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TRADE-AMERICAS:
FTAA
Dead but not Quite Buried, Say
Activists
Diego
Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) -
Activists and academics are
singing the requiem for the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),
a U.S.-driven initiative that
they say will soon be buried.
However, the governments that
have participated in the talks
are not yet talking about
failure.
According to the plans drawn up
in December 1994 by the heads of
state and government meeting in
the first summit of the Americas
in Miami, the FTAA negotiations
were to be completed by January
this year -- a deadline that was
missed -- and the free trade
area was to go into effect in
December, which is not likely to
happen.
The creation of a free trade
area stretching from Alaska to
the southern Argentine province
of Tierra del Fuego (leaving out
only Cuba) thus remains what it
has been from the start: merely
an ambitious notion.
”We wouldn't say the FTAA has
already been buried, but it's
clear that it is dead, or that
it was never even born, at least
not in the shape and form in
which it was first envisioned
over 10 years ago,” Héctor de la
Cueva, coordinator of the
Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA)
-- a regional grouping of Latin
American and Caribbean
organisations opposed to
”neo-liberal globalisation” --
told IPS.
Germán de la Reza, an academic
who specialises in regional
integration questions, described
the FTAA project as ”a flop”,
and said it was not likely to be
revived for at least 20 years.
”It's time to sing the requiem,”
he told IPS.
De la Reza said the governments
may formally launch the FTAA at
year-end, but he maintained that
any such announcement would
simply amount to the signing of
a document in which the
countries of the Americas would
sum up their existing trade
accords and express their
intention to continuing
negotiating further agreements.
The 34 governments taking part
in the FTAA negotiations are not
yet speaking in terms of
failure, with the exception of
the administration of President
Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, which
has also declared the FTAA dead.
Opponents in Latin America of
the free trade project that has
taken shape in the context of
the Organisation of American
States (OAS) have argued that it
is a neo-colonialist attempt by
the U.S. government and business
sectors to strengthen their
influence over the peoples and
countries of the rest of the
hemisphere.
The negotiations have been
stalled since early 2004 over
disagreements on issues like
farm subsidies, intellectual
property and government
procurement, said Luz María de
la Mora, the head of the
international trade negotiations
unit in Mexico, the country that
is hosting the last stage of the
FTAA talks.
However, ”there is a chance that
the FTAA will be born, because
although the negotiating process
is stalled, it could still be
revived,” she commented to IPS.
”By the end of the year, we
could have a less ambitious FTAA
that would certainly be
different from the one that was
proposed in 2004, but would be
just as real,” she added.
Argentina's Foreign Ministry
issued a statement on Mar. 6
warning that the FTAA talks
would remain at a standstill
until the United States gave off
”clear signals” that it was
willing to open up to products
from the rest of the Americas.
The communiqué reflected
agreements reached the day
before at a meeting in Buenos
Aires between the Argentine
Foreign Ministry's assistant
secretary for economic
integration, Eduardo Sigal, and
the director of the
international negotiations
department at Brazil's Foreign
Relations Ministry, Regis
Arslanián, who were discussing
the trade negotiations
undertaken by the Mercosur
(Southern Common Market)
members: Argentina, Brazil,
Paraguay and Uruguay.
Among the factors that have
gradually weakened the FTAA
project is Washington's refusal
to scale back its trade
protectionism, especially in the
area of agriculture -- a hurdle
that is also blocking trade
talks in the World Trade
Organisation (WTO), de la Reza
noted.
Other elements that have stood
in the way of progress are loud
protest demonstrations by civil
society, the emergence of
left-leaning governments in
South America opposed to the
free trade initiative to one
degree or another, and
Washington's shift in priorities
after the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks on New York
and Washington.
”I believe that what really
blocked the FTAA was the social
mobilisation, which will not let
up, because what the United
States is seeking now are
bilateral accords, that are just
as harmful,” said de la Reza.
According to the original plans
of those who came up with the
idea of the FTAA, the talks were
to have been completed, and the
agreement submitted for approval
to the legislatures of the
participating countries, by the
fourth summit of the Americas,
to take place in Argentina in
November.
But that will not be the case.
The draft of the final
declaration to be adopted at the
summit in Argentina merely
states that a paragraph
assessing the progress made
towards free trade in the
hemisphere, including the FTAA,
and pointing the way forward, is
to be included somewhere in the
document.
Due to the impossibility of
reaching a broad hemisphere-wide
agreement, the region's trade
ministers agreed in 2003 that
each country would join the FTAA
under flexible deadlines and
terms, and merely pledged to
continue negotiating.
But progress has not even been
made towards the ”FTAA lite”
version that was agreed in 2003.
In the meantime, the U.S.
government has been pushing
instead for bilateral accords,
or agreements with smaller
subregional groups of countries.
In early 2004 it signed a free
trade agreement (CAFTA) with the
Dominican Republic and the
Central American countries of
Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua, and it is currently
negotiating an agreement with
three Andean countries: Ecuador,
Colombia and Peru.
”Some governments aligned with
Washington may still be
interested in reviving an empty
FTAA agreement, but the truth is
that the original plan is dead
and will soon be buried,” said
de la Cueva.
The activist said a symbolic
funeral for the FTAA may be held
by social movements in the
region when they gather in
Argentina in November, parallel
to the summit of the Americas.
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