Gazeta Mercantil Online | October 20, 2003
An accord could be concluded Wednesday under which the United States would maintain bilateral accords. The speech is being awaited with great expectation that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will make today, in Brasilia in a siminar on "The Role of the Legislators in the FTAA," promoted by the Brazilian Congress and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino), with the presence of politicians from all over the continent and its American co-negotiator, Peter Allegeier. Since Chancellor Celso Amorim is in India, interum foreign relations minister Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes will participate in the debates. In an interview with this newspaper, Argentine political analyst Rosendo Fraga said that the FTAA of 2005 will be "light" like Brazil wants, supported by Argentina. "The FTAA is going to be a mutual accord, in the midst of which the United States will maintain more advanced bilateral accords than those of the light FTAA," Fraga forecast. Besides the political aspect, the stratigical alliance between Brazil and Argentina in order to confront the USA in the FTAA negotiations is oriented by commercial pragmatism. The United States adn Argentina are Brazil's principal partners in the FTAA, whether in exports or imports of capital goods, intermediate goods or consumer goods. And more, the two countries are the biggest buyers of Brazilian capital goods, products of aggregate value on the country's list of exports. In the opinion of Marcos Jank, president of the Institute of International Trade and Negotiations (Icone), which has provided supplemental information to the governor in its WTO agriculture negotiations, "it still is possible to create constructive positions to convince our neighbors to support us." Jank suggests that in the FTAA Brazil defends an agricultural safeguard measure so that the countries hurt by the American subsidies (in grain and oilseeds) - Andean and Central American - to protect themselves. American ambassador to Brazil Donna Hrinak said there is space to deal with the themes like antidumping and subsidies in the FTAA. (Maria Helena Tachinardi, Gazeta Mercantil - Translated by James Bruce)Gazeta Mercantil Online:
