The Miami Herald | By JANE BUSSEY | October 29, 2003
Only if the United States makes major concessions on the politically charged issue of farm subsidies will the Western Hemisphere be able to craft a Free Trade Area of the Americas, several leading regional trade analysts agreed Tuesday.
The consensus by Brazilian Ambassador Rubens Barbosa, Inter-American Dialogue President Peter Hakim and Argentine International Trade Secretary Martin Redrado came early in The Herald's 2003 Americas Conference, which opened Tuesday morning at The Biltmore in Coral Gables.
The conference is to continue today, focusing on the question of the FTAA, a proposed trade pact among 34 countries in the hemisphere and the numerous economic and political challenges facing the region.
But the Tuesday morning panel discussion highlighted how difficult it will be for the United States and its hemispheric neighbors to strike a regional deal.
Negotiators representing the 34 nations will come to a meeting of trade ministers for the proposed FTAA in Miami next month sharply divided on how to close the gap.
Washington -- contending that it makes no sense to make agriculture concessions in a regional agreement when the European Union, Japan and others still subsidize agriculture -- has insisted that any discussion of reducing farm subsidies be carried out inside the 148-member World Trade Organization. U.S. officials, however, have said they would be willing to discuss other types of subsidies, such as export credits.
Even more significant for U.S. negotiators is this: No trade bill has been approved by Congress without the support of members from the farm states.
The panel discussion -- titled ''Will There Be an FTAA?'' -- began with questions posed by moderator James Bacchus, a former Florida congressman and the chairman of the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body.
''Should there be an FTAA? Will there be an FTAA?'' Bacchus asked. ''When will there be an FTAA? . . . Could approval of an FTAA be secured in Congress?''
Each ensuing yes answer was accompanied by a caveat.
''Yes, there will be an FTAA, provided that all the participants show a degree of realism and pragmatism in the negotiations,'' Barbosa said. 'We are beginning to discuss an 'FTAA Possible.' ''
At the Nov. 20-21 meeting in Miami, the trade ministers are expected to seek agreement on guidelines for the final stage of negotiations. The meeting is scheduled to take place even as the differences between Brazil and the United States are becoming evermore apparent.
Hakim, who leads Inter-American Dialogue, a research and lobbying group in Washington, said the FTAA was running into trouble because it was a ''front-burner'' issue in neither the United States nor Brazil, lacking the urgency required to gain congressional approval of tough trade legislation.
''I don't get the sense of enthusiasm in Washington for an FTAA, the sense that this has to get done,'' Hakim said. ''In Brazil, the business community is divided.''
Washington must make concessions on its agricultural subsidies, he said, warning: ''Without movement on agriculture, the FTAA will be a very weak agreement.''
Argentina's Redrado seconded Hakim on the farm-subsidy issue and placed the weight on the United States. The FTAA, he said, is but one of seven negotiations Argentina is undertaking as part of an export renaissance following its 2002 economic implosion.
''What is the U.S. prepared to do with export subsidies, with export credits? We need to have a realistic approach. We need to have a response to the failure of Cancun,'' Redrado said, referring to the collapse of a global trade conference in Mexico at the beginning of September.
Barbosa said Brazil would prefer a regional trade agreement but had accepted that the United States has changed its strategy and is now negotiating bilateral trade agreements with such countries as the Dominican Republic or with the five Central American nations.
He added that Brazil would not accept labor or environmental conditions that include sanctions on countries and urged the participants to accept Brazil's proposal of a compensation fund to aid the region's smaller, struggling economies.The Miami Herald:
