Reuters / By Doug Palmer
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Western Hemisphere trade officials, after a week of intense negotiation, on Saturday set Jan. 1, 2005 as a target date for reaching an agreement to create the world's largest free trade zone stretching from Canada to Chile.
In an unprecedented move, top trade officials representing 34 nations in North and South America and the Caribbean, also pledged to release the current draft text of the pact in response to labor, environment and consumer advocacy groups' calls for transparency in trade negotiations.
Once completed, the Free Trade Area of the Americas will link nearly 800 million people, or about 15 percent of the world's population. The region produced more than $11.4 trillion in goods and services in 1999 and about $2.7 trillion in cross-border trade.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said ministers also agreed to a Dec. 31, 2005 target date for the FTAA to enter into force. He expressed hope the momentum from this week's meeting would help launch global trade talks at the World Trade Organization's next meeting in Qatar in November.
"I think what you'll see over the months and years is a competition in trade liberalization," Zoellick said.
Canadian International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew told reporters the draft text of the FTAA agreement would be released once it has been translated into the four official languages of the FTAA: Spanish, English, Portuguese and French.
That could be as early as the April 20-22 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.
"I honestly believe that international trade negotiations will never be the same," Pettigrew said referring to the decision to release the draft text of the pact.
FINE-TUNING ORIGINAL DEADLINE
Coming into the week, the United States had supported a Chilean proposal that would have pushed up completion of the pact to 2003, from the goal set six years ago of 2005.
But Zoellick expressed satisfaction with the agreement to fine-tune the original deadline, noting "there's been a loose date of 2005 that's been subject to multiple interpretations" of when an agreement is actually due.
In a similar vein, Zoellick said a decision to start negotiations on tariff reductions by no later than May 15, 2002 was a reasonable compromise, even though the United States had wanted those talks to begin on Jan. 1.
Ministers also pledged to decide by April 1, 2002 -- or five months later than the United States proposed -- on the basic terms and definitions for the talks aimed at reducing tariffs to zero over a period of ten to 15 years.
Zoellick said the additional time would help the region's poorer economies prepare for the talks.
The United States and Canada, as well as the Inter-American Development Bank, also promised to provide technical support and aid for those countries, which include many in the Caribbean.
Brazil, which had strongly resisted an earlier completion deadline, also said it was satisfied with the Jan. 1, 2005 target date, but not with the substance of this week's meeting.
"Once the U.S. has trade promotion authority, the U.S. won't have an excuse to not make a better offer," Brazil's chief negotiator Jose Alfredo Graca Lima told reporters. "But it depends on what kind of fast track the U.S. gets."
The White House has not had trade promotion authority, previously know as fast track, since April 1994.
Without the authority, U.S. negotiators do not have a free hand because Congress could change any agreement they make.
Throughout the week, Brazil and other Latin American countries have pressed for a commitment from the United States to negotiate on reductions to its domestic farm payments and changes to its anti-dumping laws.
The United States has argued that both are global issues that should be handled in the WTO.
Zoellick, who faces pressure from many sides on the issue, told reporters he still hopes to work out a compromise on controversial labor and environment concerns to win congressional approval of trade promotion authority by the end of the year.
(with additional reporting by Gilbert Le Gras):
