By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 6 2001 (IPS)

The Organisation of American States (OAS) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recommended to business representatives gathered in the Argentine capital to dialogue with civil society in order to provide a stronger foundation for the future Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

OAS Secretary-General César Gaviria and IDB president Enrique Iglesias addressed the sixth Business Forum of the Americas, held Thursday and Friday in Buenos Aires.

The creation of the FTAA occurred to leaders in the Americas “to bring improvements to society,” which means it should not be seen “as merely a commercial process,” said Gaviria.

He added that the talks on the creation of the FTAA were currently “more political than economic” in nature.

“Integration processes enjoy a strong image in society, while people in Latin America are getting tired of and resisting processes that merely entail an opening of trade,” he pointed out.

The popular support for integration is “one of the assets we have,” said Gaviria Thursday, speaking to the roughly 1,000 business leaders from 34 countries of the Americas meeting here prior to the Friday and Saturday gathering of the ministers in charge of foreign trade.

“We must demonstrate that the FTAA is much more than a free trade zone. We must show that the initiative will enable us to gain access to new markets,” he underlined.

Iglesias also referred to the need to see the negotiating process in a more political light. “This project is in need of social legitimacy, and that requires more dialogue with society if we want to move forward.”

The head of the IDB added that not only business leaders, but workers as well, were leading actors in the FTAA.

But while Iglesias was speaking before the Business Forum, thousands of demonstrators were protesting the continent-wide integration process in the streets of Buenos Aires, called together by the General Labour Confederation, one of Argentina’s three central trade unions.

The protest was the first of three demonstrations to be held over the next few days.

The demonstrators protested workers’ lack of participation in the discussions of a project that they say will affect the quality of employment and deepen U.S. hegemony in the region.

The Business Forum met, as usual, ahead of the gathering of foreign relations and trade ministers of the Americas, who are to approve a document to be submitted to the third Summit of the Americas, slated for Apr 20-22 in Quebec City, Canada.

The business discussion groups are similar to the official FTAA negotiating groups, which are divided into market access, agriculture, investment, services, government procurement, subsidies and anti-dumping, competition, dispute settlement, small economies and e-commerce.

As at the previous meetings on the FTAA, the business representatives take part in the first plenary session of the foreign relations and trade ministers, to set forth their proposals. The business sector is the only portion of civil society directly participating in the official talks.

“The ministers are informed of the consensuses we reach, in order for them to make better progress in their own strategies,” Enrique Mantilla, president of Argentina’s Chamber of Exporters, told IPS.

“After all, it is we who are risking our capital,” he said.

Mantilla acknowledged that there were differences between countries and productive sectors, as well as discrepancies on issues being negotiated. But he underscored the efforts being made to reach agreements without neglecting the interests of each nation.

The Latin American Association of Industrialists, meanwhile, also came out in favour of the FTAA, “as long as the schedule provides the time needed to bring about balanced, fair integration.”

The president of the Argentine Industrial Union, Osvaldo Rial, stressed the need to press for the elimination of U.S. farm subsidies and non-tariff barriers that affect free trade.

Rial pointed out that “we are negotiating with large protected economies, which, even if they only send us their left-over production, could completely flood our markets and cause the disappearance of the already lagging industries of many countries in need of investment.”

A number of the 34 countries taking part in the FTAA talks – Cuba is the only country in the region excluded from the process – have small economies, with Gross Domestic Products equivalent to the monthly turnover of mid-level U.S. transnational corporations.

Many of those small nations are the staunchest opponents to moving up the target date for the creation of the FTAA from 2005 to 2003, an idea promoted by the United States, Canada and Chile.

Experts, however, warn that even with longer timeframes, it will be impossible to overcome the differences and prevent unequal trade which, as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans remarked, could divide the continent between “winners” and “losers.”

The foreign relations and trade ministers have their work cut out for them. By late Saturday, they are to have reached consensus on a nearly 1,000-page document that still contained many bracketed items by Friday. The document is then to be signed by the heads of state and government in Quebec later this month.

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