TRADE-AMERICA: Business Forceful in Backing Integration

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Yadira Ferrer and Humberto Marquez

CARTAGENA, Colombia, Mar 20 1996 (IPS) - The 1,500 American business representatives called for greater liberalisation and less protectionism in the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in Colombia Wednesday.

Their proposals suggested the economic reform process in Latin America should be pushed ahead, to the point of imposing metrication on the United States, after first supressing the anti- Cuban Helms-Burton economic bill.

The Trade Ministers of 34 nations of the hemisphere, in Cartegena for the FTAA negotiations on Thursday, were presented with a list of general recommendations on economic and trade integration, and proposals to eliminate obstacles to the process in five specific areas.

The 34 governments planned in 1994 that the FTAA preparatory negotiations would be over by 2005, and the trade ministers met in Denver, the United States, in 1995 to get the ball rolling.

The two meetings in Cartagena were planned to run together, making an excellent trade opening for Colombia and supporting the private sector in the American integration process.

At the close of the Business Forum Wednesday, coordinator Jorge Ramirez said, “we have to forge ahead and this process cannot be slowed down nor turned round.”.

Business sector recommendations included keeping up the pace of reform and assuring the regional economies are “working with stability.”

Their document said the American nations must “avoid economic imbalances and take up growth once again: advancing in this direction to make the most of the benefits of the FTAA.”

These issues “are essential for the economic agents to participate and take advantage of trade and investment opportunities,” said Miguel Rodriguez, Venezuelan trade advisor for the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Secondly, the business community stressed “the need for efficient and effective State functioning” after the idea of a system to measure the efficiency of government offices came up during their discussions.

They said that “avoiding strategic and political considerations like the US Helms-Burton bill could render the free trade agreements and the expansion of their liberalisation ineffective.”

If brought into action this bill could suspend US visas for anyone carrying out business with Cuba, and their relatives, allowing US companies to take legal action against foreign groups using property from Cuba expropriated from its former owners.

“We are not thinking of Cuba’s problem but the precedent it will create for trade integration, because the United States is trying to submit non-US citizens to the jurisdiction of its laws and courts,” Canadian businessman James Kelly told IPS.

The business group called for greater participation in the FTAA negotiations, and they suggested the creation of an information network to help monitor the FTAA negotiations, “because the entrepreneurs are those who can definitively provide the most suitable support.”

Marco Ruiz of the Federation of Private Entities of Central America and Panama (FEDEPRICAP) said while the private sector “is the main actor in trade integration we have felt there are still no mechanisms defined for our direct participation in the working groups.

He said the best way to achieve this would be through institutionalising the eleven working groups already active, and the four additional groups to be added to the list Thursday.

These working groups are dealing with trade-related issues ranging from intellectual property rights, through customs and health regulations, to the competition and antidumping issues.

Ruiz said the technical secretariat formed by the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) should also make their documents available to the business sector.

The entrepreneurs also provided recommendations on customs procedures and origin regulations, technical norms, intellectual property, health and plant health issues and the trading of services.

Most of these aimed to speed up the process by opening access to official information and allowing the use of electronically transmitted documents, they also called for standardisation in labelling, environmental norms and metrication.

The entrepreneurs recognised “the need to have modern intellecutal property systems, which guarantee effective transparency in technology transfer and consumer protection.”

Stress was placed on the implication of these factors as facilitators of and not barriers to free trade.

They recommended the “accelerated liberalisation” of services as the exchange of professional services could oil the wheels of integration, calling for training programmes for negotiators, customs technicians and legal experts to anticipate the changes.