FTAA will be a tough sell for Bush at summit

by Michael Langan

Sunday, January 11, 2004

CRAWFORD, USA (AFP): A US hard-sell of plans for a Free Trade Area of the Americas will hit some turbulence at Monday's Summit of the Americas in Mexico, as some leaders balk at the notion that free trade can cure their countries' worsening social ills.

The United States wants to use the summit to focus on a coordinated fight against terrorism, crushing corruption and building the free trade it sees as key to economic growth.

But Latin American nations, nearly half of whose peoples live in poverty, are much more worried about social problems that undercut their stability. Unlike US President George W. Bush, many leaders have not been won over to the idea that trade gains will address the needs of millions of the poor swiftly enough.

Meanwhile, the United States, European Union and many Asian nations are scrambling to increase trade with the natural resource-rich region, to which the United States has long had the closest economic ties.

Bush hunkered down at his Texas ranch here Saturday with key aides including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice ahead of the Monday-Tuesday Summit in the industrial Mexican city of Monterrey.

Negotiations on the FTAA, which aims to create the world's largest free trade area with a market of some 800 million people, are up against a 2005 deadline.

And in November, FTAA negotiators unveiled an interim deal dramatically scaling back the original plan for a free trade bloc of 34 nations agreed to back in 1994.

The result is a face-saving "FTAA a la carte," in which the United States reaches out to individual countries ready for free trade to underscore some progress, and shows flexibility with those unwilling or unable to join the group by the 2005 deadline.

Washington wants to ensure further ground is not lost.

The United States has free trade with Mexico and Canada under NAFTA. And it has negotiated a deal with Chile. US officials are in the final stages of negotiating a free trade deal with Central American countries.

And US officials will begin free trade talks next year with members of the Andean Community -- Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia -- as well as with Panama.

But if there was greater regional consensus when FTAA plans got off the ground in 1994 under then president Bill Clinton, Bush's government has embraced greater unilateralism, even as the left has seen rising political influence in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Brazil had long fought to slow down the pace of FTAA plans, saying it wanted to consolidate its Mercosur subregional trade bloc with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay before opening up to the FTAA.

Talks on a final summit statement were bogged down over a US drive to make the include a clause on countries' reaffirming support for the FTAA, and on language about the fight against corruption, sources told AFP Friday in Mexico.

The US bid to include a clause on countries' commitment to the FTAA was the source of considerable disagreement, a source said as the talks ended Friday with no deal.

Brazil and Venezuela have been staunchly opposed to the US move to make a sort of FTAA lockstep part of the summit declaration, a source involved in preparatory meetings told AFP Friday.

Bush is scheduled to meet with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the Monterrey talks.

He is not due to meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, though Venezuela is a key US oil supplier. Chavez has riled the United States with its close ties to Cuba's Fidel Castro, and harsh criticism of the US-led war in Iraq.

The summit as a whole aims to tackle tough issues, including growth with equity, democratic rule and social development. But while the goals may be ambitious, consensus on how to achieve them is elusive. 

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