PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Reuters) - The United States and Brazil said Friday they had significant differences that would need as much compromise as possible in Miami next month to achieve a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005.
Speaking at the end of talks in Trinidad and Tobago, the Brazilian delegate, who declined to be identified, said: "The meeting revealed major differences over people's visions of an agreement."
The United States and Brazil are at odds over the scope of negotiations to create the world's largest free trade area by Jan. 1, 2005. Brazil has argued for a more focused accord while the United States wants a more ambitious and wide-ranging pact.
The proposed FTAA would be the world's largest free trade zone covering 34 countries and almost 800 million people.
"One of the things that came through in the discussions is that delegates have different views about how much advance has been made in one group or the other," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said at the end of the FTAA Trade Negotiating Committee meeting in Port of Spain.
Allgeier said if there was to be a successful ministerial meeting of the 34 member countries next month in Miami, there must be "as much compromise as possible."
At a separate press conference, Caribbean Community Chief Negotiator Richard Bernal said no decision was taken at the Trinidad meeting on the scope and schedule of the FTAA talks.
"I don't think we should sacrifice a good agreement for the sake of adherence to any particular date," he said.
WIDE DIVISIONS
The United States is pushing for a single comprehensive agreement that would cut tariffs on manufactured and agricultural goods while strengthening rules governing services trade, investment, intellectual property protection and government procurement.
Brazil, which co-chairs the final phase of the FTAA talks with the United States, has proposed a three-track approach that sees a series of bilateral agreements to cut tariffs and a hemispheric pact on items such as rules of origins and dispute settlement, but leaves more controversial issues to the World Trade Organization.
The Trinidad impasse comes weeks after the collapse of a WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, where rich and poor nations failed to agree on cutting farm subsidies.
Brazilian Ambassador Adhemar Gabriel Bahadian said in Port of Spain that the Miami meeting would have to be "realistic and pragmatic" to keep the talks on track for conclusion by 2005.
"The test will be in Miami," he said at a joint press conference with Allgeier.
"Trinidad and Tobago is the beginning of the attempt to recognize that we have different cases, we have different levels of development but we are all determined politically to look for the consensus," Bahadian said.
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