Miami Herald | By Douglas Hanks III | Nov. 20, 2003
Today is the deadline for cities to join the hemispheric contest for the headquarters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
But the prize itself is getting fuzzier and fuzzier.
Facing differences with Brazil over the FTAA, the United States announced proposed trade alliances this week with six Latin American countries.
Negotiators at the Miami FTAA talks, meanwhile, proposed treaty language Wednesday that would weaken the sweeping trade rules Washington wants -- suggesting a version known in diplomatic circles as ``FTAA Lite.''
All of which raises the question: Even if the FTAA survives, will it emerge so watered down as to render the contest for its headquarters almost irrelevant?
''You'd get a Secretariat Lite, presumably,'' said Terry McCoy, director of the Latin American Business Environment program at the University of Florida.
The secretariat has emerged as the most closely watched FTAA topic for Miami, which is vying with at least eight cities for the facility. Miami's backers say the headquarters would create thousands of trade-related jobs and cement the city's image as the hub of Latin American commerce.
But people following the negotiations say a more modest trading bloc could create a much smaller headquarters -- if it needed one at all.
''I think if it's Lite, [the headquarters] might be virtual; then you won't have a particular place to go,'' said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Pepe Diaz, who works on trade issues. He added that he thought the 34 countries involved would ultimately adopt a strong FTAA.
Jobs aside, Miami has said the secretariat was mostly important for the prestige it would bring Miami -- or one of its rivals. But some question whether a weakened trading framework would carry as much cachet.
''I would have more respect for it if it was a secretariat administering a broad, comprehensive agreement,'' said Scott Otteman, director of international trade policy for the National Association of Manufacturers, which wants a strong FTAA treaty.
Florida FTAA Chairman Chuck Cobb and others counter that the looser treaty proposed Wednesday -- which would let countries opt out of FTAA rules they don't like -- could spawn an even larger bureaucracy for the headquarters, since it would have a more sprawling matrix of regulations to administer.
But corporate executives at the Americas Business Forum this week were so uncertain negotiators would produce a strong treaty that they put off recommending the regulatory powers the secretariat should have, a participant said.
There was ''doubt as to whether the treaty itself would be significant enough'' to require a strong headquarters, said Hugh Simon, a former undersecretary of state for Florida who attended this week's closed-door forum.
If the treaty is a ''big deal,'' so will the secretariat, said Peter Morici, a former chief economist of the U.S. Trade Commission now teaching at the University of Maryland. The secretariat's prestige, he said in a telephone interview, ``will be proportionate to the trade created.''
Some see the United States' bilateral efforts as the path to a breakthrough with Brazil, which wants the United States to drop domestic agriculture protection in exchange for its easing limits on foreign investment and protecting U.S. patents.
As the United States negotiates with other Latin American countries, Brazil might feel isolated and decide it needs the FTAA to remain competitive, negotiators said. So this week's events could push the FTAA closer to a strong, vibrant headquarters.
But if the secretariat stakes are getting harder to gauge, some caution against dismissing the contest altogether. Even FTAA Lite, they say, would present a trophy with plenty of bragging rights.
''It would be the World Trade Organization of this hemisphere,'' said Carl Cira, director of the Summit of the Americas Center at Florida International University. ``It's still worth fighting for that.''Miami Herald:
