It is good being with you. Let me first go on record saying i wholeheartedly agree with the president s change in direction. I think it is clear that over 50 years nothing has changed with the policy we had. Time says if you dont do the same thing over and over again and you get the same result. I wholeheartedly agree. I should also say that i do feel the passion of, for example, my good friend the Ranking Member of the western hemisphere, listening to his opening statement. And i would hope the kinds of questions just because the passion he has is for the people of cuba. In his opening statement, some of the quest as he has, hope it is that kind of dialogue that goes forward with some of the questions he has a trying to make sure there is a better day for the cuban people. And so in that regard, ive been down all of been to cuba several times in other places in latin america and the caribbean. And i have found that one of the major obstacles we have had in the region is on cuban polic
Naval base . That issue is not on the table with the would the it could be on our table. Would you object . I dont know the answer to that, as a matter of executive policy. Let me go on to mr. Smith. We have the cuban solidarity act that doesnt allow us to deal with Certain Properties that have been seized by americans. Youve got new regulations on travel credit cards, etc. How do you plan to make sure that american travelers arent making breaking the law from staying in hotels violating the cuban american solidarity act . One thing i should say about that, the act, what that does is you cant provide a loan or credit or provide financing to further those transactions involving confiscated property. It doesnt say you cant stay at a hotel or engage in any kind of does the Credit Card Company extend a loan when you use a credit card to pay for a hotel stay at a confiscated property . The Credit Card Company may extend the loan to the traveler. Facilitate staying at the hotel, you think th
How do you see the governors race playing out in louisiana . In terms of my timeline, it will be the next few months. My wife and i continue to think about it. As we were saying earlier, i think everybody is thinking about this. Who is the next president is not as important as what the next president does. We face serious challenges. This is an election that will be a series election, not just about who can tell the best jokes or deliver the best speech. This is a consequential election about the future direction of our country. I am not just thinking about the election but the issues and giving serious thought to where our country needs to go on energy, education, Foreign Policy, health care, and a number of other areas. I strongly encourage anyone else to do that. I dont know how you get into a race this important without giving serious thought to the issues. That is part of what im doing at this time. Trust me, when i do make a decision it will not be a , secret. Im happy to tell yo
Officers think about the world the way we do our security professionals. The general counsels are rightly worrying about things like liabilities so what will happen again if this leaks what will happen . Will this be used against us in the competition . The Government Contractor supplies something so what happens to that end is there an incentive not to reveal things because my competitors not revealing them . Antitrust questions people often raise. Those are the gc questions which i is to ask myself so they are good questions. Congress has to give comfort to those general counsels to remove those concerns from the information sharing pipeline and i think they are well underway. Thats fairly easy to fix harder to fix would be, not sex but to develop wouldbe machine speed sharing in the hardest of all frankly is the cultural impediments that i attribute to be theres a lot of people who dont want to be seen with us. I will make meet you behind the 7eleven in the dark but i dont want to b
Held the secretary, held with china in december, this was one of the issues of very much on the agenda, and weve made some progress in moving ahead on the application of antimonopoly law that we think should be applied to deal with issues of competition, not issues of industrial policy. So we are engaged with them as are our competition authorities and the ftc to work to encourage them to apply the law as its intended to be applied. I know these are tough areas. Canadas creation of a heightened standard for patentability, for pharmaceutical patents is a serious problem for our u. S. Innovators. This standard to obtain and enforce patent rights in canada. Also inconsistent with the World Trade Organization and under the nafta. We have raised this concern directly and repeatedly with the canadian authorities. That issue is now being litigated, and i believe the canadian authorities are looking to see how it proceeds in litigation as we continue that dialogue with them. Ambassador, from o