For years, civic groups from unions to clergy have complained that governments give them little chance to offer input into trade agreements.
While business groups meet every year before Americas' trade ministers' meetings and present their proposals to governments, civic groups claimed they were forced to the streets to make their voices heard.
Until now.
Organizers of this year's Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in Miami have set up a forum for civic groups that will run parallel to the business forum and will get equal time with trade ministers to present their views.
"We have provided in Miami, I believe, an opportunity for all points of view to be heard," said Luis Lauredo, the event organizer who helped arrange the civic forum and the 90-minute session for sharing proposals with the ministers.
The Americas Trade and Sustainable Development Forum is set for Nov. 17-19 at hotels in downtown Miami where business leaders and government officials also will meet.
More than 200 participants are expected, many from think tanks but also from civic groups that range from Greenpeace to Brazil's coalition against genetically modified foods, according to staff at the University of Miami's North-South Center, which is helping to coordinate the forum.
Still, some civic groups call it too little, too late, and won't take part.
The AFL-CIO labor union federation said it found out about plans for the forum after it had started working on its own Americas labor sessions scheduled for the same time at the Gusman Center in Miami.
"We weren't part of the planning process until the process was already set," said Thea Lee, an AFL-CIO trade specialist during an FTAA debate earlier this week in Miami, sponsored by the University of Florida Law School.
Lee said many union members set to attend the labor meetings couldn't afford the $80 registration fee required to attend the civic forum. The union sessions are open to the public and free.
Lauredo said the $80 fee helps to cover expenses for the three-day event and pales next to the $400 registration charged at the business forum.
"You're walking away from a parallel meeting because, not labor, but its representatives with expense accounts, could not register?" he asked Lee incredulously at the forum. "That's hard for me to accept."
Lee said the AFL-CIO has invited trade ministers or their deputies to meet labor leaders at their forum but has no word yet if they might attend.
That's been the usual response by governments on FTAA for civic groups, she said. An FTAA committee set up to accept public opinions on the pact has offered no feedback on proposals or face-to-face contact, she said.
"At best, it's a mail box, at worst, a trash can," said Lee.
Lauredo said he saw no contradiction between FTAA critics taking part in the civic forum and also protesting on the streets -- as they have at FTAA sessions for years.
More than 20,000 people are expected to demonstrate with marches, concerts, rallies and other events outside the security perimeter, where business and civic forums and government meetings will be held.
Lauredo said there'd be "ample opportunity for peaceful demonstrations" but also "effective but subtle" security to handle an estimated 1 percent of protesters who may seek to cause disruptions in Miami.
For information on the civic forum, check the North-South Center Web site at www.miami.edu/nsc.
Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5009.
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