
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, December 12, 1994                   TAG: 9412140029
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: MIAMI                                  LENGTH: Medium

SUMMIT CLOSES ON HIGH NOTE

President Clinton and heads of government from 33 Western Hemisphere nations Sunday concluded a three-day summit whose commitment to an ambitious program of freer trade and strengthened democracy led Clinton to predict that the ``spirit of Miami'' will be remembered ``as a moment when the course of history in the Americas changed for the better.''

At the ceremonial conclusion in Miami's convention center, the participating presidents and prime ministers signed a declaration committing their countries to a series of actions aimed at fulfilling Clinton's dictum that ``prosperity and democracy must go hand in hand.''

To underscore those objectives, the assembled presidents - flanking Clinton and Vice President Gore around a semicircular table with the flags of their countries massed behind them - listened raptly to an emotional speech by Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was restored to office in October after a U.S. military intervention ended the military dictatorship that ousted him in a 1991 coup.

``I have come to share with you the bread of joy - the joy of Haiti at having gained its freedom,'' Aristide said. ``I give the thanks of my people to the international community and in particular to President Clinton and the American people for helping to regain our freedom.''

Then, Clinton and the leaders of Canada and Mexico - the two partners of the United States in the year-old North American Free Trade Agreement - held a smaller ceremony where they formally invited Chile to begin negotiations to join NAFTA. The proposed broadening of NAFTA is intended as a first step toward the summit's goal of reaching agreement to create a hemispheric free-trade zone by 2005.

``For one year, we have been the three amigos; starting today we will be the four amigos,'' said Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, announcing that full-scale negotiations to bring Chile into NAFTA will begin no later than next May. And, he stressed, the talks with Chile will be ``only the beginning'' of further negotiations aimed at turning the hemisphere into the world's largest free-trade zone - one that will encompass a $13 trillion market of 850 million people.

The agreement to create the free-trade zone, reached by summit participants Friday, represents a major triumph for Clinton, who has sought to reorient U.S. foreign policy in the post-Cold War period from security concerns to trade and investment.

``These things will set the agenda for world trade for years to come, in ways that benefit ordinary American families, that generate more high-wage jobs in this country and more opportunity in the countries of our trading partners,'' Clinton said at the conclusion of Sunday's ceremonies.

by CNB