)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  And I'm so late you probably thought you were going to hear from the 48th Vice President of the United States.   (Laughter.)  I apologize.  I always, when I’m late at home, always blame it on the President.  But I can’t do that today, and I apologize for keeping you waiting.

I remember 220 years ago, when I was in college, you only had to wait 10 minutes for a professor, 20 minutes for a full professor.  The only full professor in the Biden family is my wife -- you didn’t have to wait this long.  But thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak with you all.

Let me begin by saying one thing about competition.  I’ve told this to Vice President Xi and then President Xi, in all the time I had to spend with him, is that one of the things that has happened in the last 20 years, as the world has become more competitive, it’s awakened the competitive spirit in the United States.  Competition is stamped into our DNA.  And if there’s anything remotely approaching a level playing field, we’ll do just fine -- just fine.

And so I want to thank the American Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Business Council for inviting me here today.  You are living the U.S.-China relationship every single day, and you know the opportunities, but you also know the obstacles.  And it’s great to be back together one last time here in Beijing with our Ambassador, Gary Locke.  I say one last time because he is going to be heading back to his home state of Washington after a very distinguished career, which I don’t think is anywhere near ended, as both governor, member of the Cabinet, as well as the Ambassador.

And Gary and I were speaking this morning as I was -- there was a telephone call, they said I’m required upstairs.  And one of the things I like about Gary -- there’s no member of -- no governor or member of Cabinet that I have enjoyed working with more, because Gary speaks English.  By that, I mean not English versus Chinese; I mean plain versus complicated.  (Laughter.)  And so when Gary speaks, everyone understands exactly what he means.

And as you know better than I, communication is the currency, and particularly the currency that is needed most here in China.  He’s been an Ambassador to the Chinese government, but also to the Chinese people, and he will be missed.  I remember, I was here shortly after Gary arrived and every newspaper you’d pick, even though I don’t read Chinese, I’d see Gary’s picture -- because he connected.  He connected immediately with the Chinese people as a representative of our country and knowing -- the Chinese people knowing he was reaching out not just to the government, but to them.

I had a chance since I’ve been here -- it’s been a very rapid visit, and it’s been 14-hour days, but very useful -- I had a chance to talk with Vice President Li, and I will spend several hours -- and I spent I guess almost four and a half hours with President Xi.  And I’m honored that he would give me the time to go into such detail, both in a private bilat with him as well as an expanded, as well as a lovely dinner he hosted for me and a few of my colleagues.  Later, I’ll be meeting with Premier Li.

And I want to talk to you about much of what -- some of what I’ve talked to all of them about and what I believe to be are next steps in the U.S.-China relationship.

We’re trying to build a new kind of relationship between major powers, one that’s different, one that is defined by constructive cooperation, healthy competition, and a shared respect for an agreed upon new set of rules of the road and international norms for the 21st century.

After World II, our grandfathers and fathers and mothers put in place a structure that accommodated the economic change that took place in the world and set up a new set of rules of the road for the remainder of the 20th century.  We’re in a different place now.  You all know it better than I do.  We use the phrase in colloquial conversation in all our countries that it’s a “global economy.”  But it’s truly a global economy -- a global economy.

My colleagues always kid me about quoting Irish poets all the time.  They think I do it because I’m Irish.  I do it because they’re the best poets.  (Laughter.)  And William Butler Yeats wrote a poem called Easter Sunday 1916, about the first rising in Ireland in the 20th century.  And he had a line in it that better describes, I would argue, the Pacific Basin in the year 2013 than it did in his Ireland in 1916.  He said, "All is changed, changed utterly, a terrible beauty has been born."

We’re at a moment, a window, as they say, of opportunity.  How long it will remain open remains to be seen -- where we can potentially establish a set of rules of the road that provide for mutual benefit and growth of both our countries and the region, that set down sort of the tracks for progress in the 21st century.  I think it is that profound.  I think that’s the place, that’s the inflection point we are at in our relationship now -- not only with China but the entire region.

And so the only path to realizing this vision for the future is through tangible, practical cooperation and managing our differences effectively.  We’ve not tried this before.  We’ve not tried this before.  This is going to be difficult.  But if we get it right, the outcome for our children and grandchildren can be profound -- profoundly positive.

But to move this relationship forward, there is no substitute for direct and personal engagement between leaders.  President Xi pointed out to me, because I had an opportunity when he was vice president to spend some considerable time with him at the request of President Hu and then -- and President Obama.  He made indirect reference to -- there was a famous American politician named Tip O’Neill, who I admired a great deal and was sort of a mentor when I was a young 29-year-old senator coming into Congress.  And he’s famous for having said all politics is local.  Well, I believe all politics is personal, including international politics.

Personal relationships are the only vehicle by which you build trust.  It doesn’t mean you agree, but trust to know that the man or woman on the other side of the table is telling you precisely what they mean, even if you don’t want to hear it.  That’s why President Obama asked me to make this visit, and that’s why President Xi and I spent so much time together yesterday discussing in great detail a whole range of issues we face together that are difficult for both of us to navigate in our own political system.

These were very candid conversations.  I know it shocks you to think I would be candid.  I know that’s a shocking assertion. No one has doubted that I mean exactly what I say.  The problem is I sometimes tend to say all that I mean.  (Laughter.)  But because our relationship is so complex, getting it right isn’t going to be easy, and it’s going to require direct straightforwardness with one another about our interests, our concerns and, quite frankly, our expectations.  And that was the nature of the discussion yesterday.

Let me start with economics, not because this is a business audience, but because ultimately what matters most on both sides is our ability to deliver better for our people without it being viewed as a zero-sum game.  I have said since I met with Deng Xiaoping as a young senator, with very senior senators, that China’s economic growth is very much in the interest of the United States of America -- very much in our interest.  In my meetings with President Xi, he and I spent a good deal of our time discussing the outcomes of China’s third plenum.  China’s leaders have stated their ambition to move China toward a system where the market plays a “decisive role.”  That is a very, very big order that will require on the part of -- and I’m confident he possesses it -- the leadership of this country and the President.

But, in fact, many of the reforms China’s leaders are proposing actually match the priorities we have raised with China over the years.  Leveling the playing field for private and foreign-owned companies -- it’s going to be a difficult, difficult transition.  Protecting intellectual property and trade secrets, which is essential.  It’s not a surprise that a number of American companies are coming home in their manufacturing.  Why?  Well, we have very productive workers, but also we have court systems that are totally transparent.  Intellectual property is protected.  It matters.  And I think it’s becoming apparent to our competitors around the world that it matters for their own economic growth.  Opening service sectors to private and foreign investment and moving to market -- to a market-demand exchange rate.

These are welcome steps, but they will be difficult steps, and there’s no need to wait till 2020.  Again, the Chinese leadership in private has been very candid with me about the difficulty, but the determination they have to meet this, by any standard, very ambitious goal.  Of course, what matters most at the end of the day will be implementation.  There’s an old Saxon expression -- the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  The proof of the pudding is in the eating.  But I have no doubt that President Xi and his leadership and his primary advisors intend on, mean to, are committed to making the third plenum a reality. But it is going to require substantial commitment and follow-through.

Reform anywhere is challenging.  There are always intense interests.  I know you all are so happy about our views on Wall Street reform -- not easy, but a minor -- a minor -- change compared to what the Chinese leadership has taken on.  But the more China delivers on its proposed reforms the strong our bilateral trade and investment relationship will be.

And there's a lot of work to do, and I know that many of you have concerns that need to be dealt with in the process.  There are a number of areas where, in the next two years, we can and should make progress immediately.  We have an opportunity to improve intellectual property protection, resolve outstanding trade disputes that are holding us back.  We have an opportunity to significantly expand our cooperation on energy and climate change -- where we have overwhelmingly mutual interest.  Helping China achieve new vehicle emission standards and energy-transparent goals is that we committed to this week.

Implementing our agreement on HFCs -- we have an opportunity to protect the health and well-being of our people by increasing the safety of food and drugs.  And today we've agreed on increase of the number of U.S. inspectors who are operating in China.

We have an opportunity in the months ahead to make significant progress in negotiating a bid, a bilateral investment treaty and much more.

The third plenum also speaks to social and political reform and identifies some important near-term steps that they want to implement -- an end to China's program of reeducation through forced labor, easing the one-child policy, a commitment to deeper judicial and legal reforms.  Any major economic power in the 21st century, these are all going to become essential requirements in order to sustain growth, in my humble opinion, through the first half of the 21st century.

As was pointed out yesterday by the President, quoting back to me, I always say I never tell another man his business, or suggest to another leader what's in the interests of his country. But the interests laid out in the third plenum seem to be very much in our mutual interest.  There are many more steps China can take to open its politics and society as well as its economy.  And as I've said before, this is actually, from our perspective, in China's interest, notwithstanding it's for them to determine their interest.  Because history tells us that innovation is the currency of 21st century success.  Innovation thrive where people breathe freely, speak freely, are able to challenge orthodoxy, where newspapers can report the truth without fear of consequences.

We have many disagreements, and some profound disagreements, on some of those issues right now, in the treatment of U.S. journalists.  But I believe China will be stronger and more stable and more innovative if it respects universal human rights.

I was asked why we always talk about human rights.  The point I try to make wherever I go in the world when that discussion comes up is we are a nation of immigrants.  The vast majority of your ancestors who came to America came because their human rights were being violated.  It is stamped into the DNA of Americans.  No President, no matter how much he or she would like to avoid speaking to it, is able to remain silent without suffering consequences from the American public.  It is who we are.  Not that we're the citadel of human rights; we have much progress to make ourselves.

As businesses know well, prosperity critically depends upon predictability and stability.  The United States and our allies have guaranteed peace and security in this region for more than 60 years, providing the conditions for the remarkable economic progress in the region, particularly China.  Our relationship with China is complex, though.  We have our differences and they are real.  But there's nothing inevitable about a conflict with China -- nothing inevitable about a conflict with China.  Wholesome competition and strong competition is fundamentally different than conflict.

In fact, we see considerable common interest on the security side.  A secure and peaceful Asia Pacific enables economic growth for the entire region.  This area of the world is going to be the economic engine of the 21st century; in halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction, including North Korea, to stabilizing nuclear missile program, where we have real cooperation; in greater access to affordable and clean sources of energy.  It's easier to begin to talk about that in the United States and in China because as -- my President kids me -- I often say reality has a way of intruding.  Reality has a way of intruding.  And it has intruded in both our countries in terms of global warming and the effects on air quality -- storms, natural disasters.  And it is overwhelmingly in our mutual interest that we share the capacity each of us may have to deal with a more healthy environment.

We need to keep building practical cooperation and manage areas where we do not see eye-to-eye.  Everybody focuses on where we disagree with the Chinese.  We disagree with our allies in other parts of the world.  But China's recent and sudden announcement of the establishment of a new Air Defense Identification Zone has, to state the obvious, caused significant apprehension in the region.

And I was very direct about our firm position and our expectations in my conversations with President Xi.  But I also put this in a broader context.  The Asia Pacific region will be the driver of the global economy, to repeat myself, in the 21st century, and as China's economy grows, its stake in regional peace and stability will continue to grow as well because it has so much more to lose.  That's why China will bear increasing responsibility to contribute positively to peace and security.

That means taking steps to reduce the risk of accidental conflict and miscalculation, and reaffirming -- reaffirming that we want to have better predictability and refraining from taking steps that will increase tension.  And it means pursuing -- this means pursuing crisis management mechanisms and effective channels for communications with its neighbors.

These are some of the things I discussed with Chinese leaders.  The United States has a profound stake in what happens here because we need, and we are, and will remain a Pacific power diplomatically, economically, and militarily.  That's just a statement of fact.

When I first visited China back in 1979, as has been pointed out, I came to the conclusion then that I still share now, that China's economic growth then I thought would be good for, and now I am confident is good for America and the world.  But it has never been inevitable.  It takes work to build trust and make a habit out of cooperation, to be clear, predictable and straight with one another when we disagree, and to escape the traps that set other powers before us down a path of conflict.

That is the work of leaders and diplomats, but it is also of citizens and businesspeople like all of you assembled before me. I believe that our success or failure in building a U.S.-China relationship that will define the world for our grandchildren to live in depends not just on political leaders, but on you as well.  I believe that the shared prosperity that you help create is part of the glue that will hold together this relationship.  So I thank you.  I thank you for your commitment.  I thank you for your hard work.  I thank you for staying in the game.  And I wish you all a great deal of luck because your success strengthens the entire relationship.

And if we get this relationship right, together China and America, the region and the world will be better off for it for a long time to come, and that is not hyperbole.  That is -- as an old Western movie used to say in America, that ain’t brag, ma’am. That's just fact.  It is a fact that if we get this right the prospects for the 21st century being peaceful, secure and everyone sharing in the growing prosperity is real.

So thank you all for what you do.  And may God bless you all and may God protect our troops.  Thank you very much.  Appreciate you.  (Applause.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY MAKES REMARKS IN WARSAW TO MEMBERS OF AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks to American Chamber of Commerce Participants
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Bristol Hotel
Warsaw, Poland
November 5, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Thank you very much, Joseph. Thank you. Appreciate it. Let me see if I can make this Kerry-sized. (Laughter.) Anyway, there we go. Thank you. Good morning, everybody – or good afternoon. What is it? I don’t know anymore. (Laughter.)

PARTICIPANT: Afternoon.

SECRETARY KERRY: What?

PARTICIPANT: Afternoon.

SECRETARY KERRY: Afternoon. Good afternoon. And you haven’t eaten yet, right? (Laughter.) Anyway, and it’s very dangerous because I think I’m all that stands between you and your food. (Laughter.) Is it true you’re having a meal?

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Beg your pardon?

PARTICIPANT: Yes.

SECRETARY KERRY: Okay, once I let you sit down. (Laughter.)

Well, I will not keep you too, too long, but I want to tell you, first of all, what a great honor it is for me to be here in Warsaw, in Poland. Joseph just talked about the remarkable transformation taking place here. It really is extraordinary. And in fact, it’s encouraging and inspirational. I got to walk down the street, the main street this morning, heading towards the old city. And the Ambassador, our good Ambassador, was relating to me sort of the care that went into the rebuilding and the thought about replicating what was. And so you see the beauty even though it’s more modern, obviously, it is reflective of what was there originally and a great, great statement about the spirit of this country and the sort of stubborn refusal, if you will, to be beaten down by history.

So I think it’s a great statement. It’s a great metaphor for a lot of countries today for the possibilities of what can come out of great conflict and tragedy through the determination and the imagination of the human spirit. And that’s kind of part of what we’re here to talk about here a little bit today – the story of Poland, a story really of resistance in many ways to so many different conflicts and occupations and challenges.

And I was saying just a moment ago over at the Embassy that when you hear the name Warsaw you don’t just think of that abstractly, but you think of the Warsaw Pact, the Warsaw Convention, the Warsaw Uprising, the Warsaw Ghetto. I mean, there are great moments of defiance and of transformation affiliated with the name, and more particularly with the spirit and the history. And of course, we in Massachusetts, because of Casimir Pulaski and his historic letter to George Washington when he wrote of his willingness to be there to fight for our own independence, began a great tradition of our countries being unified in our depth of commitment and belief in the human spirit, demonstrated so much through democracy and through the commitment to the power of individuals to be able to make a difference. So we celebrate that, and I thank you because I’ve been in Cairo and Riyadh for two days, so you have given me weather much more accustomed to Massachusetts and my hometown – (laughter) – than 90 degrees at this time of year.

I’m going to try to – let me just talk for a bit about sort of what really brings all of you together, because I have great respect for the work that the Chamber has done. And the companies that have invested here and the relationship at a corporate level in business is really essential to what has helped Poland to be able to be the powerhouse economically that it is today.

When this organization, the Chamber, opened its doors not too long after Communism collapsed, the country –and indeed the continent and the world – were full of hope for what the future of free markets might be able to be able to bring. But I don’t think any of us could have predicted that it would have been as unbelievably successful and rapid as it has been here in Poland. The economic strength of this country now is truly nothing less than remarkable. And just as – I mean, if you think about it, one generation after the Gdansk shipyard strikes, Poland has become – as Joseph reminded us a moment ago – the sixth largest economy in Europe. It is one of the best places to invest in the world, and it is one of the economic powerhouses of the EU. It is also one of the few transatlantic economies to grow despite the global recession, which is a testament to the Polish people’s innovation and resilience.

And that’s why the United States made our bilateral trade such a priority, because trade has quadrupled here just over the last 10 years. So I just came downstairs from a meeting with a group of young people who represent young Polish innovators, a group that is part of this alumni program of young people chosen by the Ministry of Education. The Polish Government supports them to go and take part in a program at Berkeley and at Stanford. And they’re collaborating with American partners on creative solutions to today’s challenges. And it seems to me that they are a symbol of the way in which the aspirations of young people really unite us rather than divide us, as they do in some other parts of the world. Entrepreneurship, competition, open markets, these words were never associated with Poland’s economy 25 years ago, but today they define it.

That’s the measure of the transformation and that’s what the world means when it talks about an economic miracle which has taken place here. I’m Catholic; I happen to believe in miracles, but this is a different kind. (Laughter.) And it has been really nothing short of phenomenal. It’s taken hard work, and an awful lot of you here in this room really get credit for what is happening here. Several hundred – I think at least 100,000 jobs have been brought here through the companies that are here and represented.

The fast rise – but it’s symbolic of something else, if I can just spend a minute on this. I was recently in South Korea, in the Republic of Korea, and there it struck me how this country that 15 years ago we were giving aid to, is now a donor country giving aid to other countries in the world. We go back to the Marshall Plan, which obviously Poland, because of the occupation, didn’t take part in, but you look at the rest of Europe where it did take hold, and we see how investment and rules of the road and belief in the possibilities of that investment to turn a corner, in fact, produces transformation. And the same is true for Japan. Now all of those places are not just donor countries, but they’re vibrant democracies in places that are contributing to a set of values that the world really respects and admires.

I think that if you look in other places – I was privileged to lead the effort over 10 years to open up our new economic relationship with Vietnam. Back in 1990, when we began that effort, nobody believed it was possible. Now Vietnam is one of the economic powerhouses of the world. We have vibrant investment, and it is a vibrant marketplace, a capitalist marketplace, which is very different from the place it was envisioned to be when I was there in the late 1960s.

So right now, right here in Europe, we believe we’re on the doorstep of another great transformation that could actually make trade more open, make markets more free, make competition stronger, and create more opportunity for jobs. And it even can make a broader base of economic prosperity the hallmark of the next generation in the way that we want it to be.

And of course, I’m talking about the possibilities of TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Now, it’s ambitious, but its potential benefits are enormous. I talked this morning with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister about it. This market could integrate the world’s largest market, the EU, and the single largest economy, the United States, and create a consortium, if you will, of nations all adhering to the highest standards, not the lowest, creating a race to the top, not a race to the bottom.

And a market of that size can have a profound impact on the choices that other countries must begin to make with respect to transparency, accountability, corruption, all of the things that are really the key to attracting investment with the kind of confidence that money seeks, as it has many choices around this planet as to where to go and where to invest. TTIP will improve the rules that govern trade and it will level the playing field.

And by strengthening the rules-based trading and promoting greater transparency and regulations and standards that become more compatible, we will break some of the resistance to trade that exists and encourage this very, very important standardization, which is, in the end, I think, in the interest of everybody. If you know what the rules of the road are and you know the rules of the road are top level, you are much more prone to invest and locate and do business than you are at a place where you know you can’t get a decision from the government because they don’t have those rules or getting that decision from the government may require all kinds of hoops you have to jump through. And for our companies that adhere to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, that can be a particular challenge against countries where they don’t.

So this is a chance to really even the scale, and I’ll give you a few examples of why it’s important to try to do this, leaving out the question of corruption practices. One of Poland’s most successful retailers in the United States is a company called Inglot Cosmetics. And it has a successful brand of breathable nail polish, something I don’t know anything about, folks. (Laughter.) But I am told that while cosmetic regulations between the EU and the U.S. are similar, they’re still just different enough in order to raise production and administrative costs that make it more difficult for people to be able to sell or compete. In TTIP, we actually save this cosmetic company time and money so that it could focus on developing more innovative products and actually engage more in selling and sales, rather than reacting to a regulative marketplace.

You can take Poland’s famous hams, which are enjoyed at dinner tables all across the United States, or you can look at Massachusetts cranberries and California grapes, which have found a growing market here in this country. These foods could be traded much more easily and cheaply than they are today, and that’s if we ease the tariffs and ease the barriers that make it harder to be able to trade. TTIP will do exactly that.

So more compatible standards could also help auto manufacturers, like General Motors, which produces more than 2 million cars a year in the southern city of Gliwice. And these companies and others like them here in Poland would greatly benefit from an increased, two-way transatlantic capacity.

So bottom line, this really is an historic opportunity. And as you come here today and you break bread in a few minutes and have a chance to talk with each other and everything, think about what you can do to help us energize this process across Europe. For those of you who travel, and most of you do, those of you who engage in a daily basis here, get people excited about this possibility, because TTIP is a political and strategic bet that we’re willing to place on one another.

And more and more – I said this during my nomination hearings, and I believe it to the core, and I’ve watched this evolution over the years in terms of foreign policy – more and more foreign policy is economic policy. And more and more, as countries have less and less cash that they’re throwing around, we will need to partner with the private sector in order to leverage change in countries. And if we can help create the framework by which countries invite companies to come and invest and be involved and streamline decision making, and help with economic zones, qualified economic zones, tax incentive, whatever it takes to create fast decisions, effective availability of workforce, all those kinds of things, that will be the greatest development to policy that there will be.

In the absence of an age when hundreds of billions of dollars would be thrown into a Marshall Plan, the new plan is really the private sector and its investment as people are competing globally to create more middle class. And as more middle class are created, more people will travel, more people will share the purchasing of goods, and more people will, in the end, have a stake in their communities that will lower the threshold of terrorism and the option that people take to choose to be violent in the choices that they make with respect to how they can define their future.

I’m telling you folks, that food vendor in Tunisia who burned himself to death was not part of a religious extremist group. He was not part of any ideology. He wanted to be able to sell his fruit without corruption, without government interference. He wanted to touch his own sense of what the brass ring was. And the same thing in Tahrir Square. Those Egyptian kids, none of them were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, none of them came there with any ideology. They were texting each other and Googling, and using FaceTime and tweet and talking and trying to figure out how to really have part of the future. The same thing in Syria: It began as an effort by young people to be able to touch the future, and then it was co-opted by others with other intent.


So building these bridges of opportunity for people is going to define the future. And I believe that the private sector, business, chambers of commerce, and others are vital instruments of global policy, not American policy, that have ways in which we will reach global aspirations and be able to meet this growing demand by unbelievable numbers of young people bursting, a new baby boom generation, that are going to demand part of that future. Sixty five percent of many countries are under the age of 40, in some countries 60 percent under the age of 25. And if we don’t educate them and provide jobs for them and opportunities, we’re going to have great difficulties.

So I thank you for the privilege of being here with you today. We’ve come a long way in one generation. And for the sake of the next generation, we clearly cannot be satisfied. There’s a huge task ahead of us. Poland is really helping, and you – all of you in this Chamber – are helping to define that road ahead. And we look not just to lecture you or to talk at you, but to partner with you in the effort to make sure that we meet your needs, and through that together meet our needs as global citizens.


Thank you all for the privilege of being with you today. Thank you. (Applause.)

U.S.-TAIWAN ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Strengthening the U.S.-Taiwan Economic Relationship
Remarks
Jose W. Fernandez
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
American Chamber of Commerce
Taipei, Taiwan
August 5, 2012

I. Introduction

Thank you. This is my first trip to Taiwan and I continue to marvel at the numerous cultural and economic ties that bind our people. One of our ties was illustrated to me as I read the paper this morning. I enjoyed seeing that Jeremy Lin’s visit took top billing in the newspaper, and the meeting between President Ma and I drew a little less attention.

Let me give you just one example that is illustrative of the larger U.S. – Taiwan relationship. It is a great American tradition to start new companies in a home garage. In an Irvine, California garage in 1988 Linksys was born. The creators of this now ubiquitous line of home computer networking devices were Taiwan immigrants Janie and Victor Tsao. At the time they founded Linksys, they were also working as consultants specializing in pairing U.S. technology vendors with manufacturers in Taiwan. That pairing has become emblematic of the U.S. – Taiwan economic relationship. The latest numbers show that two-way trade between the United States and Taiwan in electrical machinery hovers around $23 billion per year.

II. Strategic Rebalancing Toward Asia

While Taiwan has been exemplary as one of the so-called "Asian Tigers," I want to put our economic relationship with Taiwan in the larger Asian context before discussing Taiwan specifically. That larger context is our work on the Trans Pacific Partnership, and the Select USA initiative.

As you know, the global economic crisis of the past few years has pushed us in the United States to pursue our own economic recovery. This is a two-sided coin, with an eye toward regional trade liberalization on one side, and concerted efforts to attract more foreign investment to the United States on the other. At all levels of the U.S. government, we are broadening and deepening our economic relationships throughout the Asia Pacific region. We are acutely aware that reinvigorating our economy at home goes hand in hand with partnering on economic growth abroad.

The United States has long been involved in developments in the Asia Pacific region. We are proud that our contributions to regional security here helped create the conditions that brought more people out of poverty faster than anywhere else in history. That engagement continues today and the futures of the United States and the Asia Pacific are inextricably linked. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has highlighted, we are not just a diplomatic or military power here. We are an economic force as well. In 2010 alone, our exports to the Pacific Rim were over $320 billion, supporting 850,000 American jobs.

But our work is not finished. One of our country’s great challenges in this century will be to establish a stronger network of trade links and practices around the Pacific Rim. Our recently enacted Free Trade Agreements with South Korea and Colombia, and our commitment to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, are clear demonstrations that we are here to stay.

I am proud to note that the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) has been a very active promoter of these efforts. In fact, they have been so successful in working to promote America’s economic relationship with Taiwan that I was able to personally congratulate the former Director, Bill Stanton, on winning my award for export promotion in 2011. He also received the State Department’s coveted Cobb award for global trade promotion efforts. That’s two awards in the same year to one man, something that doesn’t happen very often in the State Department. The AIT team in Taipei and Kaohsiung ("GOW shung") is carrying on that tradition and I expect great achievements from the incoming leadership team here in Taipei.

All of these individual efforts fit into our larger work toward regional trade liberalization. Also supporting this effort is our commitment to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Looking ahead to the next generation of trade agreements, we are aiming at crafting an agreement that addresses new and emerging trade issues and challenges. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, includes the United States, along with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. It is a high-standard, broad-based regional agreement. We see the TPP as the most credible pathway to broader Asia-Pacific regional economic integration.

The agreement will include core issues traditionally found in trade agreements, such as industrial goods, agriculture, and textiles as well as rules on intellectual property, technical barriers to trade, labor, and the environment. But it will also address cross-cutting issues not previously found in trade agreements, such as making the regulatory systems of TPP countries more compatible so U.S. companies can operate more seamlessly in TPP markets. It will also help innovative, job-creating small- and medium-sized enterprises participate more actively in international trade. Equally important is addressing new emerging trade issues, such as trade and investment in innovative products and services, and ensuring that state-owned enterprises compete fairly with private companies and do not distort competition in ways that put U.S. companies and workers at a disadvantage.

The United States is participating in the TPP as the best vehicle to advance our economic interests and to promote economic growth and development in the critical Asia-Pacific region. Expanding U.S. exports is critical to our economic recovery and to the creation and retention of high-quality jobs in the United States. With its rapid growth and large markets, there is no region with which expanding our trade is more vital than the Asia Pacific.

The TPP countries recently announced the addition of Mexico and Canada to the negotiations. Late last year Japan also formally expressed interest in beginning consultations with TPP member countries with a view to possibly joining the negotiations. Candidate countries for TPP must demonstrate through their actions and through bilateral consultations with each TPP country their readiness to meet the standards and objectives of the agreement. Once those bilateral processes are concluded, the current TPP partners must decide by consensus before a new member can participate. In short, we are excited by the possibilities created in the Asia-Pacific by the TPP, and are working very hard to make it a reality by the end of this year.

Let’s move on to another program we just started, Select USA. So one side of the coin of economic recovery is expanding opportunities for U.S. companies to do business effectively abroad. The other side of that coin is the work that we do at home to encourage investment in the United States. The United States consistently ranks at the top of most major indicators for its attractive business and investment climate. In fact, from 2006 through 2010, the United States received more FDI than any other country. The FDI flow into the United States in 2010 - $228 billion - was more than double the flow into any other country in the world, and despite economic difficulties of the time, 49 percent greater than the FDI flow into the United States in 2009. At the same time, total Taiwan direct investment flow in the United States was over $5 billion in 2010, an increase of 14.7% from 2009.

Under a program called SelectUSA, the U.S. Departments of Commerce and State engage partners around the world, as I am doing here, to promote investment into our dynamic economy. SelectUSA showcases how the United States is the world’s premier business location and provides easy access to federal-level programs and services related to business investment.

Why do I say that the United States is the world’s premier business location? Because we are the world’s largest economy; we consistently rank at the top of most major indicators for our attractive business and investment climate; our own investment in research and development makes us the world’s center for innovation; and our leadership in protecting intellectual property with a transparent and predictable legal system makes doing business in the U.S. both cost-efficient and secure. Also, one of the strongest reasons will always be the quality of our higher education, particularly in science and engineering. Taiwan people in the United States are well aware of this: 80 percent have achieved some level of higher education, particularly in these fields and in medicine. I understand that the U.S. regulatory environment can be daunting to some investors, but through our hardworking representatives at the American Institute in Taiwan, and SelectUSA and other U.S. government partners back in Washington, we can help connect investors with the business counseling and training they may need to comply with applicable regulations.

We can also direct you to the different states’ economic development agencies, making sure you get connected to the right partners for your investment selection process.

III. U. S. – Taiwan Economic Relations

Where does Taiwan figure into this picture? How can Taiwan partner with us and benefit from this wealth creation? Today, Taiwan is our 10th largest trading partner and our 15th largest export market. It would surprise many people but the United States actually trades more with Taiwan than with France; and Taiwan-U.S. trade is at near the same level as India-U.S. bilateral trade. The United States is Taiwan’s largest foreign investor, and Taiwan companies have made significant investments in the United States. Historically, the United States has been the strongest champion of Taiwan’s participation in global trade bodies such as the World Trade Organization and the APEC forum. Our strong economic relationship covers more than six decades. Taiwan has been an invaluable partner in influencing others to embrace reform and strive for economic growth.

In recent years, however, this immensely valuable relationship has hit some bumps in the road that hinder our partnership and progress. We can’t afford these bumps and need to make sure that they do not detract from efforts to make full use of our potential. We were pleased to see that the Legislative Yuan recently took action that will clear the path for Taiwan to establish a maximum residue limit for ractopamine in beef, eliminating a serious impediment to U.S. beef imports. U.S. trade agencies will be monitoring implementation of the regulatory measures needed to allow U.S. beef imports to resume. These steps will be important in helping to rebuild confidence in our bilateral trade relationship.

We know from our own experience that adhering to bilateral and multilateral trade commitments is not always easy, but it is essential to maintaining the credibility that serves as the foundation of what has long been a positive, constructive relationship between trading partners.

Of course our bilateral economic relationship goes well beyond this particular issue and we have continued to engage Taiwan at the working level and via our capable colleagues at AIT on the full range of important bilateral trade and investment issues. For example, the United States worked for many years in support of Taiwan’s candidacy to join the WTO Government Procurement Agreement. These joint efforts were rewarded when Taiwan acceded to the Agreement in 2009. Taiwan has already made many reforms to its procurement practices, and we stand ready to assist as Taiwan continues to harmonize its measures with global best practices with regard to transparency, contract terms, and licensing.

Taiwan has made tremendous progress over the years in improving intellectual property rights protection and enforcement, and the United States has carried out significant bilateral cooperation activities on intellectual property rights—IPR—issues. Still, challenges remain, including with regard to online infringement and the theft of trade secrets. During my time here in Taiwan I have visited companies that have had their technology stolen and heard their stories. For U.S. firms the protection of IPR is so vital because so many of our exports derive from IPR. A recent study estimated that 75% of U.S. exports involve IPR. Taiwan aspires to be an economy based on innovation, and together our unceasing efforts will ensure that Taiwan’s IPR enforcement regime meets the highest standards. Improved protection of trade secrets in Taiwan will help both foreign and domestic firms be competitive and innovative in today’s knowledge-based economy. The bottom line: we have made major progress over the years on many critical issues when both sides have been prepared to work together. The United States sincerely desires a reinvigorated trade relationship with Taiwan. It’s already generally good, but we can do better.

Like the United States, Taiwan is also pursuing trade liberalization. We understand the Ma Administration has indicated a desire to be considered for the TPP in eight years. As a gold standard for future trade agreements in the region, the TPP requires members to embrace ambitious and comprehensive liberalization and open their markets to competition. We commend President Ma for recognizing the importance of trade integration, and for his expressed determination to push forward liberalization measures that would help Taiwan make its case as a possible candidate for future trade agreements.

Change will not be easy, but the benefits of liberalization are clear: stronger and more competitive firms, better services, wider availability of products at lower prices, greater efficiency, and smoother integration into the world marketplace. More comprehensive economic liberalization will be an essential component for securing Taiwan's economic future. Real liberalization will demonstrate Taiwan's commitment to trade integration and potential inclusion in various trade arrangements. This includes comprehensive, bilateral FTAs—such as Taiwan's ongoing negotiations with Singapore—which is an important first step. As Taiwan's leaders implement meaningful market liberalization measures and pursue new trade agreements, firm resolve and commitment to free market principles as a responsible WTO member are essential attributes to live by. We look forward to deepening our trade and economic interaction with Taiwan. We will support Taiwan as it embraces these fundamental prerequisites to effective and meaningful trade integration. Everyone in this room is an important element of what we hope to do.

IV. Next Steps & Conclusion

Just as Janie and Victor Tsao understood when they founded Linksys nearly 25 years ago, trade between Taiwan and the United States is vital to the prosperity of both. The United States and Taiwan have a long and positive history of cooperation and many shared interests in the region. We are hopeful that the positive recent steps Taiwan has taken to address the beef issue are a demonstration of the sustained commitment that will be needed to reenergize our bilateral trade dialogue. To be sure, Taiwan, like any democracy, will face tough choices in order to live up to its international obligations and to put its long-term economic interests above domestic politics. Taiwan is a part of the Asia-Pacific region’s economic future. We look forward to working with Taiwan as it builds cooperative and credible partnerships throughout the region, including with the United States.

U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS NUMBER OF U.S. COMPANIES INVESTING IN VIETNAM IS PROLIFERATING

The following excerpt is from a U.S. State Department e-mail:
Remarks at American Chamber of Commerce Vietnam
Remarks Robert D. Hormats
Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Hanoi, Vietnam
March 20, 2012
As prepared for delivery
Introduction
I would like to thank the AmCham for hosting this luncheon today and to all of you for coming.

All of you are on the cutting edge of a bilateral economic relationship that is growing in leaps and bounds.

Not only are U.S. exports to Vietnam expanding rapidly – from $3.1 billion in 2009 to $4.3 billion in 2011 – but the number of U.S. companies invested in Vietnam also is proliferating, as is evidenced by your presence here today.

I’m looking forward to learning from all of you today about how we can further strengthen the U.S.-Vietnam economic relationship.

I want to take a moment to thank Adam Sitkoff from AmCham Hanoi and Sesto Vecchi from AmCham Ho Chi Minh City for their participation in Secretary Clinton’s Global Business Conference last month in Washington.

It was the first-ever Global Business Conference at the State Department in Washington. We brought together senior U.S. officials with more than 160 business leaders from over 120 countries.

The Global Business Conference had one goal: to figure out how the United States can make it easier for companies to do business internationally and create American jobs.

The State Department and Economic Statecraft
Now you may be asking yourselves “Why is the State Department spending so much time thinking about the U.S. economy and America’s commercial interests abroad? This is not something the State Department has spent so much time worrying about in the past.”
Strengthening the U.S. economy and creating jobs is a top priority back home. With the launch of the President’s National Export Initiative in early 2010, all agencies with a role in U.S. international trade, including the Department of State, were asked to play a more active role in export promotion. And given the numbers of state of the U.S. economy, no issue is more important today.

In addition, Secretary Clinton recognizes “that America’s economic strength and our global leadership are a package deal and that you’re not going to have one without the other.”

In a speech she delivered last fall describing this challenge, she said “Our power in the 21st century depends not just on the size of our military but also on what we grow, how well we innovate, what we make, and how effectively we sell. Rising powers like China, India, and Brazil understand this as well, and we can’t sit on the sidelines while they put economics at the center of their foreign policies.”

And so the State Department is engaging in Economic Statecraft. That was why we hosted the Global Business Conference, and brought together senior U.S. government officials and U.S. multinational business executives from around the world to exchange information and ideas on how best to shape our work going forward.
At the time of the conference, the Secretary announced the creation of “Jobs Diplomacy,” a series of programs to promote American business competitiveness overseas and equip Foreign Service Officers with the skills and tools they need to better advocate for America’s economic interests abroad.

Through the Jobs Diplomacy initiative, the Secretary stated her commitment to meet with business leaders on every foreign trip. She also launched the “Direct Line to American Business” program, in which ambassadors in key markets are being asked to conduct regular conference calls to brief the U.S. business community on economic opportunities in their countries, as well as answer questions.

But, very importantly for this audience, the Secretary also fully recognizes the positive role played by U.S. companies that are investing overseas.

While export promotion remains a critical component of the U.S. government’s support of business, we also recognize that working with foreign governments to improve their investment environments for companies like yours here in Vietnam also benefits the U.S. economy.

Economic Shift to Asia
I don’t need to tell you that much of future global economic growth will be centered in the Asia-Pacific.

Asian economies and populations are growing rapidly and so are the opportunities to expand our exports to the region.
In 2011, the United States exported nearly $900 billion in goods to APEC countries. That’s more exports than we sent to any other group of regional economies.
We hope that our economic shift to Asia has been obvious and beneficial. We were able to get KORUS passed, we hosted a successful APEC year in 2011, and we are increasing our engagement with ASEAN.

In Southeast Asia in particular, the U.S. government is looking to launch a couple of new initiatives to support our private sectors interests in the region.
The U.S. Trade Development Agency (USTDA) is leading a Connectivity Cooperation Initiative with ASEAN. As part of this effort, TDA is planning to hold a workshop on “Smart Grid and Power Transmission” with ASEAN in July.

In addition, the State Department is collaborating with the U.S. ASEAN Business Council to organize a Lower Mekong Initiative Infrastructure Best Practices Exchange.
We want to look for innovative ways to be more proactive in Southeast Asia – to partner with ASEAN and to help give a boost to U.S. business interests.

Rules-based System
As we make this shift to Asia, though, it is imperative that we do it in the right way.
The decisions Asia’s emerging economies make together with the United States will help govern a rules-based system that will guide us through the 21st century. If we get the rules right, all of our countries will prosper together.

The Trans Pacific Partnership is a big part of forging this new system.
TPP members, including the United States and Vietnam, are working to complete the TPP negotiations as expeditiously as possible, recognizing that all members need to share a high level of ambition for this agreement.

As we build a more prosperous future through the TPP and other initiatives, we should be clear.
We are striving to build a global, rules-based system in which all businesses stand a chance to succeed. Secretary Clinton has clearly articulated our vision that economic competition should be open, free, transparent, and fair.

In the case of Vietnam, this vision should include enhanced protection of intellectual property rights. While Vietnam has made some progress in this area, I know I don’t need to tell you that Vietnamese enforcement agencies are overwhelmed by high levels of copyright and patent infringements, counterfeiting and piracy, internet piracy, and fake goods.

The U.S. Government will continue to cooperate with Vietnam to improve intellectual property protection here, including by providing training and technical assistance to Vietnamese enforcement agencies.

Our vision of open, free, transparent and fair competition also will need to include continued discussions with Vietnam on the proper role of its state-owned enterprises.
We will continue to advocate for policies that support “competitive neutrality.” In other words, while we do not object to SOEs per se, we do not believe they should enjoy unfair advantages from government support that private companies – including U.S. companies – do not receive.

Private Sector Collaboration is Critical
And we want to do everything we can to support U.S. companies in Vietnam.
As the Secretary noted in her speech at the Global Business Conference on February 21st, we want to work with the AmChams around the world to best support U.S. businesses abroad and drive recovery at home.

As part of this effort our embassies have identified best practices that demonstrate how the U.S. government and AmChams can better collaborate to expand opportunities for U.S. businesses worldwide.

However, we can and must do much more in the coming years to advance this economic statecraft agenda, and we need the business community to be our full partner.
We need to sit down together more, in forums like this one or the State Department Global Business Conference.

Building sustainable global growth and creating jobs at home is a joint venture.
The private sector innovates and allocates capital, and the government opens doors to new markets and ensures that the system is fair.

We must take our partnership between business and government to the next level.
We are relying on you to think big, to generate new ideas, to open doors with jobs and capital. And the government will be right beside you – knocking down barriers, connecting partners, protecting everyone’s interests.

Together, we can build a system of healthy economic competition that will be sustainable and profitable for many years to come.

Strong commercial ties lead to prosperity at home and abroad and I look forward to our discussion about what we can do to strengthen those ties.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I would just say that we should all be asking: What can the government and the State Department do to improve opportunities for business in Vietnam? How can we do better?

We really want to hear from you – the U.S. business community – about the best way forward for our trade and investment relations with Vietnam.
I look forward to hearing your insights and am more than willing to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you.