U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick has proposed a last-minute ''mini-ministerial'' for Nov. 8, about a week ahead of the Miami trade summit, in an attempt to bridge differences with Brazil over the scope of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
''They can't wait until Miami,'' a trade negotiator said.
Ricardo Reyes, spokesman for the U.S. trade representative, said he did not have a list of which ministers would attend or what the agenda would be.
Differences between Brazil and the United States surfaced last month at a meeting of deputy trade ministers in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. The call for a new meeting signals difficulties in getting the hemisphere's 34 nations to agree on what should be included in negotiations to create a free trade zone. The deadline for the project is the end of next year.
The proposed meeting also reveals a desire to clear the way for a smooth meeting in Miami. Global trade talks collapsed at a World Trade Organization meeting in Cancún, Mexico, last month.
Brazil has called for a reduction in the negotiations' breadth, especially since Zoellick has ruled out discussing farm subsidies. Brazil has support from Argentina, and the Caricom countries have expressed concern over the ambitious agenda and limited time.
According to the Brazilian daily O Estado de Sao Paulo, the mini-ministerial would take place in the Airlie Conference Center in Warrenton, Va., outside Washington.
The United States hosted an informal summer meeting at Maryland's Wye River Plantation to try to burnish the talks' outlook. Other attendees included trade officials from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.
Miami's session is to get underway with a Nov. 17-18 meeting of deputy trade ministers before the Nov. 20-21 full ministers' meeting.
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