Enterprise Florida remarks
January 26, 2005

First I’d like to thank the Florida firms and their Salvadoran partners, agents, distributors and buyers. I hope you are finding that Salvadorans are eager to do business with the U.S. and especially with Florida.

Second I’d like to thank Luis Cuervo and Enterprise Florida. Luis recruited and organized the mission. I know he has had some challenges including a hurricane that postponed the initial mission that had been planned for November. I would like to single out Luis for his continued efforts in seeing this mission through.

This mission is a follow-up to the visit last February of Governor Bush. The Governor was looking for increased trade and to showcase Miami as the home for the Secretariat for the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Florida is one of Central America’s and indeed Latin America’s most import trade partners. Annually Florida exports more than $3 billion to Central America, accounting for 13% of all its exports.

We believe that the Central America-DR Free Trade Agreement, which El Salvador was proudly the first country to ratify, will serve to strengthen the ties between our two countries and indeed throughout the region. We applaud El Salvador for leading the way and ask your help in supporting passage in the U.S.

I’d like to express my appreciation to the firms here tonight and to the Foreign Commercial Service for arranging the meetings.

In closing, one last thought: Many Salvadorans visit Florida as tourists every year. I hope that those of you visiting El Salvador on this mission will return again as tourists, for the pure pleasure of visiting this beautiful country and seeing it as it really is. You might find that El Salvador fits into your plans to expand investment as well as sales, helping this country create jobs, grow its economy – and enlarge the pool of Salvadorans who can buy your products and visit your shores (said with smile).

I wish you every success in your business negotiations.