BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- A Free Trade of the Americas meeting originally slated for the end of next week has been pushed back to the end of April because talks have not progressed as planned, Argentina's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Representatives from the 34 countries involved in the hemisphere-wide trade talks were supposed to meet in Puebla, Mexico March 18-19. But a group of officials meeting in Buenos Aires on Wednesday made a joint decision to postpone the Puebla meeting until April 22-23, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The spokeswoman confirmed remarks by Argentina's top official, Martin Redrado, who was widely quoted in local media as saying the talks have been held up because there's no agreement on certain points, including agricultural subsidies.
Before the Puebla meeting in April, officials will reconvene for informal talks in Buenos Aires on March 31 and April 1. Agricultural subsidies are expected to dominate the discussion, as U.S.-imposed tariffs on farm imports has been one of the key areas of disagreement between Latin American trade bloc Mercosur and the U.S. Mercosur counts Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as full members.
"What is concrete is that the issue of agricultural subsidies is central," the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said. "It is certainly one of the most important and difficult to resolve."
FTAA talks have been slow to progress, though Redrado reaffirmed Mercosur's commitment to reach an agreement by Jan. 1, 2005. In the absence of advancements in the hemisphere-wide talks, Mercosur has turned its attention to other trade agreements. The regional trade group has entered into trade pacts with the Community of Andean Nations, which comprises Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia. Mercosur is also seeking an accord with the European Union.
-By Wailin Wong, Dow Jones Newswires; 5411-4311-3125; wailin.wong@dowjones.com
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