MIAMI (Reuters) - The United States is optimistic about forging a hemispheric free trade agreement that will include Brazil but is prepared to negotiate piecemeal with other nations if Brazil opts out, a top U.S. trade official said on Monday.
"This is a choice for Brazil, it's not a requirement," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told a Western Hemisphere business conference sponsored by the Miami Herald. "That's Brazil's decision."
Brazil's leftist presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who leads public opinion polls by 30 percentage points ahead of the South American nation's Oct. 27 runoff election, has criticized the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement as a U.S. "annexation" of the region.
Zoellick disputed that characterization on Monday, calling the trade agreement "an opportunity," not an annexation. He said he was optimistic about working with Brazil, whomever wins the presidential election.
"We've had an excellent working relationship with the Brazilian government," Zoellick said.
"We want to negotiate with all the democracies of the Americas through the FTAA, but are also prepared to move step-by-step toward free trade if others turn back or simply are not yet ready."
The FTAA would allow goods to move freely among all the Western Hemisphere's democracies -- every nation except communist Cuba.
Zoellick called the agreement "our greatest goal," and said he remained optimistic it could be negotiated by the end of 2005.
However, he said, "If need be, we'll move step by step. We'll get Chile done, we'll get Central America."
Zoellick notified Congress two weeks ago that the United States hopes to complete negotiations on a free trade agreement with Chile by the end of the year.
The United States also plans to begin negotiating similar treaties with five Central American nations -- Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua -- by the end of the year, he said.
Zoellick said the 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement, which includes Canada, the United States and Mexico, had strengthened Mexico's economy, enabling it to bounce back more quickly from setbacks.
Trade ministers from the 34 nations participating in the FTAA are scheduled to meet on Nov. 1 in Quito, Ecuador. The United States and Brazil, which has the world's ninth-largest economy, will serve as co-chairs.
Zoellick said the United States would offer to host the next ministerial meeting in Miami in 2003.
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