For decades, Miami has touted itself as the capital of Latin America. Now city leaders finally see a chance to make the title official -- or, they fear, officially misplaced.
Atlanta and at least three foreign cities are battling Miami to land the headquarters of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, under a proposed treaty meant to bind every nation in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba into the world's largest trading zone.
City leaders are pursuing the FTAA headquarters to solidify Miami's image as the place where the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America mesh best. But they warn of severe damage to Miami's identity should the FTAA decide to call another city home.
''If we don't get it, it's an end of an era,'' said Mark Rosenberg, provost of Florida International University. ``It's an end of a packaging exercise. We'll continue to do what we're doing, but we'll have to really rethink who we think we are.''
The bid for the FTAA secretariat has shaped up as an unprecedented test of Miami's clout in the Western Hemisphere as it tries to position itself as both the logical and sentimental favorite over rival cities in Mexico, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Along with ample hotel space and white-collar corporate trappings, Miami is pushing its physical and emotional connections to the other FTAA countries -- from the number of Latin American flights out of Miami International Airport to the number of Jamaicans living in South Florida.
''It's the closest thing you'll find to South America, Central America, the Caribbean that you'll find in any other place in the United States,'' said Jorge Arrizurieta, executive director of Florida FTAA, the group formed to push for a Miami secretariat.
The campaign will reach a peak next month when Miami hosts the next round of FTAA talks. With anti-globalization protesters planning to flood downtown and FTAA ministers spending a week in the city, Miami sees the event as a crucial audition for landing the secretariat.
The agreement itself is far from certain, and pessimism on its prospects grew last month after a round of talks collapsed in Mexico. But with some nations criticizing the FTAA as a vehicle to extend U.S. economic domination of the hemisphere, Arrizurieta is pitching Miami as a U.S. city sitting somewhere on the geopolitical sidelines.
''We're advocating ourself as a neutral option,'' he said.
Miami's leaders fear an Atlanta secretariat the most, since it would let another city market itself as the key U.S. link to much of the hemisphere. Indeed, the group lobbying for an Atlanta secretariat calls itself ''Gateway to the Americas'' -- the nickname Miami has long used for itself.
JOBS AND INCOME
An FTAA agreement with a Miami secretariat would bring more than 89,000 jobs to Florida and add $156 million a year to the state's economy, factoring in the effects of overall increased trade, according to a study commissioned by Florida FTAA. But if Atlanta won the secretariat, the study says, Florida would see fewer than 9,000 jobs and add about $4.5 million a year.
Much of the predicted gap comes from Atlanta's improving its appeal to companies eager for access to emerging markets in Latin America and the Caribbean -- gains made at Miami's expense. The study said an Atlanta secretariat would prompt foreign companies to retreat from Florida and decrease their holdings in the state by $1.4 billion.
Others question the impact of a secretariat. They note that many trade accords, like the North American Free Trade Agreement and a Pacific Rim economic partnership, created minor collections of bureaucrats and little status to the host cities, and that the FTAA lacks the parliament, currency and other high-maintenance features that boosted Brussels when it became the headquarters of the European Union.
''You're not going to find a company relocating because the secretariat is in Miami,'' said Nao Matsukata, a former aide to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.``I just don't think it's quite the big thing everyone's saying it's going to be.''
DIFFERENT FACE
The 1970s saw Miami's first major push to move away from its reputation as a sunny retirement spot, and to start leaning on its geography and immigrant fabric to link its image with Latin America.
Now 50 percent of all new condominiums in Broward and Miami-Dade counties go to foreign buyers, according to Integra Realty Services, and wholesale trade accounts for about 8 percent of the region's jobs, according to a 2000 Deutsche Bank study. Many multinational corporations -- including Microsoft, IBM and MTV -- chose South Florida for their Latin American divisions.
FTAA boosters say the secretariat would strengthen the international dimension to the local economy, generating about $51 million a year in spin-off business.
ESTIMATED NEEDS
In drafting its secretariat proposal, Florida FTAA has estimated that the FTAA will need a $25 million, 100,000-square-foot headquarters for about 200 workers, according to interviews and Florida FTAA reports.
The group thinks downtown Miami would be best and has approached Metropolitan Miami, a residential and commercial complex planned near the Wachovia Financial Center, about putting the secretariat there, according to interviews with officials of Florida FTAA and MDM Development Group, which owns the site.
Miami would need to raise the $25 million from the private and public sectors, since the FTAA almost certainly would expect a free building, Arrizurieta said.
But the costs could be much higher than that. Atlanta has talked of offering housing at its secretariat complex, while Arrizurieta said Miami is considering giving private-school tuition breaks to FTAA families. He expects a decision next fall, leaving a year of doubt over Miami's place in the world.
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