MIAMI - After nine years of stalled talks, trade ministers hoping to create a massive free trade zone from Alaska to Cape Horn agreed Thursday night to settle for a more modest Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The objections of Brazil, the largest economy in South America, prevented the creation of a comprehensive NAFTA-style agreement for the 34 countries in North, Central and South America.
U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick agreed to a dramatically reduced plan that would see only the minimum of trade concessions, such as tariff reductions on industrial goods, included in an FTAA that is to be in place by January 2005.
"Economies are different in the early 2000s than they were in the 1990s," he said as he attempted to wrap up the three-day talks Thursday night. "We each have our own politics to deal with."
The ministers met behind a heavy cordon of police which kept at bay a smaller-than-expected crowd of protesters.
There were only minor -- but dramatic -- confrontations as an overwhelming Miami police force kept anti-globalization protesters far from the downtown hotel where ministers were meeting. Tear gas was used and 37 protesters had been arrested Thursday night.
International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Canada was successful in ensuring the original concept of the FTAA was not "watered down" so much that it would be meaningless.
"In past weeks there have been some attempts to water down the FTAA," he told reporters, adding that Canada, Mexico and Chile have been successful so far in keeping key items on the negotiating table.
For Canada, they include trade in services such as banking and foreign investment among countries in Central and South America.
"Canada is pleased that no subject is eliminated from the FTAA," he said.
The new negotiating process calls for a two-tiered schedule which allows Latin American countries to include some basic concessions, such as allowing foreign imports at greatly reduced tariffs.
At the same time, they would get limited access to the U.S. market, the largest in the world and considered the major prize among developing Latin American countries.
The second tier allows smaller countries to keep off the table more sensitive sectors such as agriculture and protection for their intellectual property. Many countries in Latin American do not try to prevent bootlegging of commercial software.
Pettigrew admitted the concession he had to make was allowing Latin American countries more time to make deeper concessions, likely well past the January 2005 deadline set in 1994 to seal the deal.
"Some of those (sectors) may not be negotiated early on," he said.
Veteran trade consultant Peter Clark said Pettigrew was, more importantly, successful in ensuring the U.S. did not push ahead its own agenda too far by signing bilateral deals with Latin American countries, something that could cut Canadian exporters out of new markets. "Mr. Pettigrew needs the FTAA because the 'hub-and-spoke' approach of the U.S. would have been no good to Canada," he said from Ottawa.
Brazil, the largest economy in South America and a major opponent to a sweeping deal, insisted that the softened deal will at least move the talks ahead.
They have been stalled since they were announced in 1994 by Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president.
"The actual negotiations had hardly started," said Celso Amorim, the Brazilian foreign minister.
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.