And some time around 2005 we are scheduled to become members of an inter-American free trade area with over 800 million inhabitants. Individuals tracing their roots to this region are rapidly coming to comprise our single largest ethnic community, and this will have predictable consequences in domestic and foreign affairs, as they demand increasing attention to their places of origin. Under these circumstances, the course of events in the rest of the Hemisphere has already come to have at least as great an impact on the lives of average Americans as do developments in any other part of the globe. This situation creates many great opportunities for the United States. We must therefore ensure that Latin America comes to comprise an important asset, rather than a debilitating liability to the United States, in the competitive, uncertain world of the future.
Great promise continues to exist.
But still-fragile democratic institutions and liberal economic policies are now coming under serious pressure in a growing number of countries. And they need our import-consumption capability, technology, and management skills to satisfy their population's developmental aspirations, sustain democratic government, and stabilize social situations that now often give rise to excessive emigration. It should be noted here that this accord would require ratification by our Congress, as well as by a number of others around the Hemisphere. Ultimately, this means adding an effective politico-security counterpart to the economic community already in the process of emerging. This is more quickly and easily aid than done.