U.S.
Set to sign free trade deal with
Chile
After eight years of negotiations and a last-minute diplomatic clash over the war with Iraq, the Bush administration is preparing to announce shortly that it will sign a free trade agreement with Chile next month in Miami, senior U.S. officials say.
The announcement is likely to be made by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick during a visit to Brazil this week, U.S. officials said. Zoellick will hold the first round of talks with Brazilian negotiators over a U.S.-backed plan to create a hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas, or
FTAA, by 2005, a proposal that Brazil is approaching with major reservations.
The bilateral U.S. free trade agreement with Chile was completed in December, when the two countries finished negotiations and enthusiastically announced its imminent signing. But when Chile opposed the U.S. war with Iraq at the U.N. Security Council this year, the Bush administration delayed the signing in what some officials privately described as a sign of displeasure with Chile's stand.
The administration is expected to sign the deal in the first half of June in Miami, at a ceremony expected to be presided by Zoellick and Chilean Foreign Minister Soledad
Alvear, sources close to the talks say.
Chilean officials have been lobbying hard in recent weeks for a prompt signing, after which the agreement will go to the U.S. Congress to be ratified. The accord will significantly lower tariffs on products traded between the countries.
Asked about the impending announcement, U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said in a telephone interview Sunday: ``We are optimistic that there will be an announcement very soon about the signing of the
Chile-U.S. free trade agreement, and we would expect that to be in an appropriate U.S. city outside of Washington.''
The announcement is likely to be part of a U.S. effort to pump new energy into the somewhat lethargic hemispheric trade negotiations.
During Zoellick's two-day visit to Brazil starting Tuesday, the two sides are to discuss how to conduct the last leg of the hemispheric negotiations. The United States and Brazil are the co-chairs of the talks.
Then, on June 13, the Bush administration is planning to host an informal meeting of 12 Latin American foreign affairs and trade ministers in Maryland, U.S. officials say. ''It will be a very informal brainstorming meeting'' to discuss in a broader regional setting whatever comes out of this week's talks in Brazil, a U.S. trade official said.
Among the participants will be the foreign affairs or trade ministers of Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
The talks are scheduled to lead to a 34-country ministerial meeting to be held in Miami in November.
One of the big questions this week will be whether Brazil will agree to finish the hemispheric free trade negotiations as scheduled in January 2005. Brazilian press reports in recent days have quoted aides to President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva as saying they want to postpone any agreement until 2007.
But U.S. officials say they won't agree to any postponement. ''We are not thinking in those terms. We are thinking of January 2005,'' one U.S. trade official said.
US
president signs 15-billion-dollar
bill for fighting AIDS
US
President George W. Bush on
Tuesday signed a 15-billion-dollar
bill for the global fight against
AIDS, saying it is a "moral
duty" for the country to
extend a helping hand.
The
bill will provide 15 billion US
dollars over the next five years
to fight AIDS in African and the
Caribbean countries.
At
a ceremony at the US State
Department, Bush said
"HIV/AIDS is one of the
greatest medical challenges of our
time" and that the United
States is "stepping forward
to help."
Bush
praised the US Congress for
approving the bill, saying
"This act of Congress
addresses one of the most urgent
needs of the modern world."
He
also praised African governments
that are acting responsibly and
aggressively to fight AIDS.
Bush
said he will urge other wealthy
nations to do the same thing at
the forthcoming G8 summit in
Europe. "I will challenge our
partners and our friends to follow
our lead and to make a similar
commitment" in order to save
more lives, he said.
2
US soldiers killed, 9 wounded in
Iraq attack
Two
US soldiers were killed and nine
others wounded on Tuesday when a
"hostile force" attacked
a US army unit in the Iraqi town
of Falluja, US Central Command (Centcom)
said.
The
"hostile force of unknown
size" attacked the US troops
with rocket-propelled grenades and
small arms, killing two soldiers
and wounding nine others, Centcom
said in a statement.
US
troops fired back, killing two of
the attackers and capturing six
others, according to the
statement.
Centcom
had earlier reported one dead and
seven wounded in the fire fight in
Falluja, some 50 km west of
Baghdad.
A
US Army Medevac helicopter was
damaged during the exchange of
fire when a Bradley Fighting
Vehicle accidentally struck it
while maneuvering into a firing
position, Centcom said.
The
units and identities of the dead
and wounded soldiers were being
withheld when next of kin were
informed, it added.
Powell
says no change in US policy on
Iran
US
Secretary of State Colin Powell
said Tuesday that his country
would continue to keep contacts
with Iran and has not changed its
policy on Iran.
"Our
policies with respect to Iran have
not changed," Powell told
reporters after his meeting with
Madagascar president Marc
Ravalomanana.
"Our
policies are well-known and I'm
not aware of any changes in
policy" on Iran, he said.
"We have contacts (with them)
and they will continue."
But
Powell stressed that the United
States is against what Americans
have accused of Iran's support for
terrorism and its efforts to
develop nuclear weapons.
"We
do not approve of their support of
terrorist activities. We have made
it clear over the years that we
disapprove of their efforts to
develop a nuclear
capability," Powell said.
Powell's
remarks were apparently a response
to a report by The Washington Post
on Sunday, which said the Bush
administration has suspended
contracts with Iran, part of what
Bush called "axis of
evil".
Officials
of the two countries had met
periodically to discuss issues of
common concern, including hunting
down the al-Qaeda operatives.
But
the Bush administration took the
move based on intelligence
suggesting that the al-Qaeda
operatives in Iran had a role in
the suicide bombings in Saudi
Arabia on May 12, the paper quoted
administration officials as
saying.
The
paper also reported that the Bush
administration appears ready to
embrace an aggressive policy of
trying to destabilize the Iranian
government.
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