BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- U.S. Deputy Trade Secretary Peter Allgeier reiterated Friday his recent comments that the hemisphere-wide Free Trade of the Americas Accord will go ahead even if some countries in the region - including Brazil and Argentina - reject a deal.
Asked whether comments he had made in Brazil which suggested that an FTAA deal could go ahead without Brazil also applied to Argentina, Allgeier said:
"What I said in Brazil is that at the end of the negotiations, every one of the 34 countries will have to ask itself the following question: Will our country be better off tomorrow if we sign this agreement today or if we don't sign it. Now obviously we hope that all of the 34 say we would be better off by signing....But if one country, two countries or four countries say we think we'd be better off by not signing, the other countries will go forward, because it will be in their economic interest to sign it," Allgeier said.
Allgeier's comments, which included an admission that Brazil and the U.S. remain far apart on many issues, sparked some controversy in the South American country, which is among those countries more skeptical about the benefits of an accord. Brazil's agricultural minister Roberto Rodrigues was quoted responding to Allgeier's comments by saying that an FTAA without Brazil would be a "second- rate FTAA."
But in comments to reporters in Buenos Aires, shortly before meeting Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, the trade representative played down the polemics his comments had apparently caused.
"Why was it so controversial? I guess there were no football (soccer) games this week, so there was nothing to talk about," Allgeier quipped.
And Allgeier said that negotiating positions could grow closer in the weeks leading up to an FTAA meeting in Miami next month.
"There are negotiations this week and next week in Puebla on market access and that this is a process of one country requesting improvements in other countries' offers and making their own. So it's an ongoing negotiation process," he said.
Brazil and the U.S. are the two largest countries in the hemisphere and co- chair the FTAA talks that are supposed to result in an accord starting on Jan. 1 2005.
One of the sharpest points of disagreement between the two countries is agriculture, with Brazil - like many others in the region - demanding that the U.S. remove subsidies on agriculture.
Allgeier said that agricultural issues remains on the negotiating table, though the U.S. has made it clear it won't discuss ending the subsidies as part of the FTAA talks.
For his part, Argentina's top trade official, Martin Redrado said neither Argentina nor Brazil was opposed to FTAA, but wanted to make sure that whatever came out of the negotiations was beneficial for their countries.
"We...don't speak of not joining FTAA. I think what the discussion is, is over the content and in the areas of the extent of the opening....Clearly our level of ambition within the negotiation is going to be related without chances of increasing Argentine exports," Redrado said.
Argentina and Brazil have coordinated their positions increasingly closely in recent months, as the governments of Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva develop increasingly close relations.
Meanwhile Redrado said Argentina is "fully committed" to an FTAA start date of Jan. 1, 2005. The comment comes two days after Foreign Minister Bielsa said that while he "prefers" not to miss deadline, it would be better to reach an accord later than to strike a bad deal.
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