By Mario Osava
BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, May 13 1997 (IPS)

The 34 nations preparing to form the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) are aiming for a single indivisible agreement to be obtained by consensus, able to coexist with the subregional agreements.

Thus was the conclusion of the successive rounds of viceministerial meetings, according to the draft Joint Declaration to be signed Friday by the Trade ministers, previewed by IPS Tuesday.

The proposed document, drawn up by the Brazilian chairman of the meeting, pulled together all the advances achieved by the time the viceministers’ meeting was held in Rio de Janeiro a month ago.

For now, all they have to decide on is the when and how, the focusses to be taken and the ways in which the founding negotiations will be carried out.

A prior agreement on these questions is essential for the Presidents to be able to announce the opening of the negotiating process at the March summit in Santiago, Chile, in March 1998.

With no possible agreement in sight this week in Belo Horizonte, some points – like whether to negotiate in stages or all at the same time – will have to be left until the upcoming ministerial meeting in Costa Rica in February.

Consensus as “a fundamental principle of the FTAA decision making proces” is the first of the “main points of convergence” common to the five negotiation proposals put forward by the Andean Community, Canada, the Caribbean group, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the United States.

It was also agreed the final accord would cover the commitments and rights assumed under “the form of a global, unique and indivisible package of results,” including “all the thematic areas under discussion.”

“No productive sector” will be excluded “a priori,” but “special treatment may be possible for certain products,” said the draft.

The coexistence with the already established American blocs, like the Mercosur and the Andean Community, has also been agreed, along with the need for “consistency with the World Trade Organisation agreements” and “clear and predictable rules of origin.”

A Steering Committee will be created for the future negotiations, which will take place in “a selected number of locations in the hemisphere.”

Another especially important point is that 2005 will be “the date from which that agreed in the future FTAA agreement will begin to go into practice.”

However, this issue generated doubts in the Rio de Janeiro meeting.

The draft Belo Horizonte Declaration “will reiterate” the decision taken in the 1994 Miami summit, where the idea ws launched “of concluding negotiations on the FTAA by 2005 at the latest.” In this case the agreement would only come into action in 2006.

This year of difference is important because the central discrepancy, which has pitched Canada against the United States on one side, and the Mercosur on the other, concerns the pace of the negotiations and the order in which to tackle the issues under discussion.

The southerners are interested in eliminating the non-tariff, technical and political barriers which make their exports to the United States more difficult.

Therefore, they hope to negotiate these issues in an stage prior to the removal of tariffs, while also defending “caution and gradual changes” in contrast to the northeners’ haste.

The Joint Declaration of Belo Horizonte means the viceministers will have to meet up at least three times more before the IV meeting of Trade Ministers, in February 1998, asking the host country, Costa Rica, to chair the process.

Deadlines were also set for the twelve thematic Working Groups to finish their work on terms of residence which will help with the negotiations. The most recent group, on Conflict Resolution, and the most difficult, on the Access to Markets, should be presenting their reports by the end of 1998.

The official meetings of Belo Horizonte started Tuesday, including the negotiating diplomats who dominate the meeting on the level of viceministers and amongst the nearly 2,000 participants of the Business Forum of the Americas.

The atmosphere generated in recent days by declarations from important authorities has not helped in the quest for consensus undertaken by the diplomats.

Brazil’s President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who will present a speech to the meeting Friday, put more fuel on the fire when he stated Monday that US trade restrictions – like those affecting his nation – must be eliminated as a pre-condition for the establishment of the FTAA:

Cardoso added that “hemisphere integration depends far more on the capacity of the Northern countries to effectively open their markets” than on “the disposition of the South.”

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