Deputy trade ministers met a crucial deadline today to draft a blueprint for the final negotiations of a Free Trade Area of the Americas, but the draft allows countries to opt out of key parts of the agreement.
Observers immediately dubbed it ``FTAA a la carte.''
The draft text will be presented to the trade ministers representing 34 nations in the proposed trade pact who hold a two-day summit in Miami on Thursday and Friday.
Frank Vargo, vice president of international for the National Association of Manufacturers, expressed disappointment with the ''a la carte'' accord.
''This is not the way we want to go,'' Vargo said, adding that manufacturers would keep pushing for a more comprehensive accord.
''Both sides are going to call it a success,'' said Pedro de Camargo Neto, one of Brazil's former top trade negotiators who is attending the business forum. ``We came out with what was possible.
''It didn't bring the confrontation in Miami,'' Camargo Neto said. ``But it really just postponed it.''
When the FTAA was proposed at Miami's Summit of the Americas in 1994, the idea was a sweeping trade agreement unifying the markets of the Western Hemisphere. Today's blueprint is significantly less ambitious.
Among the key provisions of the draft accord: Countries will have a minimal set of rights and obligations, but can pick and choose whether to sign on to key parts of the agreement. The original idea was to have full compliance in nine different areas of trade. Those areas include agriculture, investment protection rules for foreign investors, intellectual property right protections and government purchasing.
The deal also includes the tariff reductions typically considered the heart of trade accords.
The agreement also only establishes a Sept. 30, 2004, deadline for completing the tariff part of the accord, setting no other deadline for the other key parts of the proposed agreement. Analysts interpreted this as a recognition that the accord cannot be completed before January 2005.
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