The Free Trade Area of the Americas summit abruptly ended Thursday, a day earlier than expected, after ministers from 34 nations accepted a watered-down outline for creating a hemispheric economic community.
That document now becomes the framework for the next round of FTAA negotiations, which takes place early next year, with a goal of having a final agreement by early 2005. The agreement capped a weeklong series of trade events at the Hotel Inter-Continental and other downtown Miami sites.
At a hastily called news conference Thursday night, the ministers characterized the Miami summit as a success.
''We got our work done a few hours early,'' U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said. ``We are moving the FTAA, the ALCA, into a new phase. We are negotiating it, not just seeking it.''
Zoellick's Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, contrasted the meeting's outcome with the September World Trade Organization talks in Cancun, Mexico, which collapsed after numerous countries walked out.
''The great difference is that everyone was dancing to the beat of their own drum,'' Amorim said of Cancun. ``Today we have reached a result that was all common.''
The deal broke a string of repeated setbacks and perhaps set the stage for more concrete results next year. Yet the exuberance of the press conference contrasted with the pragmatism at the trade ministers' meeting earlier in the day.
At that highly secured meeting in the Hotel Inter-Continental, several ministers characterized the compromise as falling short of expectations, according to an audience member who took notes for The Herald.
''This is not the comprehensive and wide-ranging agreement we would have wanted, but it reflects the reality of our region,'' said Soledad Alvear, foreign minister of Chile, which already has a free trade agreement with the United States. ``The political climate today is different than when the FTAA process was launched nine years ago.''
Hailed as a pivotal moment in hemispheric relations, the summit had been considered an opportunity for Miami to bask in its role as the gateway to Latin America and, perhaps, cement its bid to become home to the FTAA secretariat.
It is now no longer clear what form that secretariat might take, however, and the countries agreed to wait until next summer to pick where any headquarters will be located.
Before ending the summit, the trade ministers endorsed a draft document that had broken an impasse between Brazil and the United States -- but which resulted in a proposed FTAA structure that critics have dubbed ``FTAA Lite.''
Specifically, the draft document allows an individual country to ignore the strictures of the FTAA that it doesn't like. The compromise was seen as a victory for Brazil, which had resisted calls to reform its laws in two areas that the FTAA is to govern: intellectual property and investors' rights.
Conversely, the compromise was viewed as a setback for the United States, which has long pushed for an all-encompassing agreement.
Although several countries balked at the compromise, the trade ministers debating the proposal Thursday said they felt obligated to accept it -- or risk a collapse of the FTAA process.
''From the Mexican point of view, the document is significantly below our expectations,'' said Mexican Economy Minister Fernando Canales, ``but we nevertheless understand that it is what was achievable.''
At their meeting, the ministers refused to consider opening the draft document to changes. In one instance, Venezuela argued that human rights must be infused into the FTAA pact.
''Human rights, cultural rights, social rights, the right to education, the right to access to goods and services are not reflected anywhere in this communiqué,'' said Wilmar Castro, Venezuela's production and trade minister.
But that brought a quick rebuke from other members, who contended the draft was too fragile to open new areas of debate.
''We must protect this document,'' Didier Opertti, Uruguay's foreign minister, told the meeting. ``To open this document would mean a dangerous return to ground zero.''
The Miami summit occurred against a backdrop of increasing trade headaches for Washington, which has faced international outcries over tariffs to protect the domestic steel industry and its decision this week to limit imports of Chinese lingerie and other textiles.
With the FTAA, Washington's biggest headache was a simmering dispute with Brazil, which wanted access to the American market for its agricultural products.
The United States, which protects citrus, sugar and other industries, insisted that farm issues be handled by the World Trade Organization, not the FTAA.
Perhaps reflecting those frustrations, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Tuesday that he would begin negotiating one-on-one trade agreements with many Latin countries. But he said he would continue to pursue an FTAA as well, likening its creation to the fall of the Iron Curtain in terms of historical significance.
The idea of the FTAA was launched at the Miami Summit of the Americas in 1994, which drew 34 national leaders to the city, including President Bill Clinton.
The goal has been to establish an FTAA by January 2005. However, that deadline could prove tough to meet. The draft document accepted by the ministers gives a deadline of Sept. 30, 2004, to finalize negotiations on tariffs, but doesn't give dates for dealing with all other issues that would fall under the FTAA's guidance.
Still, some experts said the crowning achievement of the Miami summit may simply be that the parties agreed to keep talking about their disagreements.
''Instead of crashing and burning in Miami, these talks go forward with a framework agreement,'' said Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of the North-South Center at the University of Miami.
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