TRADE
General Motors, FedEx and Pepsi are at the top of the list of sponsors covering the $3.6 million price tag on next week's trade talks.
Some of the country's biggest companies are the top backers of next week's round of trade talks in Miami, where diplomats and executives will negotiate global economic issues as well as mingle at parties.
General Motors, FedEx and PepsiCo gave a total of $550,000 cash for the weeklong meeting, or about a third of the $1.6 million organizers raised from the private sector, according to documents released this week by Miami-Dade County.
The Fortune 500 companies each have Latin American headquarters in South Florida and hope that the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas will boost profits by lifting import barriers across the Western Hemisphere, executives said.
''What's good for global trade is good for FedEx,'' said Michael Murkowski, vice president of the shipper's Latin American division near Miami International Airport. ``Our motives are pretty simple.''
Organizers of the trade ministers' gathering say the event will cost about $3.6 million, and they have been pressing businesses for financial support. Miami considers the meeting a crucial audition for winning the FTAA headquarters and plans to roll out the VIP treatment for the high-level visitors.
The headquarters could have hundreds of jobs, and the deal could generate thousands of trade-related jobs for Florida, supporters say.
A Wednesday night party for trade ministers at Miami's Vizcaya, the Italian Renaissance mansion on Biscayne Bay, is expected to cost $173,000, according to the budget documents from the county.
Organizers plan $12,000 worth of landscaping near the FTAA talks in downtown's Hotel Inter-Continental and $72,000 on souvenirs and gifts, including some FTAA watches, for the 2,500 participants.
''We need to put our best foot forward,'' said Kelly Penton, the press aide for Miami Mayor Manny Díaz who's on loan to organizers.
Private dollars will fund about half of the $3.6 million budget, with another $1.5 million from state and local governments. Washington allocated $8.5 million to cover security costs for the talks, which are expected to draw thousands of labor activists and antiglobalization protesters.
The Miami-based group organizing the talks, officially called the FTAA VIII Ministerial and Americas Business Forum, operates in borrowed county office space with a mix of corporate executives and public employees.
Gov. Jeb Bush named former Ambassador Chuck Cobb to head the Ministerial organization as well as Florida FTAA, the group running Miami's campaign for the FTAA headquarters.
Cobb has declined to identify Ministerial's donors or release more than a general spending plan for the event. A spokeswoman said the group does plan to name the donors on Friday.
But Cobb has said the amounts of the donations would not be disclosed.
This week, Miami-Dade released budget documents requested by The Herald. County Manager George Burgess supervises Ministerial's budget.
The documents list 49 private-sector donors for the talks, including other multinationals with Latin American offices here, such as the media companies Time Warner and Univisión.
Local companies, too, gave, including The Herald, whose $62,500 cash donation was fifth largest on the list. The Herald and several other corporations also gave thousands more in services and in-kind contributions, such as free advertising.
Fundraising took on new importance in the contest for the FTAA headquarters once Atlanta announced its bid for the facility.
The city, one of seven Miami rivals, has framed its campaign around the corporate giants based there, including Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines.
Atlanta organizers say they have raised nearly $3 million for the effort, but they also have declined to identify the donors.
Some contributors walk a fine line, since several Miami donors have large operations in Atlanta, too. Organized labor is one of the top FTAA opponents, adding another wrinkle for such companies as General Motors that have large union workforces.
Orlando Padilla, a director of the Detroit automaker's public-policy center, which handles trade issues for the company, noted that General Motors' support of the proposed trading bloc was no secret.
The company has auto plants throughout Latin America and hopes that the reduced tariffs will boost international sales while raising wages for workers in those foreign plants.
''Our goal is to support the implementation of sound economic policies in countries where we've got these investments or where we got a significant economic presence,'' he said.
Padilla also emphasized that six other companies are listed as Diamond sponsors by organizers, indicating gifts of $250,000 or more. Ministerial's fundraising chairman Joe Lacher, the head of BellSouth's Florida division, said some Diamond sponsors were upgraded from a lower level for giving an early donation.
Others were credited for contributing to the $800,000 of in-kind donations that Cobb said Ministerial had raised.
The Herald, a Diamond sponsor, has been running full-page ads supporting the proposed trade bloc and Miami's bid for the headquarters.
Ministerial officials declined this week to release details on in-kind contributions, and Florida FTAA said it would not identify the donors of the roughly $400,000 that Cobb said had been raised for the headquarter push.
Padilla said General Motors considered its Miami gift strictly for the trade talks and not as a vote against Atlanta.
Murkowski, at FedEx, said the Memphis-based company's Ministerial donation reflected the company's support for a Miami secretariat.
Pepsi declined to say whether it would back Miami or Atlanta in the contest but made clear the meaning of the gift.
''You know, there's another cola based in Atlanta,'' said a spokesman at PepsiCo's Purchase, N.Y., headquarters. ``You can probably put two and two together.''
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