LATIN AMERICA: Lula, Fox Vie for Leadership in Visit to G8 Summit

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos and Mario Osava

MEXICO CITY/RIO DE JANEIRO, May 30 2003 (IPS) - The presidents of Brazil and Mexico will ask, on behalf of Latin America, for more free and just international trade in their visit to the summit of the Group of Eight (G8) richest countries Sunday. But as the two promote their own proposals, they are expected reveal their muted dispute for regional leadership.

There is no guarantee that their demands will be met by the G8, made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. But that has not dampened the two leaders’ enthusiasm in setting forth their initiatives and vying for a leadership role, say observers in both countries.

Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his conservative counterpart in Mexico, Vicente Fox, were invited to meet Sunday in Evian, France with the heads of state of the G8, which is holding its annual summit Sunday through Tuesday.

The leaders of 10 other developing countries will also take part in the group’s annual meeting and submit their own requests to the G8 members.

According to an agreement that was adopted at a meeting of Latin American presidents in Peru, Lula and Fox will ask, on behalf of the region, for the elimination of farm subsidies and other protectionist measures which they say distort free trade.

They will also ask for support for strengthening justice and democracy in Latin America, a region that accounts for around five percent of the world’s combined gross domestic product (GDP) and where more than 220 million people live in poverty.

That will be the main thrust of the joint address by Lula and Fox, who are quietly fighting for political and diplomatic leadership in Latin America, Rafael Fernández de Castro, a researcher in international relations at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), told IPS.

Lula will also suggest the creation of a fund to combat hunger, which would be financed by the world’s wealthy nations, a portion of the debt servicing payments of developing countries, and a tax on weapons sales.

In the name of the governments of South America, he will also request that 20 percent of the interest owed by the region to the Paris Club creditor countries be converted into investment in infrastructure aimed at enhancing integration.

Fox, meanwhile, will ask for Mexico to be admitted to the G8 as an associate or permanent member, so that it can better represent Latin America’s interests, the president told reporters.

Mexico is the ninth largest economy, in terms of sheer size of GDP, in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which groups the world’s industrialised nations.

However, Mexico’s human development level, like that of Brazil, is far from the living standards of the G8 members, as indicated by the United Nations Development Programme human development index.

Another of Mexico’s proposals to the G8 will be to ask rich countries to bolster their assistance for poor nations, but also in new ways for those that have achieved "medium" levels of development, like Mexico, Brazil and most other Latin American nations.

The aim of that proposal is for medium-development nations to make ”the final leap to full development” by means of financing and the effective opening of global markets, said Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Ernesto Derbez.

Marcelo Jardim, head of the Europe department in Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Relations, warned that the G8 meeting would not offer tangible answers to the requests submitted there.

This is a gathering that ”is not seeking results, is not negotiating. It is assessing the international situation and reviewing priorities, especially economic ones,” given the current negative global outlook, Jardim said in an interview with IPS.

The fact that Brazil has been invited to the summit represents ”recognition of its growing international role, and its regional leadership based on cooperation and integration,” according to Jardim.

Along a similar line, Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, historian and international relations expert, noted that even if France does not produce major results, "Lula’s participation is important all the same, because it calls attention to the problems of South America, and to hunger in particular."

Furthermore, the Brazilian president’s attendance "affirms his leadership in the Southern Hemisphere, strengthens Brazil’s position in the international context and could produce other unforeseeable benefits."

Theotonio dos Santos, professor of international economy at the Federal Fluminense University, in Rio de Janeiro, supports that notion. The fact that Lula is taking part in the G8 summit "is of great political importance for affirming Brazil’s international role," he told IPS.

"It is a good moment for Lula, given that everyone, including the United States, in some way recognises the brutal social crisis caused by the economic policies applied in recent times, which demand the new policies to offset them" that the Lula administration is promoting today, said Santos.

It is clear that the creation of closer ties between the Brazilian president and his regional colleagues and the desire to create a commercially and politically integrated South America show that Lula aims to establish himself as a beacon for that continent, says Fernández de Castro, of Mexico’s ITAM.

Fox has also shown interest in leadership, but of the entire Latin American region. Based on Mexico’s proximity to the United States and the high trade volumes it has with the northern giant, the president offers to serve as the spokesman in Washington of the governments of the south.

In recent months, however, Fox has lost support from the United States due to his refusal to support the George W. Bush administration’s plans to invade Iraq. Mexico currently holds a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The Mexican president reportedly requested a brief meeting with Bush to take place during the G8 summit, but as of his departure for Evian, France, Fox had not received an answer.

Brazil did not support the war against Iraq either, but because the country is not on the UN Security Council it was not subject to the wave of Washington’s resentment and anger that Mexico was, commented Fernández de Castro.

According to Argentine-born journalist Andrés Oppenheimer, the Fox-Lula dispute for Latin American leadership is a reality, but he says, "I don’t think we’ll see any official declaration recognising it Nevertheless, I believe it will be an increasingly intense fight."

In any case, the presidents of Brazil and Mexico will be the voice of Latin America before the members of the G8, which hold just 10 percent of the global population, but concentrate 60 percent of the world’s financial wealth.