Miami will play host to 34 hemispheric trade ministers and hundreds of business executives from the region in November, Gov. Jeb Bush announced Friday.
The meeting of trade ministers from the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean will be Nov. 20-21 to discuss negotiations for a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, while the three-day Americas Business Forum will be held the same week, Bush said. The dates had been tentative, but other governments in the hemisphere have now agreed on the timetable.
Being selected to host the eighth annual trade ministers' meeting boosted anticipation among Miami's leadership over the city's possible selection as the permanent secretariat for the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The trade and investment pact is being negotiated among all the countries in the hemisphere except Cuba.
''We're pretty excited about the trade ministerial and the American Business Forum,'' Bush told a news conference at the Biltmore hotel in Coral Gables. ``However, our eye is on the bigger prize of being selected to serve as the FTAA permanent secretariat.''
In addition to the ministers' and business meetings, hundreds of trade, environmental, labor and consumer activists and academics are expected to participate in a series of forums. Past meetings have also drawn protesters.
Flanked by local leaders and organizers of the trade ministers' meeting, Bush said he intended to spend more time in Miami, working out of offices at Florida International University and devoting time to the FTAA process.
He said that edging out other U.S. competitors for the permanent secretariat, such as Atlanta, was a first step. ''I can't imagine someone who would even consider another place in the United States,'' he said.
No location has been chosen for the meetings, said Christopher A. Padilla, assistant U.S. trade representative for intergovernmental affairs and public liaison who visited Miami last week with logistics and security personnel.
Bush also announced a team to run the meeting and press for the secretariat. The 40-member board of directors that will oversee organization and fund raising for the trade ministers' meeting and the business forum is headed by Chuck Cobb, former ambassador to Iceland. Cobb is also chairman of the Florida FTAA.
Antonio Villamil, chairman of the governor's Council of Economic Advisors, is vice chairman of Florida FTAA.
Luis Lauredo, former ambassador to the Organization of American States, was named executive director of the ministerial organizing group. Lauredo headed the organization of the 1994 Summit of the Americas held in Miami.
Miami developer Armando Codina, chairman and chief executive of the Codina Group, was also selected to serve as the president of the Americas Business Forum. Codina is Bush's former business partner.
The organization for the November meeting is just beginning. Cobb said a preliminary estimate of the costs would be $5 million. But Miami and the state will not have to shoulder all of the costs; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will pick up the tab for security.
Later, speaking to a sparsely attended conference by the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America, Bush blasted the Immigration and Naturalization Service in response to an audience comment on difficulties in obtaining U.S. visas for tourism or business purposes.
''It is the worst process-oriented agency in the government, not just in our country, maybe in the whole world,'' Bush said. ``We don't know who is in our country.''
Bush spoke of solving the agency's problems by bringing it forward through the 20th century to the 21st century. ''They are now in the 19th century,'' he said of the federal agency that now falls under the administration of his brother, President George W. Bush.
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