The Miami Herald | By JANE BUSSEY | November 20, 2003
A 'great timing, less filling' debate emerges at the Miami trade talks, as a compromise buys negotiators time but is attacked as 'FTAA Lite' for not resolving disputes.; FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS
BYLINE: AND GREGG FIELDS; jbussey@herald.com
BODY: Negotiators kept the Free Trade Area of the Americas effort alive Wednesday, but only by producing a compromise agreement that critics said fails to create the common market originally envisioned.
Specifically, the deal was openly called ''FTAA Lite'' by detractors because it allows countries to simply opt out of trade requirements that they find unpalatable.
''We would have preferred a more ambitious FTAA,'' Mexican Trade Minister Fernando Canales said.
Certainly, the proposed draft had its supporters, particularly the smaller island nations, which want some special treatment.
''We will still have an FTAA that can boost trade and investment in the hemisphere,'' said Richard Bernal, who is the chief trade negotiator for the Caribbean Community. ''Lite means no calories. Even if it doesn't have everything in the agreement, it's still going to give the hemisphere some calories.''
The compromise ended the impasse between the United States, which wants to retain its domestic farm subsidies, and Brazil, which objects to the intellectual property and investors' rights sought by Washington.
STILL GOING
U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick said one of the draft's achievements was, simply, to keep the FTAA process alive.
''I've never been in a negotiation where you move it forward by stopping,'' Zoellick said. ''We will be judged by the final results.''
Earlier this week, the U.S.-Brazil draft was countered by a proposal from Canada, Mexico and Chile, calling for penalties in the form of denying benefits to countries not complying with all the FTAA's fine points. They dropped their objections Tuesday night, allowing the draft document to be presented for final approval to trade ministers representing the 34 countries involved in the FTAA. Those trade ministers will convene today and Friday.
FALLS SHORT
But Wednesday, as copies of the draft were leaked, it was greeted by business leaders saying it fell short of aspirations.
''This is not the way we want to go,'' said Frank Vargo, international vice president for the National Association of Manufacturers. U.S. manufacturers generally support the FTAA because it holds the promise of opening foreign markets to American products.
Vargo said his organization -- politically influential in Congress, which ultimately must pass any FTAA treaty -- wouldn't back an agreement that fell short of business goals. ''If it is not a high-quality agreement, we are not going to support it,'' he said.
A weak draft appeared to cost the support of one influential senator.
''I'm skeptical about any FTAA agreement that establishes only a minimum base line of commitments for all participants,'' Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. ''Hemispheric integration will work only if all countries play by the same rules.''
NOT 'LITE'
But Zoellick came out swinging to defend the document.
''I don't accept your presumption that what we negotiated was an [FTAA] Lite,'' he told critics in an afternoon panel.
Zoellick, however, has signaled a certain frustration with the pace of FTAA talks, announcing he would begin negotiating one-on-one trade pacts with many of the Latin nations party to the FTAA agreement.
Although it proposes to complete negotiations by January 2005, the draft document lists only one specific deadline, of Sept. 30, 2004, to complete negotiations on tariff reductions. Deadlines for all other issues aren't mentioned.
''By doing this, they are acknowledging there is no way to get the rest of it done by the end of next year,'' said David Waskow, trade policy coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
''It's a hollow shell of an agreement. For the U.S., this is a clear rebuff,'' Waskow added.
HAVE UNDERSTANDING
But Celso Amorim, Brazil's foreign minister, insisted that this was not a Brazilian victory, saying that after a meeting Wednesday with Zoellick, ''we have a perfect understanding about what is possible to get here.''
''We didn't come here to defeat anyone,'' Amorim said. ''[This means] one step forwards, which prevents an impasse occurring.''
Trade relations between Brazil and the United States hit a low point after the collapse of global trade talks at a World Trade Organization summit in Cancun, Mexico, in September.
No one wanted a repeat of that failure in Miami, where community leaders have worked hard with President Bush's younger brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to spotlight the city as the ideal location for the permanent headquarters for the proposed FTAA.
But with the issues between the two countries so daunting, the draft document is probably the best that could be expected, said Pedro de Camargo Neto, a former top Brazilian trade negotiator.
''Both sides are going to call it a success,'' he said.
The problem, he said, is that the conflicts haven't been resolved, just papered over.
''It didn't bring a confrontation in Miami,'' he said. ''It just postponed it.''The Miami Herald:
