JANIE LEASK: We have just a couple of minutes for questions and I have two questions. The first one is, Mr. Secretary, is NAFTA a success or a failure?

CARLOS GUTIERREZ: That's a great question. I would say to really summarize it, NAFTA has been an overwhelming success if you look at the numbers and add up the numbers and look what it has done. I don't doubt that there are some specific examples where a specific region may not have had a good experience with NAFTA, and that's unfortunate, and we have to recognize that and we have to figure out ways of helping, but overall our economy since NAFTA has grown about 44 percent. Canada's economy has grown 46 percent. Mexico's economy has grown about 37 percent.

If you look at wages, our average wages since NAFTA are up, this is in real terms since 1993, are up over 14 percent. In the 10 years before NAFTA that same number was about 6 1/2 percent. So anyway you look at it, I look at the Mexican economy, I look at the Canadian economy, I look at the U.S. economy, this is probably the most vibrant region in the world. We are growing a lot faster than the European Union so you can look at numbers and different facts that suggest NAFTA has been a very powerful thing.

Are there opportunities? Are there things we can improve? Of course. But 98 percent of NAFTA works. I believe today the amount of trade going across Canada and Mexico and the U.S. is $750 billion. That wouldn't be happening if it weren't for NAFTA. That means jobs. It means growth. It means prosperity. It means so much for the three countries.

On the question of immigration my simple answer is I think immigration would be a lot worse if we didn't have NAFTA. The Mexican economy is doing better. And I've been associated with Mexico for about 40 years. I think it's doing better than it has done in about 40 years. I've never seen Mexican inflation be below 10 percent. It is below 10 percent now. Unemployment is still high based on our standards, but it's a lot lower than it has been. So I believe NAFTA has been successful.

MS. LEASK: Thank you. I have several more now. Fisheries is really important to our state. The Commerce Department regulates Alaska's fisheries offshore. What changes are you looking for as the Magnusson Stevens Act comes up for renewal?

SEC. GUTIERREZ: Well, we are working very closely with Senator Stevens. It's something that we are -- I believe we have been close allies in the past. NOAA and Alaska, the Magnusson Stevens Act has been something that we've been very close to. I don't believe I should get into any specifics or any changes, but I can assure you that with Senator Stevens there your interests are always front and center and that we'll be working very closely with the Senator to ensure that that the Act and whatever modifications are suggested ultimately is in the interest of the people of Alaska. And I don't if Senator Stevens would like to add anything to that, but.....

SEN. TED STEVENS: As long as you're behind us we'll win.

MS. LEASK: Thank you. Another fish question. The Department of Commerce has moved its aquaculture bill to Congress, this permits fish farming in federal waters. How will this help Alaska? And as you will soon know wild fish is terribly important to this state and.....

SEC. GUTIERREZ: Yes. I received my first lecture on wild salmon when I ate it in the Senate cafeteria. You may not know, but in the Senate cafeteria they make it a point of saying wild salmon, so I know (Applause). I know how important it is to you. I know how important it is and not just to your economy but also symbolically. And it's a very important issue and it's not an easy issue.

On one hand as a country I believe we are importing farm raised salmon. Maybe not to this region, but we are importing salmon from other parts of the world. And I think we have to just step back and say well, let's be thoughtful about it, how can we not impact the wild salmon here and how can we not impact the economy. There's no question the prices you get for wild salmon are a lot, a lot better than the prices you would get for farm raised salmon.

So all those issues we understand, but we do have this deficit in trade where we are in parts of the country importing farmed raised salmon, so somehow we've got to get our heads around that. And again, we will do it with Senator Stevens and we will do it in a way that reflects your interest, but it is an important topic, and it is one we should be talking about.

MS. LEASK: The G8 countries are meeting today on climate change. Can you explain the U.S. position and what the U.S. is doing to respond to climate change in the arctic?

SEC. GUTIERREZ: Well, this is also a big topic, and I know that a lot of different points of view. I know that when Kyoto came up and the President decided not to sign the Kyoto agreement the amount of money that that would have cost the economy without really knowing where it was going and where it was leading and the way the numbers were being measured and the targets that were being given to our country versus the targets that other countries had. And then it gets into the kind of base they were starting from, believe me, the more I look at Kyoto it was a right decision to say we are not going to sign up because we deliver on our commitments and this is not a commitment that's good for our country.

There's a lot of research going on today on global climate. The big question, I believe, and the President has made this distinction is that climate change is occurring, the greenhouse emissions are growing, and the question is how was that caused and who is causing that, and how much is man made and how much can we stop, how can we stop it. And all those questions, I think, are critical before we start spending billions and billions of dollars.

So I believe that what the President has said here, let's know what we're doing instead of throwing billions and billions around, let's do the research. Let's know where we have to put the money, how best to utilize it, what kind of outcomes to expect, and then we can be a bit more strategic and a bit more targeted. Like anything else the less we make this an emotional issue and the more we make this a scientific thoughtful issue I think the better off we'll be. But today they are talking about it in G8 and we'll see what declarations come out of that meeting.

MS. LEASK: And just one final question is how do you view Alaska's role in global commerce? More specifically the value of our strategic location.

SEC. GUTIERREZ: Well, I think that's a great question and I think that's the kind of question that I'm glad you're asking it here. I travel to a lot of states, talk about the amount of trade being done in those states. And you would be surprised. There's some states that are doing $8 million of exports, say, to the Central American region. Now you're far away from Central America, but I think a lot of that has to do with local businesses having a hunger to grow, understanding your strategic locations, your wonderful ports, your wonderful access to countries and markets that we typically wouldn't have access to in other states. And we have offices here that help exports happen, foreign commercial service offices, export assistance centers. I believe there's one in Anchorage that could help export, but I would just -- I think Alaska has all the potential in the world.

And opening up markets is so important for our country so I would urge you to just look at exports as growth and growth strategies. And anything we can do at Commerce that's what we're there for. We are there to help American companies export more. Our exports were up 13 percent last year so we're doing something right, but we'd like to get that higher. Let's get it up to 15. Now we're talking about a 1 trillion dollar base. We already export $1 trillion from the U.S. and we're doing that at 12, 13 percent. We can do so much more. And I believe Alaska is so primed to do a lot in the area of export. So at that's a vague way of saying that we believe in your potential and we are ready to serve any time. Anything we can do to help, please call on us. And, again, you have someone in Washington that knows how to get through to the Commerce Department very easily, so let us know. Thank you. (Applause)

MS. LEASK: We appreciate your remarks this morning, Mr. Secretary, and we have a token of our appreciation for it being your first trip to Alaska, and we hope you come back again.

SEC. GUTIERREZ: Thank you.

MS. LEASK: You're welcome. And we also hope that you catch the appropriately sized fish.

In closing I would like to thank Jo-Li Sellin and the Wells Fargo Bank for underwriting today's event. I apologize for those questions that I was not able to answer (sic), not able to answer, not able to ask. And in closing I hope that you will spend a couple of moments talking with your fellow Commonwealth North members. And for the guests I hope you will consider joining our organization. There's information by the door. Thank you all for coming. Enjoy the beautiful day that we have out there. And we stand adjourned. Thank you.

(END OF PROCEEDINGS)