Panama pledges millions to snare FTAA headquarters

Friday, March 5, 2004

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AFP): Panama City has pledged everything from office space to deals on hotels, phones and flights, and tax-free salaries in a feverish bid to win the headquarters of the planned Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Panama is competing with the US cities of Miami, Houston and Atlanta; the Mexican cities of Cancun and Puebla; Port-of-Spain, Trinidad; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, as the home office for the FTAA due to launch next year.

Deputy foreign minister Nivia Castrellon told diplomats in a presentation here that Panama offered to hand over a major convention center as a headquarters building, with the government picking up the tab for outfitting it.

Panama also would give away 20 homes to top FTAA officials including its secretary general, most of them in "ALCA (FTAA) City," an area in the upscale former US military installations here.

FTAA officials would have all immunities enjoyed by diplomats including no taxes on their salaries, Castrellon said.

The FTAA, which would stretch from Alaska to Argentina, aims to create the world's largest free trade area, with a market of some 800 million people. Its would-be membership has a combined GDP of 13 trillion dollars.

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