Miami Herald | By JANE BUSSEY | October 1, 2003
America's top trade official called Tuesday on Brazil and its Mercosur partners to move ahead with full trade liberalization or a step-by-step process.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick stopped by Miami on his way to Central America to receive a briefing on the hemispheric trade ministers' meeting scheduled for Miami next month.
His trip to three Central American countries is an attempt to smooth some politically sensitive issues as the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement negotiations head into the final stretch.
He also wants to highlight some of the potential business, educational and other opportunities that flow from integration, Zoellick said in an interview with The Herald. The United States is negotiating a trade agreement with five Central American nations: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Zoellick's visit coincided with a crucial moment for negotiations for the bigger Free Trade Area of the Americas, a proposed free-trade zone that would encompass all the countries in the Western Hemisphere, except Cuba. Miami community leaders are seeking that the city be chosen as the future FTAA headquarters.
After diplomatic skirmishes between Washington and Brasilia in the World Trade Organization talks that ended without agreement in Cancun, Mexico, on Sept. 14, the two countries now must accommodate each other on equally thorny issues in the FTAA talks.
Deputy trade ministers from the region are meeting in Trinidad and Tobago until the end of the week to discuss the objectives for the Miami meeting and other groundwork being prepared for what is supposed to be the final year of FTAA negotiations.
But Zoellick insisted that the United States was committed to hemispheric free trade: ''The question is, for Brazil and Mercosur: Can there be a meeting of the minds that [will allow us to] move toward trade liberalization or a multistage process?''
The trade negotiator, one of the Bush administration's most visible officials dealing with Latin America, said he was not talking about ''FTAA Lite,'' as many have dubbed the idea of a scaled back FTAA.
''When you are covering 34 countries, there can be elements that you can do at multiple stages,'' he said.
As an example, he said, while Brazil was reluctant to negotiate a full investment accord, it was willing to discuss some investment rules.
Zoellick went on to criticize some countries for substituting rhetoric for compromise in Cancun, and he said that, after the meeting, his Argentine colleague called him and offered to take the ''can-do'' approach to free trade.
Miami is competing against Atlanta as well as Trinidad and Tobago's Port of Spain, Mexico's Puebla and Panama's Panama City to be the headquarters for the secretariat. Washington has not endorsed Miami, but Zoellick called the administration supportive of the city's efforts to be considered the hemispheric gateway.
''To me, the best strategy is to showcase Miami,'' he said. ''Miami is its own best endorsement.''Miami Herald:
