The Miami Herald | By ALEJANDRO LANDES | November 20, 2003
The Brazilian press wasn't amused by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's comments Tuesday when he announced a U.S. plan to begin trade negotiations with Andean countries.
According to Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo, Zoellick was being ''spiteful'' when he said, ''My Brazilian colleagues talk about multilateral accords, and well, this is a type of multilateral accord.''
The Brazilian daily was also bothered by what it described as Zoellick's ''ironic comment'' that ''U.S. commerce with Central America and the Dominican Republic is greater than U.S. commerce with Brazil.''
'SUBMISSIVE'
The Brazilian reports did not stop there and pointed to the ''submissive'' attitude of the Andean countries while Zoellick ''lectured'' Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia on the requirements necessary for negotiating free-trade agreements with the United States.
According to Folha de Sao Paulo, Ecuador's Minister of Trade, Ivonne A-Baki, sang ''odes of love to free trade to the point where she said it was good for fighting terrorism.''
PANAMA AS BELGIUM
Panamanian Vice Foreign Minister Nivia Rossana Castrellon bids to make Panama the ''Belgium'' of the Americas.
Castrellon says Panama's small size and neutrality should make it the preferred site of the FTAA secretariat.
The vice minister told Panama's daily La Prensa that granting Panama the secretariat would reinforce the idea that small countries will also have a voice in a trade agreement that would include colossal economies like Brazil and the United States.
Secretariat favorites Atlanta, Miami and Panama City have submitted their petitions, but the Caribbean favorite, Port-of-Spain, has yet to present its bid.
ARGENTINE PRESSURE
Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa was pressured by prominent anti-FTAA activists before flying to Miami to attend the conference.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aldolfo Perez Esquivel and founding members of the human rights organization Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo met with Bielsa on Wednesday and told him ''an FTAA would bring more misery, hunger and unemployment.''
According to Argentina's La Nacion, the leading anti-FTAA activists arrived at the Foreign Ministry meeting with hundreds of fellow protesters carrying signs that read ''No to FTAA, Yes to Life.''
BRAZILIANS ARRIVE
Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, accompanied by six other Brazilian ministers arrived Wednesday at the FTAA meeting in Miami.
According to Clovis Rossi's column in Folha de Sao Paulo on Wednesday, the Bush administration has labeled Amorim as the ''ideological'' enemy of the FTAA. Amorim was strongly criticized for his uncompromising stance at the September World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun, Mexico.The Miami Herald:
