Jimmy Carter: U.S. ranks lowest in giving to others

At the U.N. Development Conference in Mexico this week, former president Jimmy Carter said the U.S. should do more to help the millions of people living in poverty around the globe. President Bush today addressed the same conference, and said the recently announced $10 billion increase in U.S. aid will be used to encourage economic freedom, political liberty and human rights. CNN's Judy Woodruff spoke to Carter after Bush's announcement and asked him about the increase and if he thinks the Bush administration is doing enough on this issue.

CARTER: This administration is doing more than any administration has done in the last 20 years. And I'm deeply grateful that President Bush has taken this initiative and this bold step because I know that some key people in his administration didn't even want to increase development assistance at all.

We still have to remember, though, that the United States at this point is at the very bottom of all the rich countries in being generous to others. And this is a surprise to most Americans. We give about 1/1,000 of our gross national product to humanitarian aid in other countries, including AIDS and everything else, whereas the average European country gives almost four times that much. The Japanese give four times that much. The Scandinavian countries give seven times as much as we do.

So I think this conference in Monterrey with the wonderful expression for future support for development assistance by President Bush has been well worthwhile. What I would like to see is for the United States and Europe and Japan to be competing with each other about who can be the most reasonable in providing necessary assistance to these people.

But I think the main thing now, Judy, is to convince the American people, the citizens, to ask their Congress members to increase the generosity of our country. And I think the same thing needs to be done in Europe and Japan and other rich countries. So what we need to do now is appreciate what has been done the last few days, announced by President Bush, but not to let this be the end of it.

WOODRUFF: President Carter, I know you have said you did not want to answer any questions about Cuba because you did do an interview yesterday. But I would be, because of the historic nature of this announcement yesterday that would you be going there, I would be delinquent as a journalist not to at least ask you about it. So I did want to ask you, what you would hope to accomplish on this trip?

CARTER: Judy, we are making plans now and, as we have said, we have been invited to go to Cuba and we intend to go. But I'm not prepared at this point to give our goals and the names of people that will go or when we will go because we haven't really made those plans yet.

WOODRUFF: What is your feeling about this announcement?

CARTER: Well, as you probably would remember, when I was president, I departed from my predecessors and unfortunately my successors, in lifting all travel restraints on American citizens to go to Cuba almost immediately when I was president within a few weeks. And I also established intersections, which is one short -- one step short of full diplomatic relationships between Havana and Washington. And those intersections with staffs representing our countries have never been closed.

So I think the best way to bring about democratic changes in Cuba is obviously to have maximum commerce and trade and visitation by Americans and others who know freedom and to let the Cuban people know the advantages of freedom. That's the best way to bring about change and not to punish the Cuban people themselves by imposing an embargo on them, which makes Castro seem to be a hero because he is defending his own people against the abuse of Americans. So this is a position that I have taken for the last 20 years or more. And if and when we go to Cuba, before we go, I'll be sure to let you know about our more final plans for the trip.