Most discussions of trade rules could be considered a cure for insomnia, but this week's talks in Miami about the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas may see tempers flaring among normally staid executives and bureaucrats.
''You have as dispassionate a discussion as possible,'' said Carl Cira, director of Florida International University's Summit of the Americas Center. ``But in some cases, business organizations are taking positions diametrically opposed to their governments. Sometimes these things get pretty heated.''
Agricultural subsidies and intellectual property rights are just two of the topics that may get the fur flying among the 1,000 business representatives and government officials who are converging here today for the Americas Business Forum and the meeting of trade ministers to discuss a Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Representatives of nongovernmental organizations and academia from around the Western Hemisphere are also gathering for the Americas Trade and Sustainable Development Forum. That event is being held parallel to the business sessions to discuss the social ramifications of the proposed free-trade area.
TRADE BLUEPRINT
All eyes, however, will be trained on the trade ministers and their deputies from 34 countries in the Americas -- all except Cuba -- who are coming to lay out the blueprint for the final year of FTAA negotiations in 2004. The pact is intended to go into effect in January 2005.
Proponents say the FTAA would bolster each country's exports by making those products cheaper in foreign markets. Opponents argue that cheap imports can decimate a country's own industries -- and eliminate badly needed jobs.
Take orange juice, for example. Brazilian orange juice would be a better deal than Florida juice for U.S. consumers under the FTAA because of cheaper labor costs in Brazil.
Florida's citrus industry would not be able to compete with the cut-rate imports, thus potentially leading to thousands of layoffs.
DIFFICULT ISSUES
Every nation faces such pitfalls and benefits of free trade, which essentially wipes out the tariffs that countries charge on imported products. That makes for some thorny negotiations to reach an agreement that strikes a balance between winners and losers.
When 34 countries are involved, it's no easy task.
Everyone is arriving in Miami with a different agenda.
Argentine pharmaceutical companies want drug formulas from U.S. manufacturers, Caribbean island countries want to know how they would fund their governments without customs revenue, and some protesters don't want any of it.
''The word is anxious,'' said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, a business group that advocates free trade.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The week's agenda looks like this:
Deputy trade ministers will meet today through Wednesday to draft the FTAA road map that their bosses, the trade ministers, will discuss and seek to approve in sessions Thursday and Friday. Those conferences will be held in the Hotel Inter-Continental.
Also starting today and going through Wednesday, private-sector leaders and business representatives will meet in the Americas Business Forum at the nearby Hyatt Regency Miami.
Simultaneously, from Monday through Wednesday, the Americas Trade and Sustainable Development Forum will take place at the Clarion Hotel and the Courtyard by Marriott with participants from nongovernmental organizations.
Both the business and the sustainable development forums have the same goal: to present the trade ministers with their recommendations for the FTAA on Wednesday afternoon.
The business forum is expected to gather more than 1,000 representatives of corporations and business lobbying groups from all over the Americas to discuss what they want the FTAA to look like.
Nine workshop sessions will address the topics that FTAA negotiators are working on: market access, agriculture, government procurement, investment, competition policy, intellectual property, services, dispute settlement, and subsidies, anti-dumping and countervailing duties.
Two additional workshops will be held on smaller economies and institutional issues, which will deal with how the FTAA should be administered.
A key goal of the Latin American Association of Express Companies, for example, is to have services, not just products, included in the pact. The group plans to lobby for provisions ensuring fair competition between private companies and state postal services, and for transparent customs procedures.
''We're going to six workshops,'' said Ana Guevara, vice president of the association and vice president of Latin America public affairs at United Parcel Service. ``We're going into it very hopeful.''
Intellectual property rights, particularly over patent protection of drugs, promises to be one of the most controversial issues, as does market access.
''We have a lot of work ahead of us,'' said Lenny Feldman, a Miami customs and trade lawyer who is a leader of the market access workshop.
``Everyone is looking at the [Americas Business Forum] to see how we can move forward to the FTAA.''
SPREADING THE WORD
At the end of the business forum Wednesday, position papers summing up each workshop will be handed to the trade ministers so they can keep the business community's input in mind as they hammer out the agreement, as has happened at the seven previous trade meetings.
''Every time, there are a couple breakthroughs on issues,'' said John Murphy, vice president for Western Hemispheric affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. ``One time, it was business visas for personnel. This time, the business community will have a lot to say about the general structure of the FTAA.''
The organizers of the Trade and Sustainable Development Forum hope trade ministers will take their perspectives into account as well.
''We're trying to get some concerns that have come up into the FTAA process,'' said Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of the University of Miami's Dante P. Fascell North-South Center, which is organizing the event.
``After so many years of shutting out the social issues of trade, this is an opportunity to bring civil society into it.''
The forum is organizing workshops on the environment, public participation, human rights, sustainable livelihoods, intellectual property, investment, agriculture, and Caribbean economies and transparency -- the full disclosure of information.
Groups such as Doctors Without Borders, Transparency International and Oxfam America will participate, as well as a host of Latin American groups, government officials and intellectuals, Rosenberg said.
CONCERN FOR OUTCOME
With the trade ministers meeting coming on the heels of the failed World Trade Organization talks in Cancún, Mexico, there is concern the same may happen in Miami.
''These talks are critically important if we're going to get the FTAA by 2005,'' Farnsworth said.
``But on the other hand, the hard negotiations don't occur until the final year of talks, and they don't occur under the klieg lights.''
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