Interview on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation With Susan Bonner

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you.

QUESTION: This is your first visit to Canada as Secretary of State and you spoke extensively this morning about the importance of the relationship between the two countries. You visited 39 countries before coming here. What should Canadians make of the timing?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I have had multiple opportunities to talk with Minister Pettigrew, of course when we were in New York. We've met on the margins of a number of meetings. And I was scheduled to come here once before and had to cancel, so I had planned, in fact, to do Canada somewhat earlier. But I'm here now and I expect I'll be back many more times.

QUESTION: Did you cancel because of the failure of --

SECRETARY RICE: No, I had a scheduling problem in Washington. But I absolutely plan to be here a number of times while I'm Secretary of State.

QUESTION: I'm sure that in your day and a half here now you have a very strong impression of the importance and the intensity surrounding the softwood lumber dispute between the two countries. Have you heard anything in your time here that will encourage you to go back home and advocate a different position for the U.S.?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I have advocated all along that this can be negotiated and I think we still have room to negotiate. It's going to take both sides to decide that we want a negotiated settlement to the situation.

I've been very clear here in my discussions, though, that we need to keep this all in perspective. I know that it's a very important issue for a part of Canada. It's an important issue to the Canadian Government. It's an important issue to us. But it is also a small part of our trade and we have solved many, many trade issues, many trade disputes within NAFTA, without difficulty.

It is also -- trade -- a small part of a really very broad relationship. Not only are we each other's largest trading partners, we of course are partners in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in the war on terrorism, in Haiti, in the hemisphere. And so this is a very broad relationship and we need to keep this in perspective.

QUESTION: Fair enough. But may I ask you, on the issue of negotiating, has not Canada and the United States -- they have negotiated. They negotiated the free trade agreement. Included in that is a dispute settlement mechanism demanded by the United States. Why won't the U.S. follow the rule of law?

SECRETARY RICE: We are following the rule of law. And again, I think apocalyptic language that impugns the integrity of one side or another is not helpful, and I've said that to my counterparts here. We have a trade dispute. We see this differently. We can work through it. We've had any number of trade issues that we've worked through.

When I first came to Canada as National Security Advisor, we had the potato wart problem and we were able to work our way through that. We and Canada are friends. We share values. We share a long common border. Our people are in constant interchange with one another. It's not surprising that we're going to have trade disputes, even very difficult ones, from time to time. But it should not be used to characterize that somehow the relationship has gone astray because we are dealing with a trade dispute. I am quite certain that we will be able to resolve this.

QUESTION: On the issue of passports and the requirement that passports be required by 2008 at all border crossings, some concern expressed on both sides of the border over that issue. Is that a done deal or will that be reviewed?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we are looking for what kind of flexibility we have in the law for what kind of identification can be used. We understand that there is a lot of movement between Canada and the United States; indeed, when the former Governor of Texas, President Bush, looked at how the law would be implemented, he too said can't we find some flexibility in the law, because he's accustomed to people going back and forth between Texas and Mexico and he directed Secretary Chertoff and me to see what we could do.

I have to note that after September 11th we've been very concerned about our borders and concerned that there be identification if people are going to cross the border. But we're looking to make this as easy as possible for people who want to go across the border for all the right reasons while securing the border at the same time. I think we will find a reasonable solution for this.

QUESTION: And quickly on another border issue, the issue of guns making their way across the border from the United States into Canada, the Prime Minister asking for your help to try to stop that. What kind of assurances could you give him on that?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it's a shared responsibility. We need to do this on both sides of the border. And as I said to the Prime Minister and to others, of course, we're concerned about gun violence. Of course, Canada has also a gun industry in Canada and I'm quite certain that you're concerned about the spread of guns from that industry as well as what may cross the border.

We are working with Canada, for instance, in joint investigations. We have 40 ongoing joint investigations. We have a hub at Toronto for training and for the sharing of information. We're sharing technology on tracing of firearms. So we are doing a lot. We'd like to do as much as possible because smuggling of firearms is an international problem. It's a problem on our border. It's a problem on a number of borders.

We also need to worry on our borders so that terrorists are not able to cross. We need to be concerned about the potential trade in dangerous materials. And so that's why Canada, I think, is a part of the Proliferation Security Initiative so that we can track potentially dangerous materials and weapons of mass destruction.

We have a lot of work to do on our borders, but we have mechanisms to do that and I'm sure that if we work together we can make our borders safer.

QUESTION: We don't have a lot of time and I'm sorry to be jumping subjects like this so quickly, but I want to ask you about your role as your country's chief diplomat. Many see you as someone who is trying to steer U.S. foreign policy onto a more internationalist track. Do you see any role for Canada in assisting you with that, and if so, where?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, Canada already plays a very important role internationally. Canada is a fantastic partner in Afghanistan and getting ready to take on even more responsibility in Afghanistan. Canada has been generous with the Iraqi people. We didn't agree about the war, but we do agree that a democratic and stable Iraq would be a tremendous benefit for the international community; and so Canada has been generous with reconstruction support, with support for the UN elections teams there and also in the training of policemen. We have, of course, a very close relationship in Haiti. Canada is a part of the Core Group on Haiti.

So there are many ways in which Canada is already playing a role and I know out of the international policy paper that the Prime Minister has asked for and that now has been published that Canada will play an even bigger role.

QUESTION: One final question, if I may. You spoke today about the death of Rosa Parks. May I ask you what she meant to you personally?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I was a little girl in Birmingham, Alabama, and of course, I remember segregated buses. And Mrs. Parks, the year after I was born, as she said, just got sick and tired of being sick and tired, and she just refused to give up her seat. And she really sparked inspirationally a whole generation of people who refused any longer to be denied the freedoms that they deserved.

I'll always remember her as a quiet and dignified woman, but also as a symbol of how individuals make a difference. And we tend to think sometimes of the great sweep of history, the great movements of history, but very often it's an individual that inspires people, and she inspired a lot of people.

QUESTION: You speak of an inspiration. Many people see you as an inspired choice for potential presidential candidacy. Would you be open to that?

SECRETARY RICE: I think I wouldn't be very inspired. I never ran for anything, not even for high school president. No, I know my place and we have an exceptional opportunity now in these exceptional days to try and, through our shared values with places like Canada and Great Britain and other countries, to help others who have been denied liberty and freedom to find that liberty and freedom, and that's what I'd like to devote my energies to.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, nice to talk to you. Thanks very much.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you.

2005/T17-3