He also used his speech to take a shot at Cuban President Fidel Castro and to assure fellow leaders that the United States will no longer hold up speedy passage of a hemispheric trade pact. Much is at stake for Bush. He has already incurred widespread international disapproval by very publicly renouncing the Kyoto treaty on global warming. Not only is Kyoto dear to Canadian hearts, it is also seen in less developed countries as a token of U.S. willingness to be a global environmental player. In an effort to redress some of the damage from his ditching of Kyoto, Bush said last week the United States would sign an international treaty banning especially polluting chemicals.
Signing is risk-free at home.
Most of the substances are already banned in the United States and his announcement did little to dispel the notion that the Bush administration is a big bad polluter. His unabashed embrace of unregulated hemispheric trade won,t do much either to endear him to demonstrators. It lifts the lives of all our people. The 34 countries represented here have already agreed to implement a free-trade zone by 2005. Bush had wanted to move the start-up date to 2003 but there is no chance of a breakthrough at this summit.