Associated Press | By JOHN PAIN | November 20, 2003
The top trade officials from 34 nations are inching closer to binding their countries in what would be the world's largest free trade area.
But some countries complained that the draft agreement the trade ministers will take up Thursday is watered down from the original concept of the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Deputy trade ministers from every country in the Americas, except Cuba, began work on the draft last weekend, and their bosses will try to finalize it in two days of talks ending Friday.
The draft adopts a buffet-style version of an agreement that would let countries opt out of controversial rules, allowing them to avoid bogging down in disputes. The proposal speaks in generalities and doesn't specify which parts of the FTAA agreement countries could opt out of.
Brazil and the United States first offered the draft in meetings earlier this month, possibly to avoid fights like those that caused World Trade Organization talks to collapse in September.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick denied that his country was backing away from creating an agreement that would tear down all trade barriers from Alaska to Argentina. He even called the buffet comparison inaccurate.
"I look at it as a full-course dinner, but each country has to decide how much to eat with each course," he said Wednesday.
Canada, Chile, Mexico and several Caribbean countries had pushed for a more specific FTAA text.
The agreement should include topics like services, investment, agricultural subsidies and anti-dumping measures, said Mario Matus, director of bilateral economic issues at the Chilean Foreign Ministry.
Canada's international trade minister, Pierre Pettigrew, said he was satisfied with the draft because it was a "long way from where we were." However, he acknowledged that the "commitment could be shallow."
The United States and Brazil pushed to exclude certain sensitive areas from the FTAA agreement even before this week's talks began.
The Bush administration has tried to keep negotiations on cutting U.S. subsidies to American farmers at the global level through the World Trade Organization and not have them part of the FTAA. Brazil has done the same with discussions on investment and intellectual property rights.
Also Wednesday, the ministers in Miami heard recommendations from business leaders and the public, including globalization opponents.
The FTAA proposal also is drawing criticism from anti-globalization activists, a mix of environmentalists and union activists. More than 10,000 FTAA opponents are expected to march through Miami's streets Thursday.
Seven anti-globalization activists opposed to the talks were arrested on burglary charges Wednesday when they were found at a mansion once owned by a department store chain's founders, police said. The suspects were carrying metal chains and gas masks, police said.Associated Press:
