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US acknowledges difficulties to embody FTAA in 2005
US ambassador to Brazil Peter Allgeier acknowledged here on Monday that there exist difficulties to embody the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement in 2005.
"The discussion includes the opening of markets to industry, technology, telecommunications and agriculture. It is a very complex panorama," said Allgeier, who is co-president for Commercial Negotiations Committee of
FTAA.
Addressing a technical meeting of presidents of the nine FTAA discussion boards, Allgeier said the United States still considers 2005 as a feasible deadline for the materialization of
FTAA.
While stressing "there are many difficulties in the process to sort interests out," he reiterated Washington's stance to hold a multilateral discussion of the issues of agricultural and internal subsidies within the framework of the World Trade Organization
(WTO).
Brazil has suggested that the South American Common Market (Mercosur) and the United States discuss the issues between them.
"The most ambitious position to be presented at the WTO (ministerial meeting in Mexico) is the elimination of agricultural subsidies. But the US position on the issue cannot be separated from that adopted by the European Union and Japan, which have the highest levels of subsidies," Allgeier said.
According to Allgeier, the United States only channels 19 billion US dollars a year in agricultural subsidies, remarkably lower than the 62 billion of the EU and 30 billion of Japan.
He said negotiations on the subsidies issue could only be conducted within the framework of the
WTO.
"For the United States to eliminate subsidies within FTAA, it will be necessary for the rest of the countries resorting to the same resources to do the same," he said.
FTAA is aimed at eliminating trade barriers across the Americas. If materialized, it would become the world's largest free trade zone with 784 million potential consumers, stretching from Alaska,the United States, to Argentina.
Brazil offers to host Colombian peace talks
Brazil said on Monday that it is willing to offer its territory for a landmark meeting between Colombia's largest rebel group and the United Nations in an effort to put an early end to the four-decade civil war in Colombia.
"Brazil is always prepared to contribute to finding a negotiated solution that respects Colombia's sovereignty," said Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, in a prepared statement released on Monday by the press.
"In case there is a formal request from Colombia and the United Nations, Brazil will examine the request," he added.
The Colombian government and the 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had held futile peace talks in Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba before the latest talks broke down in February 2002.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who took office in August 2002, has adopted a tough policy against the leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries in the Andean country.
The FARC recently proposed to Uribe to hold talks on an agreement for the exchange of 60 hostages it holds, including politicians, three US citizens, and members of the military, for 500 imprisoned rebels.
The Colombian government has rejected the exchange if the United Nations does not act as a mediator.
Colombia has been ravaged by a four-decade-old civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries fight one another. About 3,500 people, mostly civilians, are killed in the internal conflict every year.
Central American countries, Canada negotiate on free trade pact
Four Central American countries and Canada started a new round of talks on Monday in Miami, the United States, for a free trade agreement
(FTA).
Reports reaching here from San Salvador, capital of El Salvador,said El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua want to exclude from the FTA a series of products for "political or technical reasons."
Salvadorian Economy Minister Miguel Lacayo said the latest round opened with a meeting of the trade ministers of the four Central American countries.
Trade officials will then meet with Canadian representatives Tuesday to close the short-term talks, he added.
Lacayo said that among the pending negotiation issues are
labor, textiles and garments, sugar and meat.
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