MIAMI (Reuters) - As many as 10 cities in the Americas are expected to place formal bids this month to serve as headquarters for a regional trading bloc -- a designation that could bring millions in investment and immeasurable prestige to the winner.
From the United States, Miami, Atlanta, Colorado Springs, Chicago and Houston will throw their hats into the ring. Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago, is aggressively campaigning, along with Panama City and Mexico's Puebla and Cancun. Trade lobbyists say they expect one Brazilian city to bid as well.
Panama City may appeal to the most countries, in part because of anti-U.S. feeling but also due to Panama's long-standing U.S. business ties.
The winner will house the administrative center of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and potentially gain thousands of jobs as lawyers, accountants, lobbyists and businesses collect in the vicinity, economists and city officials estimate.
What's more, those campaigning for the candidate cities say the winning site will become to the Americas what Brussels is to the European Union, if the FTAA deal is concluded at all.
"The economic benefits are real. How great they will be is not clear to me," said Terry McCoy, a University of Florida professor. "Even more important is the prestige and status of getting it."
If finalized, the Free Trade Area of the Americas will be the largest free-trade area in the world, trumping the European Union, as it frees the flow of goods and services among 34 countries and brings together 800 million consumers and a $14 trillion marketplace.
Its headquarters will employ about 200 people. After that, the estimated economic impact is sketchy at best.
A report from Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development group, offered some lofty numbers. If the headquarters were placed in Miami, 89,000 jobs would be created in the area, adding $3.2 billion to annual payrolls, it said.
That was based on case studies of European Union institutions in Brussels and the World Bank in Washington, D.C., according to the report, which said the Miami estimates were "conservative and should be viewed as minimum-level impacts."
The report's author did not return calls for more detail.
In Atlanta, a richer city that already hosts more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies, the secretariat would create 26,000 jobs and have a $500 million impact, said Jose Gonzalez, executive director of the group leading that city's campaign.
Trade analysts caution that such aggressive estimates are simply guesses, and the true economic impact depends largely on what function negotiators decide the secretariat will play.
BUSH FAMILY TIES
The deadline for cities to declare their interest in hosting the headquarters is Nov. 20, during the FTAA ministerial meeting in Miami.
The procedure for picking the secretariat city is purposely vague, according to analysts who say the ultimate decision will be a negotiating point as officials move toward a final deal.
The decision could come at any time from three months to a year after the Miami ministerial meeting. That assumes the trade deal itself is completed, a development far from secure.
Washington will choose a U.S. contender for the secretariat from among the cities bidding, city officials said.
While many outside the United States say Atlanta may be preferred because of the absence of a Cuban-American community, known to protest regularly when people with any link to Fidel Castro's communist Cuba visit Florida, lobbyists and some officials said Miami has a leg up thanks to family ties -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is a brother of the U.S. president.
"I don't think it's a disadvantage," said Eugene Rostov, an attorney and member of the group pushing Miami's candidacy, about the White House connection.
Miami sees itself as best suited for the secretariat, thanks to a multilingual population and ties between its population and communities throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.
In addition to Miami, Atlanta and Trinidad's Port of Spain have been the most vocal campaigners by far.
But Panama City stands the best chance of appealing to all countries because it is part of Latin America and has a long link to U.S. business, executives and lobbyists said.
That may be critical to securing the deal.
Trinidad also has argued it is crucial to place the secretariat outside the United States, just as the European Union placed its home outside of its larger member nations.
"There is hostility toward the U.S. from people throughout these other countries in the region," said Charles Jainarain, president of trade consulting firm Greenheart International Llc. "I think we severely underestimate that sentiment."
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.