The Venezuelan government seems unbothered by being the only Andean country not invited to begin free-trade negotiations with the United States at the Free Trade Area of the Americas ministerial meeting in Miami.
Venezuelan Trade Minister Wilmar Castro said Thursday, ``It's possible other countries in the continent are more distressed about reaching a free-trade agreement.''
Castro also said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is not against an FTAA but warned that the present U.S. negotiating strategy could frustrate a hemisphere-wide free-trade agreement.
''This bilateral process could have serious consequences -- it could debilitate the FTAA proposal,'' the minister said to Venezuela's daily El Universo.
Chávez said last week, ``The FTAA is a colonial project that seeks to impose itself over the constitution of every sovereign nation.''
DOCTORS' VIEW
The international relief organization Doctors Without Borders warned Thursday that the proposed rules on intellectual property in the FTAA negotiations could make prices for HIV drugs prohibitively expensive.
According to Emilia Herranz, president of Spain's Doctors Without Borders, competition between generic versions of drugs to fight HIV has brought down the cost of treating a patient from $10,000 a year to about $350 annually.
''The intellectual property rights proposed in the FTAA and bilateral trade accords threaten to destroy the dynamic competition that has caused the fall of prices for HIV drugs,'' wrote Herranz in Spain's daily El País.
According to the United Nations, about two million people in the Americas are living with HIV or AIDS.
CANADA SETTLES
Canada has adopted a softer position on the FTAA proposal put forth by the co-presidents of the meeting, Brazil and the United States.
''It will not go as far as a country like Canada would go. It will take it step by step, and we're willing to live with that,'' Canadian Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew told The Edmonton Journal.
Pettigrew said he would accept ''a less than full free-trade agreement'' throughout the region, after Brazil refused to budge on key issues. Canadian press reports say Pettigrew is toning down his stance since he wants to ensure that talks survive until Paul Martin takes over as prime minister on Dec. 12.
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