If Washington hopes to meet its deadlines for a far-reaching Free Trade Area of the Americas pact by 2005, the Bush administration needs to work harder winning support from Democrats and to offer more concessions to Latin American partners, including cutbacks in U.S. farm subsidies. But those moves seem unlikely in an election year, leaving a proposed FTAA accord likely to be either scaled back, delayed or both, panelists at an Americas conference said on Tuesday.
"It's in everyone's interest to postpone [the deadline]," said analyst Peter Hakim of the Washington, D.C.-based Inter-American Dialogue, noting little willingness in Washington, Brasilia and other major capitals to "spend the political capital" needed to bridge big differences on trade.
"Probably the worst time to negotiate is an election year," when U.S. politicians seek campaign funds and won't embrace new trade deals that could pinch government-supported industries from steel to agriculture, Hakim told a conference in Coral Gables attended by more than 300 people.
Debate on the FTAA comes just three weeks before trade ministers from 34 nations in the Americas are to meet in Miami and hammer out details for the proposed treaty that would reduce barriers for commerce and create what would be the world's largest free-trade bloc.
Brazil's ambassador to the United States, Rubens Barbosa, said the ball "is in the U.S. court" at the Miami meeting, since Washington is the one limiting the scope of an FTAA by refusing to include topics key for Latin America, such as farm subsidies that give U.S. farmers an edge in sales.
"Brazil thinks an FTAA should be comprehensive and ambitious. We think everything should be on the table," Barbosa said, rejecting claims by American negotiators that Brasilia favors an "FTAA Lite."
Key to the debate is opposition to free trade within the United States. Many Democrats and unions fear more open markets will speed jobs offshore to lower-wage sites. Plus, select U.S. industries fear cuts in tariffs and other government support will swamp their companies with cheap imports.
Washington had been touting FTAA for years as a way to lift Latin American countries from poverty, expand sales for U.S. firms and help the Americas better compete against Europe and Asia.
Latin nations agreed to negotiate the U.S.-led pact despite wide-scale opposition within their borders too, eager to gain greater access for sales to the U.S. market, the world's largest.
Amid complications for the 34-nation FTAA, some countries now are pursuing smaller, less ambitious accords. Washington hopes to conclude a free-trade pact by early next year with five nations in Central America, small countries that don't compete much with U.S. soy, wheat, steel and other key U.S. industries fighting free-trade.
Ecuador's President Lucio Gutierrez said Tuesday that his South American nation, which produces mainly bananas, shrimp, flowers and oil, also seeks to negotiate a U.S.-Ecuador free trade pact.
Still, a top U.S official was quick to remind the conference that more open trade is no panacea.
"Trade and tourism will not bring democracy to Cuba," said Otto Reich, the White House envoy to the Americas, rejecting a bill in Congress to effectively end U.S. travel restrictions to the island. He noted Europe's travel and trade with Cuba has not ended a "totalitarian" regime.
To thwart poverty, Reich said, freer trade must be accompanied by economic and political reforms, including a fight against corruption, which he called "the single largest obstacle to development."
Ecuador's Gutierrez appealed for international help in that struggle too, urging the extradition of bankers living in Florida and elsewhere who were involved in Ecuadorian bank scandals and who would stand trial in Ecuador, plus the return of funds deposited abroad by those bankers found guilty.
The talks came in the first day of the seventh annual Americas conference, sponsored by The Miami Herald. The meeting is to conclude today with speeches by El Salvador's President Francisco Flores, Nicaragua's President Enrique Bolaņos, Trinidad-Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning and by video, Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe.
Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5009.
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