AMERICAS:
FTAA Sneaks into Summit Declaration
Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jan 13 (IPS) - The Summit of the Americas came to a close Tuesday in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey with a declaration asserting that the hemisphere-wide trade treaty should move forward according to plan because it will foment growth.
The mention of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in the final text marked a defeat for Brazil and Venezuela.
The tug-of-war debate about the text of the summit's final document ended just before the national leaders put their signature to it. Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, signed it, but made it clear that the paragraph about the FTAA did not have his country's support.
The divergences between the United States and several Latin American countries made a mark on this special two-day meeting of presidents, which was convened in order to talk about equality, social development and democratic governance, issues that make up much of the final declaration.
Brazil and Venezuela opposed the inclusion in the text of any reference to the FTAA, saying it was not a theme of the summit. The United States, meanwhile, had tried to make trade a central issue.
Brasilia and Caracas challenge the FTAA model for integration, championed by Washington, and they question the January 2005 deadline for wrapping up talks on the treaty.
The deadline, endorsed in Monterrey, was established at the first Summit of the Americas, held in the U.S. city of Miami in 1994, under the auspices of the Organisation of American States (OAS).
Although in principle it is a project for creating a free trade zone from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, with the sole exception of Cuba, at the latest ministerial meet on the issue, held in Miami last year, it was agreed that each country could join the treaty under flexible terms.
For many of the social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean, the FTAA is seen as a project drawn up by Washington in order to expand its dominion and economic control over the region, and will drive millions into poverty and bankrupt local businesses that will not be able to compete with the big transnationals.
"The reiteration of the presidents that the FTAA is moving forward represents a defeat for Brazil and Venezuela, but also for the social movements that oppose the treaty," says Mexican political scientist Carlos Hernández.
Beyond the matter of the FTAA, which occupied just a few lines of the text signed in Monterrey, most of the points enumerated in the declaration are repetitions of other pronouncements made at previous meetings and forums.
According to the text, the governments promise to step up cooperation in the fight against corruption, against terrorism, and in fomenting trade and the development of small and medium enterprise.
The declaration also included an appeal to all creditors to take part in agreements aimed at debt relief for the poorest and most highly indebted nations, and to support their economic reforms and programmes aimed at reducing poverty.
The signatories also commit to reducing by half the costs of sending remittances. Many emigrants, particularly those who now reside in the United States, send money home to their families in their country of origin. The idea is to increase competition amongst the remittance companies in order to push prices down.
The Summit's final declaration entailed several days of intense negotiations among the governments' representatives, creating tensions between the United States and other countries even before the presidents arrived in Monterrey.
Just one week before the Summit, the deputy secretary of state for hemispheric affairs, Roger Noriega, maintained that Cuba was promoting the destabilisation of several Latin American democracies, and suggested that the effort was being financed by Caracas.
Noriega also expressed concern about relations between Buenos Aires and Havana, and issued warnings to the Chávez government in Venezuela, which is facing a recall referendum sought by the opposition.
Argentina and Venezuela came back with some harsh words for Noriega.
Meanwhile, Buenos Aires and Washington discussed the agenda of a meeting in Monterrey between Argentine president Néstor Kirchner and his U.S. colleague, George W. Bush.
A central issue of that meet was Washington's concern about Argentina's proposal to pay back private debt holders - many of them U.S. citizens - with 75 percent cuts in title values.
Simultaneously, Brazil adopted control measures for U.S. travellers in that country, mirroring he policies implemented last week by the United States: collecting photographs and fingerprints of foreign travellers.
These differences between Washington and other governments of the region are still pending, but the Summit allowed for several bilateral meetings in which positions were expressed in a cordial climate.
In contrast, it proved impossible to organise a meeting between Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and Bolivian President Carlos Mesa to discuss the latter's demand for a sovereign outlet to the Pacific Ocean.
Mesa had requested an interview with Lagos to discuss the possibility of an outlet to the sea, lost in a war with Chile in the 19th century. But Lagos responded that the matter should not be dealt with at the Summit and stressed that it had been discussed on several occasions in the past.
Another president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is facing a wave of protests in Haiti, demanding elections. Dozens of people have died in the clashes.
Aristide took advantage of the Summit to announce that elections will take place within six months.
Summit host Vicente Fox, president of Mexico, said that the extraordinary meeting had served to reinvigorate commitment to the basic agenda of the hemisphere.
(END/2004)
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