CARACAS (AP) - Venezuela demanded Thursday that Washington make a proposal for a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone less risky for the region's poor countries.
Competition between Venezuelan companies and powerful U.S. and Canadian businesses under the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas "would be like a fight between a 12-year-old boy and Cassius Clay," said Chavez, referring to the boxer also known as Muhammad Ali.
"The FTAA is a colonialist project," said Chavez, who frequently rails against the dangers of free trade and emphasizes state participation in Venezuela's economy.
"We are going to lead a battle there," President Hugo Chavez told a group of government officials and business leaders Thursday.
"We are negotiating there."
Leaders from 34 countries in the Americas are slated to discuss the proposed FTAA during talks from Sunday to Friday in Miami.
Scheduled to go into effect in 2005, the FTAA could become be the world's largest free-trade zone, stretching from Alaska to the southern tip of South America.
But many Latin American countries, including Brazil and Venezuela, have demanded the proposal be reformed to eliminate subsidies and tariffs that protect U.S. farmers against cheap imports.
Those subsidies and tariffs would make it virtually impossible for poor Latin American farmers to compete fairly with giant U.S. firms, argued Chavez.
Chavez said Venezuelan Commerce Minister Wilmar Castro, who is slated to represent his government at the talks in Miami, will maintain Venezuela's firm position against the FTAA proposal as it stands.
A fierce critic of globalization, Chavez has established programs granting low-interest loans to poor farmers so Venezuela, which imports roughly 60 per cent of its food can ease dependence on foreign imports.
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