CÚPULA DA AMÉRICA LATINA E DO CARIBE SOBRE ... - Funag

INTERVENÇÕES DO PRESIDENTE LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA
of the United States to the world. To be sure, it is very important. It is the
most powerful nation militarily, technologically, and financially. No one is
unaware of this. Yet, what we are discovering is that we have shared
opportunities we were unaware of largely because it was easier to turn to the
United States or to the European Union. It was almost as if we had failed to
learn, even after independence that we must ensure our relations remain as
independent as possible. After all, we achieved our independence in the XVIII
century, yet in the XIX century our economies remained tethered to our
dependence on the wealthiest countries.
No one, not Saint Vincent, not Dominica, not Paraguay, not Brazil, not
Uruguay, no one wants to stop doing business with the United States and the
European Union. Note even Chávez wants to stop, indeed much less so. But
we need to do business on terms we understand to be legitimate, just, adequate,
on which we can discuss among ourselves our similarities, our possibilities,
because if we do not do this we will never grow as nations, we will always
remain poor, countries of the periphery. This is something I believe we
understand is happening at this moment.
The third trend I see as extremely significant is that the crisis offers an
opportunity for us to rethink the type of economy we want for our world,
because virtually everything we see in place today was established after World
War II, some of it before World War II. All those models that appeared
infallible, invincible, that placed us in judgment every single day. I am very
worried because my country’s economy has grown, employment has increased,
poverty has fallen, specifically, primary surplus, current account surplus, and
every day I read on my computer that Brazil’s risk rating rises. And the
Americans, bankrupt as they are, their risk rating is zero. People take money
out of my country, which offers the highest interest rates in the world, to
deposit it in the country with lowest interest rates in the world. There is
something wrong with the economy, there is something wrong with the
established monetary policy.
The IMF has yet to take a stand. It simply tells us that there is no shortterm
exit strategy. The World Bank has not taken a position. At the G8 meeting
in Japan, Calderón was there, I put forth the importance of the IMF and
World Bank taking a position on the financial crisis in the United States. But
we have been given no information. I believe it is important that our decisions
here, that as a group of Latin American and Caribbean countries, we remind
these institutions and the United Nations, which has an economic institution
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