WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. trade official Tuesday said only countries that back Washington's policy of trade liberalization should receive trade-related assistance from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Poorer nations, especially in Latin America, have argued they need massive economic and technical assistance before they can sign on to the Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA -- the ambitious effort for free flow of goods and services between the 34 countries in the hemisphere.
The IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank are looking into ways they can help countries to open their borders to trade, but Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier, who oversees the Americas-wide FTAA said there would be strings attached.
"Our view is that one should not be injecting huge amounts of money into environments where the policies are also not undergoing change, including trade liberalization policies," Allgeier told the Washington International Trade Association, a group that brings together businesses, officials and diplomats to discuss trade issues.
"So any assistance in the trade area from these institutions should be related to policy changes in the form of trade liberalization," Allgeier said
Allgeier also bluntly ruled out bilateral pacts with countries that have not backed Washington in trade negotiations within the FTAA and the Doha round of the World Trade Organization, part of what Allgeier called "indicators of readiness" for bilateral talks.
He said one of the "principal factors" the United States will take into account before launching talks are whether a country has "shown a clear understanding and commitment to liberalize trade in other trade negotiating (forums), notably the WTO and the FTAA."
"Those are good indicators as to whether a country really is committed to free trade as a policy."
Allgeier's statements reflect a hard line by the United States ahead of a key Nov. 16-21 meeting of FTAA trade ministers in Miami where they will look for ways to push ahead on talks on creation of the world's largest trade area, stretching from Alaska to Patagonia. The target date for the trade pact is January 2005.
Colombia and Peru, among others, want to initiate trade talks with Washington, and both dropped out of the so-called G21 group of developing nations, which the Bush administration blames for torpedoing world trade talks in Cancun, Mexico in September.
Brazil and the United States are going into the Miami ministerial deeply divided over domestic agricultural subsidies and policies on government procurement, intellectual property protection and other issues.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
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