Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Politics

Bush hails ethanol pact

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 10, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil - President Bush on Friday insisted the United States is not neglecting Latin America and celebrated an alternative-fuels pact with Brazil as proof.

"I don't think America gets enough credit for trying to help improve people's lives," Bush said at a joint news conference with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

On Friday in Buenos Aires - about 1,000 miles southwest of here - leftist President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called Bush's travels an attempt to divide and confuse Latin American nations.

"The future belongs to us," Chavez told reporters, adding "Oh, ho ho! Gringo go home!" Chavez is staging a tour of the region to rival Bush's weeklong, five-country visit.

Bush noted total U.S. aid has doubled since he took office to $1.6-billion last year. Some Latin American critics say Bush's claim is misleading because it is based on using 2001 as the starting point, and U.S. aid had dipped sharply that year, setting an artificially low benchmark.

The centerpiece of Bush's Brazilian stop - the first before he headed on to Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico - was a new ethanol development agreement.

The agreement, signed Friday morning by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Brazilian counterpart, has the U.S. and Brazil joining forces to promote more ethanol use in nations lying between Brazil and the United States.

But tensions remain, such as the 54-cent-a-gallon U.S. tariff on imports of Brazilian ethanol made from sugar, a measure designed to help U.S. corn growers. Ethanol can be made from either crop.

Before Bush's visit, Silva said the tariff was unfair and that he would press Bush to try to get the U.S. Congress to repeal it.

"It's not going to happen. The law doesn't end until 2009. And the Congress will ... look at it when the law ends," Bush said tersely during their news conference.

[Last modified March 10, 2007, 02:23:32]