Press Briefing by Dana Perino and Mark Dybul, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.

WASHINGTON -- James S. Brady Briefing Room

1:40 P.M. EST

MS. PERINO: It's been our great pleasure to work with Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News. And today is her last day covering the White House full-time, and so we wish you the very best in your -- (applause.)

MS. PERINO: Maybe you can knock some sense into Congress while you are up there. But it's been a true pleasure; the President and Mrs. Bush have enjoyed having you here, all of your colleagues have, and I speak on behalf of the press office and I'm sure the sentiment is felt in the room.

MS. O'DONNELL: Thank you very much.

Q Speech. (Laughter.)

MS. PERINO: I have one announcement and then I have a special guest to introduce. Today U.S. Trade Representative Schwab announced a groundbreaking proposal as part of the Doha negotiations to increase trade for environmental goods and services, with priority action on technologies directly linked to addressing climate change and energy security. This is something the President has been talking about for a while, and so has Secretary Paulson over at Treasury.

By eliminating these tariffs and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services -- particularly clean energy technology such as solar panels, wind turbines, fuel cells -- we can lower their costs and increase global access and use of these products around the world. This initiative is the result of the President's commitment earlier this year to work with nations to eliminate the tariffs and other barriers to trade and clean energy technologies, and we certainly celebrate that decision.

My guest today is Ambassador and Dr. Mark Dybul, from the State Department. He runs the President's Emergency Plan for AID [sic] Office at the State Department. As you know, today is World AIDS Day. We are celebrating -- we are mourning loss of life, but also celebrating the fact that many people are able to survive and live with this disease. And so we have a special ribbon that is out front of the White House today; it will be up through Sunday. It's eight feet wide and 28 feet tall; it was quite a feat to get it up there and we're very glad it is.

The President has already given remarks, but I've invited Ambassador Dybul here to answer a few of your questions and then I'll finish up. Mark.