BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - South American leaders set a timetable Friday for creating a free trade agreement to cover South America and possibly the Caribbean.
Negotiations will begin soon to eliminate tariff barriers between the continent's six Mercosur countries and five other nations of the Andean Community trading bloc, said Ramon Rosales, Venezuela's chief delegate said.
A final agreement could be in place within a year, giving South America more clout in U.S.-led negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Rosales said.
The plan calls for a free trade zone stretching from Alaska to Patagonia, on the tip of Argentina, by 2005.
Venezuela is trying to recruit Caribbean nations to join the negotiations. "The goal is to dramatically improve the negotiation capacity of the region in the creation of FTAA," Rosales said.
The Mercosur bloc — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — has a combined gross national product of almost $1 trillion. Chile and Bolivia are associate members.
Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru belong to the Andean Community. Guyana and Suriname also have been invited to join the negotiations to eliminate tariffs.
The Mercosur and Andean Community member countries have talked about the idea for years, but the announcement Friday marks the first time they have set a date to complete the free trade agreement.
"The technical discussions are completed, and now we are entering the political arena," Rosales said.
Rosales said the delay in agreeing on a deal was caused in part by the worldwide economic slump, its repercussions across the region and Argentina's financial crisis.
Some observers doubt that a final agreement will be in place by the end of 2003, in part because the region's top political leaders have been consumed by economic and political turbulence.
"It took the Europeans 20 years to get their act together with the European Union," said Jose Luis Guerrero, a business professor and expert on South American economic issues at Georgetown University in Washington. "This is not going to happen overnight."
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.