WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. business group urged the Bush administration on Thursday not to give in to efforts by Brazil to narrow the scope of a proposed free trade agreement covering the Americas.
John Murphy, vice president for Western Hemisphere affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said U.S. businesses want an ambitious, comprehensive agreement that includes areas such as copyright and patent protection, investment and government procurement in addition to market access.
Top trade officials from 34 Western Hemisphere countries will gather in Miami next week for a meeting on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas pact, which is targeted for conclusion by January 2005.
Brazil and the United States have locked horns over the scope of the proposed pact, with Brasilia urging that issues like intellectual property protection, investment and government procurement be excluded from the FTAA.
At the same time, Washington has insisted that negotiations on domestic farm subsidies and anti-dumping rules -- two priority areas for Brazil -- can only be negotiated within the World Trade Organization.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim outlined some joint ideas for resolving those differences at an informal meeting with 14 other Western Hemisphere officials on Saturday in Northern Virginia.
After the meeting, Amorim suggested to reporters one approach could be to have "pluralateral agreements" in certain areas, meaning not every country would have to participate.
U.S. business groups are still trying to learn more about the joint ideas presented by Zoellick and Amorim.
But "certainly an a la carte approach to the FTAA is not going to be acceptable," Murphy said, adding he was confident the Bush administration had the same view.
Zoellick told reporters on Wednesday that he had a positive feeling going into the meeting next week, without "underestimating the work to do."
Murphy also said he was guardedly optimistic about the Miami meeting, saying he had detected some movement in Brazil's position over the past six months.
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