ARGENTINA: Summit ends as Leaders from around the Americas meeting in Mar Del Plata fail to end free-trade stalemate.

Record ID: 447970

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Summit ends as Leaders from around the Americas meeting in Mar Del Plata fail to end free-trade stalemate.
  • Date: 6th November 2005
  • Summary: MEDIA
  • Embargoed: 21st November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAAL1S5N73WOESRHAJEXU5AGZV2
  • Story Text: Leaders from around the Americas failed on Saturday (November 5, 2005) to resolve key differences over how to create a hemisphere-wide free trade zone during a regional summit overshadowed by violent anti-U.S. protests. The Bush administration insists a regional free-trade agreement stretching from Canada to Argentina would give new markets to American businesses and help create jobs and greater propensity in Latin America. U.S. officials say 29 of the 34 countries represented in the talks are behind the proposal. "There is a group of countries that believes it can continue negotiating (the free trade agreement) ALCA as it is written at this moment," said Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa. "That's one group of countries. There's another group of countries-- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela-- that believe the proper conditions do not exist to continue negotiating ALCA." Talks on creating the U.S.-proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, have been stalled and the Bush administration had hoped to jump-start discussions here to establish the world's most populous free-trade bloc. The United States, Mexico and some other countries had been hoping to set an April date to move the trade talks forward. Although the move is opposed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, Bielsa said the free trade agreement was not dead. "If a process of economic integration lacks a legislative and egalitarian character, lacks effective access to markets, lacks freedom from subsidies and distortive practices, it is effectively dead. If it has what I just said, it is not dead." But Chilean President Ricardo Lagos said differing views over how to proceed persisted at the two-day summit in this Argentine seaside resort where talks extended hours after a deadline. In comments to reporters in Mar del Plata, Lagos suggested that talks between regional leaders had at times been tense. "Something happened here that rarely happened in other meetings: the call to speak out loud was taken up by everyone," Lagos said. "At times, we all talked out loud, perhaps too loud, but it made the meeting that more interesting. The United States and Mexico had been hoping to set an April date to move the trade talks forward, a move opposed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Washington's most aggressive antagonist in the region for his self-styled socialist revolution, arrived at the fourth Summit of the Americas vowing to "bury" efforts to move FTAA forward. The region's most ardent free trade critic, Chavez has criticized the plan, calling it detrimental to Latin American workers. He came to the meeting vowing to "bury" efforts to move FTAA forward and rallied 25,000 anti-free trade protesters on Friday. "Most people still do not know how terrible the ALCA proposal is," he said. "Even some of those who defend it don't know the poison that ALCA is." Although not outrightly opposed to FTAA like Chavez, leaders from Latin America's big agricultural economies Brazil and Argentina have also voiced concern over any free trade deal, complaining about U.S. farm subsidies. A final declaration, which came hours after a scheduled deadline, reflected the division, with dissenting countries calling for any future talks to begin after a World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong in December.
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