Remarks by U.S. Ambassador George L. Argyros,
Madrid Symposium,
Palace Hotel
Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Thank you very much, Sheila, for the warm introduction.
I would like to thank you and Richard for bringing your team of Merger and Acquisition experts to Spain today.
I believe that this is the perfect time for growing the business relationship
between Spain and the United States. Much emphasis has been put on the growing
political relationship between our two countries. While I certainly agree that
political relations are the best they have ever been, I believe this also lays
the groundwork for expanding the commercial relationship. The resulting economic
growth will, in turn, strengthen and expand our economies, create new jobs,
bring new technologies and ideas, and help build on our historic cultural ties.
In the last few years, Spain and the United States have been consistent leaders in growth among
the major OECD countries. The U.S. economy grew at over 7 percent this quarter,
and Spain is currently growing at almost twice the EU average. Spain’s ties to
the EU make it part of one of the largest markets in the world, and Spain is
second only to the UK in the openness of its market. Spain is building the most
modern transportation system in Europe, with new highways, airports, and
high-speed trains rapidly moving commerce across the landscape and enhancing
your productivity and competitiveness.
Spain’s work force is becoming more global, with high productivity and talented executives who are managing
multinational operations worldwide, not only for Spanish firms, but increasingly
for American and other country’s firms as well. Spain’s role as an international
investor has grown dramatically in the last decade, particularly in Latin
America, where in virtually every major market you compete with the U.S. as the
top investor. Increasingly, this is creating greater opportunity for
collaboration between our firms, not just in Latin America but also in the U.S.,
Spain, Europe, and throughout the world.
Another factor is the cultural foundation of our relations. Spain’s role in the founding of the Americas from
Florida to the west coast and from Argentina to Mexico have helped build the
countries and culture that now make up the Americas. In the United States, the
Hispanic population now numbers almost 40 million people, about the same as
Spain. Together our two Spanish-speaking populations have over a trillion-dollar
GNP and are the wealthiest consumers in the Spanish-speaking world. Companies
are starting to realize that this shared culture and language is an opportunity
for growth and business collaboration. President Aznar himself recognized this
when he visited the major Hispanic areas of the United States, including New
York, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Florida. Over 75 percent of the U.S.
Hispanic population lives in those five states. President Aznar was welcomed
everywhere by business leaders anxious to hear how Spain and the United States
could expand business opportunities.
I believe the strong political relationship that Presidents Bush and Aznar have forged, the growing business
interest in our respective markets, our leading economies, and our strong
cultural and language ties are providing the fuel for a new era of growth in
trade and investment that is now poised to take off. As Ambassador, I want to
help facilitate these trends. They build a strong base for our political ties
and they expand on the cultural ties that help our people understand each other.
We believe that the Embassy can play a role in helping U.S. and Spanish firms
know about these opportunities and understand the business and governmental
procedures for entering the market. We can also help firms make contacts with
the business leaders of each country so they can decide for themselves how their
business ideas can add to the growth we are already seeing. That is what we are
doing today by putting you in touch with a firm that can help you enter the U.S.
market. However, let me give you some other examples of what we have seen
already in the commercial area and what we plan to help develop as part of our
Embassy efforts in the coming months.
First, U.S firms are already major actors in Spain. With over 500 firms here they account for about 7 percent
of the Spanish GNP. They employ over 170,000 people directly and over 300,000 when
you count indirect jobs. They spend over 144 million Euros on R&D and over 1.6
billion Euros on training annually. U.S. firms like GM and Ford produce over 30
percent of the cars produced here, and are the leading exporters and employers
in Zaragoza and Valencia. U.S. pharmaceutical firms account for almost 20
percent of the employment in their sector and over 16 percent of the research.
And the hits keep on coming. Recently,
Boeing established its first R&T center outside of the United States, right here
in Madrid. General Dynamics took a financially struggling Santa Barbara
industries operation and turned it into a profitable firm that recently acquired
a German competitor. Mills Corporation just completed the largest mall in Europe
that has created a boom in the southwest region of Madrid by creating
entertainment, shopping, restaurants, and thousands of new jobs.
The pace of investment is clearly
picking up: a U.S. firm, Fast Ship, has just signed an agreement with Izar to
begin working on the design of the world’s fastest cargo ships that will cut the
time for shipments between our countries almost in half; AES, a major U.S.
energy firm, will break ground on an 800 million dollar energy plant in
Cartegena next week that will bring more power to fast-growing Spain; Marriott
is building new resorts around Spain that will serve the growing tourism sector
here; and Harley Davidson is bringing new distribution centers to all corners of
the country.
Likewise we are seeing new opportunities
for Spanish firms in the United States, and we want to help you take advantage
of them. During the recent visit of President Aznar and Jeb Bush to their
Orlando facility, Indra signed a contract with the U.S. Navy as part of a 3
billion dollar project. Last month, I hosted a Texas delegation at the Embassy
that briefed leading Spanish firms on the largest state highway project in U.S.
history, valued at 150 billion – that’s billion – dollars. They came to Spain to seek the
world-class expertise of Spanish highway construction firms and the Spanish
banks that fund these projects. I expect some of these firms will be building
roads throughout Texas before too long.
To make sure that small firms are not
ignored, we have been conducting briefings for small and medium sized firms in
cities all around Spain on how to do business in the USA. We plan to do more of
these very popular briefings in the coming year.
But despite the growing competitiveness
of Spanish firms, the strong ties of our shared culture, and the strong
friendship between our two countries, we all know that business relations are
still just a fraction of their potential.
The U.S. is a 10 trillion dollar
economy, yet Spain exports only about five billion dollars in goods to the USA.
By comparison, France exports over 28 billion, Italy 24 billion, and even
Belgium exports 9.8 billion dollars worth of goods to the U.S. market. At the
same time, while Spanish firms have invested tens of billions of dollars in
Latin America, they have put less than 5 billion into the United States, a
market 5 times the size of MERCOSUR and Mexico combined.
France and the Netherlands, by contrast
have over 150 billion each invested in the United States. So the potential is
vast.
Clearly there is room for new
investments. Firms like Indra, Abegona, and Freixenet have seized these
opportunities in the U.S., and many of you, by being here today, have indicated
your desire to take a place in this market. We welcome your interest, we welcome
your expertise, and we encourage you to work with us to discover the new
opportunities that the United States presents. Yes, there is competition. Yes,
there are regulations, and there are marketing issues that are different from
those in the EU.
But let’s remember - the U.S. is the
world’s leading buyer of imported goods, purchasing over 1 billion dollars per
day more than we export. Those products come from small firms in Peru, mid-size
firms in Belgium, and large firms in India or the EU. Clearly there is room for
Spanish technology, Spanish wine – I believe there is always a place for Spanish
wine – financial services, or almonds and for the great construction firms,
banks, and media giants that have helped make Spain one of the 10 largest
economies in the world.
We will continue to do more to help. For
example, we hosted two U.S. cabinet level officials here last month, Treasury
Secretary Snow and U.S. Trade Representative Zoellick. They met with business
leaders to see how we can facilitate greater collaboration between our firms in
Iraq and greater trade and business between our two countries. Today’s program
is designed to ensure that Spanish firms know how to seize opportunities in the
U.S., and use mergers and acquisitions to enter the U.S. market. Next week, we
will host the highest private sector trade official in the U.S., Tom Donahue,
the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as he comes to expand business
opportunities here in Spain.
So we have been and will be busy, but we
want these initiatives to last. We are building a long-term base. We hope to
work with business leaders here to create a trade and investment advisory group
to identify the steps we can take to help private firms expand business between
our two countries. We are planning to work with the American Chamber in Spain to
host a major U.S. Spain Trade and Investment Summit next year. In addition, I
hope to personally join groups of Spanish firms in Texas and California early
next year as they go to explore new business oportunites. In sum, it should be
clear that the benefits of our strong bilateral relations are beginning to pay
off for the employers, innovators, and employees of both our countries. We in
the Embassy intend to do all we can to expand those benefits.
I hope that whether you look to follow
up on the opportunities presented by RSM today, to assist with our new business
council, or to work with U.S. firms here, in Latin America, Iraq, or anywhere in
the world, you will call on us and tell us how we can help. Our Commercial
Service team led by Michael Liikala stands ready to assist you in any way they
can to build the business between our two countries to a level appropriate for
two great countries, two powerful economies, and two close friends.
Thank you very much.
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