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State visit to Brazil: Interview given by M. Jacques CHIRAC, President of the Republic, to the brazilian television channel "TV GLOBO".
Paris, 23 May 2006
Q. – How important is your visit to Brazil?
THE PRESIDENT – There are, for me, many reasons why it's important. Brazil and France have many points in common. Geographically and politically, Brazil is a major player in Latin America, and France is a major player in Europe. As for the way we see things, we're very similar. The humanized globalization President Lula is calling for absolutely reflects what I'm also seeking. I might add that our economic, cultural, intellectual, scientific and technical relations are extremely strong.
That justifies this relationship and I welcome the coming meeting President Lula has invited me to. It will allow us to bolster our political agreement, our desire for political consultation, political cooperation, and also to sign agreements on innovation and higher education and the development of technology.
For all these reasons, quite apart from my pleasure in going to Brazil again, I'm very pleased about this visit.
Q. – You said that the relationship between Brazil and France is really good, friendly?
THE PRESIDENT – The relationship has always, for a very long time, been excellent. I would say that today it's absolutely exemplary.
Q. – There's perhaps one point where there's a bit of a conflict: farm subsidies. How are you going to tackle them with President Lula?
THE PRESIDENT – I've been talking to President Lula about them for a long time. It's a matter on which we haven't yet quite managed to agree and I'd like to tell Brazilian viewers listening to us that, contrary to what they may believe, Europe isn't a protected, closed market, particularly for agricultural products.
Every year France imports from Latin America agricultural products worth about €2.5 billion. Her farm exports to Latin America total only €400 million. That shows you the extent to which France is already a completely open market. Today Europe as a whole is Latin America's leading customer for agricultural and food products. It's not a closed market either. So people have to understand the real situation.
And we're ready to go further still, and this is precisely the purpose of the Common Agricultural Policy reform which we've begun. Among other things, this reform provides for the eventual abolition of all potentially destabilizing agricultural export subsidies. However, in any agreement, there has to be a bit of give and take on both sides, both sides have to make an effort.
France and Europe are totally ready to make this effort. They have said so very clearly. So far they haven't received a favourable response, or even one making a modest move in that direction, in three areas which we attach the greatest importance to: industry, services and, above all, aid and the interests of the poorest countries with which Europe has a very strong relationship and which are potential victims of any action at the WTO.
That's what I'm going to talk about – but, believe me, with the utmost frankness and cordiality – to President Lula, for whom I have great respect and who is a great friend.
Q. – Clearly, Latin America is now a bit divided, we saw this in Vienna during the EU-Latin America/Caribbean summit. Do you think this may create problems for the relationship between Latin America and Europe?
THE PRESIDENT – I was in Vienna, as were a lot of Latin American, Caribbean and European heads of State. I didn't sense the division you refer to. I even found that, when it comes to what we feel is a very strong movement towards democracy and development in Latin America, there was clear unity, at any rate stronger unity than I had observed 20 years ago.
Naturally, every country in Europe, as in Latin America and the Caribbean, is developing in its own way, has its own characteristics. When you take a detached view of things, you can see that the inescapable forces in all these countries are democracy and development, humanized development. These are the main forces. After that, everyone goes about things in their own way.
Q. – How do you see the nationalization of Bolivian oil and gas?
THE PRESIDENT – I had a long talk with President Morales. I have great respect for Mr Morales who has, in a way, restored honour to a people who needed it.
It wasn't for me to interfere in his country's domestic affairs. He makes the choices he wants regarding the nationalization of his country's and his people's commodities. But what he told me was very clear: he was ruling out any asset confiscation and exclusion of the companies involved.
Consequently, what is to be implemented – and this I understood to be what he's seeking – is an agreement with the firms involved to ensure that the profits are shared in a way which is more favourable to the people than it is at the moment.
Q. – Immigration is today an enormous problem in the United States and Europe, a consequence of the poverty of the American and African continents. How do we resolve the problem?
THE PRESIDENT – There's an immediate problem, which requires that every country take, with due regard for human rights, the requisite protective measures, otherwise there will be real political destabilization.
But that's not the nub of the problem. Whether we're talking about Africa or elsewhere, the people who leave aren't leaving because they want to, they're leaving out of necessity. They're leaving because they and their families can't have a decent life in their own country. This is what creates this movement and is why we won't be able to counter it if we don't change living conditions in their home countries.
There's no solution to these immigration problems other than to create the conditions for development in these countries: development of infrastructures, education, health, agriculture, a number of factors which enable a country to live. Yet today, the efforts the international community makes for development – what's known as official development assistance (ODA) – are totally inadequate. It provides about a third of what UN experts deem absolutely necessary. So at the very least ODA must be tripled.
We won't get the rich countries to triple ODA, hence the common position adopted by President Lula and me, together with some of our friends – particularly President Lagos, who immediately joined in our effort – which consists in creating new resources, innovative financing on top of conventional financing from government budgets, so as to address the imperatives of development.
We've taken a first step, at President Lula's and my instigation, by creating a plane ticket levy. It's a small thing, but it was important to show that things could be done differently, there was a need to demonstrate international solidarity and a modern form of development assistance, in fact it's an experiment. We're experimenting.
I think it's going to work. The profits will go essentially to the fight against the major pandemics, particularly AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc., but this is only a first step.
There's no solution to emigration other than development. We have to create the necessary conditions for development, it's a human, moral and political imperative. (···)./.
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