MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Canada said on Monday it was trying to bridge the differences between the United States and Brazil over a proposed free trade agreement for the Americas -- an idea Brazil opposes in its current form.
Talks on the 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, have run into trouble amid disputes between the United States on one side and Brazil and Argentina on the other over the size of U.S. farm subsidies, copyright and patent laws and foreign direct investment rules.
The region's governments agreed in Miami in November to work toward a watered-down version of the trade pact by January 2005.
"There is definitely a difference between Brazil and certainly Canada and the United States (which)... are very strongly together on the idea that the sooner we can get the (FTAA) in the sooner we can bring prosperity to the hemisphere," said Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a regional summit in Mexico which is not formally supposed to be discussing the FTAA.
"Canada is trying to bring the two parties together and we may well have some success with that because we're respected by both," Graham told reporters, saying Canada did not want Brazil to be "always blocking initiatives" in the region.
New Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is due to meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday.
"Brazil has a certain suspicion where the United States is concerned...I think we Canadians can talk to our Brazilian colleagues and say 'Listen, we are neighbors of the United States, we always have our differences with them but nevertheless we are good neighbors and can have an clear and honest dialogue (with them) to settle our differences. And that's what has to be done," Graham said.
Martin said on Sunday it looked unlikely that the FTAA would be created by the January 2005 deadline but insisted the pact was worth fighting for.
"What we hope from this meeting is to make sure that everybody around this table agrees we're not going to slide back from Miami and we're going to go ahead and move on on free trade," said Graham.
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