April 28, 2008

THE PRESIDENT: It is my honor to welcome the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum¹ here to Washington. First of all, I want to thank my friend, President Lula, for encouraging this forum to go forward. It's an indication of the importance that we both place on our bilateral² relations. Brazil is a very powerful, very important country in our neighborhood, and it's really important for this administration and future administrations to work closely with the Brazilian government, like it is important for our respective business communities to work closely together.

I do want to thank you all very much for putting forward a list of recommendations. I'm looking forward to our discussion. As I understand, the list of recommendations includes a successful Doha Round, as well as a bilateral tax treaty and a bilateral investment treaty. One of the things I will share with the Brazilian CEOs is that I strongly support a successful Doha Round, and our government will work closely with Brazil to get that done. And secondly³, in terms of our bilateral policy, I also strongly, as does my administration, support a bilateral tax treaty and a bilateral investment treaty.

Relations between our two countries are very positive and they're very important. And so, thank you all for coming. Please give my best regards to President Lula. Thank you for being here.

END 1:58 P.M. EDT