FTAA deadline in question

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

GEORGETOWN, Guyana: CARICOM countries are expected to maintain their unified position at the upcoming Eighth Ministerial Meeting of the Free Trade Areas of the Americas scheduled for Miami on November 20-21.

At the just concluded special session of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), Trade Ministers examined the range of issues being negotiated. 

One fundamental concern for the region is the establishment of a Regional Integration Fund (RIF). The region has been pushing for such a fund since 1995 and it is expected that it will take a stand on the issue at the Miami meeting. 

According to Guyana's Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Clement Rohee, it is likely that the Region will insist that one or two paragraphs of the Ministerial Declaration coming out of the Miami meeting be dedicated to the RIF.

Rohee noted that talks on the other issues are not likely to go very far without the inclusion of the Fund, seeing its importance to the vulnerable economies of the FTAA.

The date for the implementation of the FTAA has been set at January 2005, but according to the Trade Minister, that deadline seems doubtful at this time. Rohee noted that while there has been no indication that the 2005 deadline has been shifted, debate on the issue is two-fold.

One position calls for the scope of the negotiations to be reduced so as to meet the deadline, while the other calls for the deadline to be extended.

Two of the largest economies in the negotiations, United States and Brazil hold different positions and while CARICOM may be in favour of reducing the scope of the negotiations, no decision has been taken.

According to Rohee, CARICOM is heading into the Miami meeting better prepared but with reservations that it will not reach with the kind of success it is hoping for.

Some are of the view that a number of issues being dealt with at the FTAA negotiations including agriculture, government procurement and investment, should be addressed at the World Trade Organisation.

  Back...

  Most popular articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed

  Printable version