Bill Clinton: “Brazil April 20, 1995 President Clinton. Good afternoon. Please be seated. I am delighted to welcome President Cardoso…”

“Brazil April 20, 1995 President Clinton. Good afternoon. Please be seated. I am delighted to welcome President Cardoso to the White House. For many years he has been one of the great leaders of the Americas. Although he was only inaugurated in January, President Cardoso has been a fighter for democracy throughout his life. He opposed the forces of authoritarianism at great personal risk to himself. More recently, he led the battle for economic reform during his years as Finance Minister, to reduce inflation, establish growth, and help Brazil fulfill the tremendous promise of its people and its land. Today the President told me about his economic and constitution reform efforts, which are essential to placing Brazil on the path of sustainable development. I have every confidence in the President's ability to strengthen Brazilian democracy and to advance the visionary economic reforms he began as Finance Minister. Brazil played a key role in forging the historic agreement at last year's Summit of the Americas. Today President Cardoso and I discussed how we could build on that success. We also discussed bilateral trade issues, and we reaffirmed our commitments to open our markets to each other's products. With 160 million consumers, Brazil is one of today's biggest emerging markets, and it offers great opportunity for Americans. We know that one of the ways we will do this is to realize our common commitment to achieve a free trade area of the Americas by the year 2005.…”