FTAA Minesterial postponement

Dear Global Justice Supporters,

Negotiations to complete the Free Trade Area of the Americas are crumbling
under the weight of injustice.

Following a contentious round of talks on reviving the agreement last month,
beleaguered trade ministers are throwing in the hat - unable to resolve any
of the differences which led to the near collapse of talks in Miami without
further "political intervention" by the heads of state.

This has great implications for their ability to complete the FTAA according
to schedule and represents another important victory for fair trade forces
mobilizing to derail the FTAA and expose its dangerous effects to all the
world.

Following the near complete gutting of the agreement at the FTAA Ministerial
in Miami, trade negotiators were sent back to the drawing board in an
attempt to revive the failed agreement in time for its scheduled completion
in January of 2005.

But after ten years of NAFTA, developing country governments are getting
wise to the duplicity of US negotiators who want to blow open the doors of
free trade with their countries without in any way addressing the damaging
effects the FTAA would have on their farmers, workers and environment.

Please read the exciting article below which outlines how plans for the
latest vice ministerial meeting on FTAA have been ³postponed² and what this
means for the new "more challenging" schedule to complete the FTAA.

Find out more how you can get involved with our efforts to block further
"political intervention" in the Americas at our FTAA home page ­ now
featuring resources on the latest front in the fight against free trade, the
Central American Free Trade Agreement:

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/ftaa/cafta/index.html

In Solidarity,
---
Jamie Guzzi,
Global Economy Campaigner
Global Exchange
415.575.5537 direct line
415.255.7296 x245
415.255.7498 fax
2017 Mission Street #303,
San Francisco, CA 94110
http://www.globalexchange.org

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Inside U.S. Trade - March 10, 2004

FTAA TNC Postponed Until April, Raises Doubts Over Final Deadline

An informal meeting of trade vice-ministers this week failed to resolve the
fundamental issue of what obligations all countries have to take on in the
Free Trade Area of the Americas, and as a result have decided they cannot
resume negotiations on the FTAA next week as originally scheduled, a U.S.
trade official announced today (March 10).



The delay of a March 18 &19 meeting of the FTAA¹s Trade Negotiations
Committee (TNC) until some time in April will make it ³more challenging² for
countries to meet the January 2005 deadline for the overall negotiations,
the U.S. official. Asked whether it would now be impossible to meet that
deadline, he said ³as we get into the negotiations we¹ll have to see what
[the delay] means for the schedule.²



The informal meeting of 12 vice trade ministers from FTAA countries in
Buenos Aires March 9-10 failed to resolve differences over what would be
included in the common set of FTAA obligations, as well as procedures for
negotiating plurilateral agreements as required in the Miami ministerial.



The trade vice ministers of all FTAA countries meeting as the TNC had been
unable to agree on these issues last month (Inside U.S. Trade, Feb. 13, p.
1). That meeting broke up with the U.S. and its supporters accusing Mercosur
of seeking excessive agricultural concessions while offering little in the
way of concessions on services, intellectual property and government
procurement in talks over what the common set of obligations would entail.
This fight stems from an inability of countries to reach agreement on the
exact meaning of the declaration countries agreed to in Miami last November.



The Buenos Aires meeting had failed to reach a ³high degree of consensus² on
language in ³several areas² that would have allowed countries to proceed
with the full TNC meeting on March 18-19 in Puebla, Mexico, the U.S.
official said. As such, he said, countries were of the opinion that it would
be ³more effective to have further informal consultations² than to proceed
to the TNC as scheduled.



A statement released by the U.S. and Brazil, the co-chairs of the FTAA, said
that as a result of ³the complexity of the task and good will expressed² the
co-chairs believe a request from ³some delegations² for ³additional time to
continue informal consultations² would be ³beneficial.²



The U.S. official said that the same countries represented at Buenos Aires
are set to meet again at the end of March for more informal talks. One
informed source said the new meeting of the full TNC could be scheduled for
April 22-23.



Despite the absence of an agreement, the U.S. official characterized this
week¹s talks as constructive because there were some suggestions floated to
move the talks forward. In some negotiating areas, countries have crafted
³specific language² aimed at reaching a compromise, the U.S. official said.



He said the U.S. and Mercosur had come closer to resolving their
differences, and that there had been ³movement in the direction of
convergence on key issues.² But he said that all the proposals floated this
week require that countries engage in consultations with capital based
officials. The official said he is confident that the remaining differences
on the common set of obligations can be worked out prior to the TNC
reconvening in April.



However, his characterization of a ³constructive² meeting drew fire from one
senior FTAA diplomat who said it is difficult to see how this week¹s talks
could be so described when the end result was a further delay in
negotiations. ³If they¹re postponing it (TNC) then the meeting produced
nothing,² the senior diplomat said.



Delaying the TNC for a month or more ³is not a good sign,² he said, adding
that the January deadline for concluding negotiations is likely ³not on.²



In order to resolve the stalemate over what the common level of obligations
should encompass, countries need to consider holding a mini-ministerial of
trade ministers similar to one held outside Washington prior to last year¹s
Miami ministerial, the senior diplomat said. The ability to resolve this
dispute has already eclipsed what vice-ministers are capable of doing, which
means it requires political intervention, he said.



But the U.S. official defended the strategy of delaying the TNC instead,
saying it is preferable to take more time now in order to develop clear
instructions for negotiating groups. This will ensure that those groups
³have fewer things to argue about² in the future, he said.



The official downplayed the suggestion that the U.S. and its allies might
devote most of their efforts in the FTAA to a previously announced
plurilateral agreement that they want to negotiate as a way of going beyond
the common set of obligations in areas such as investment, services and
government procurement (Inside U.S. Trade, Feb. 13, p.1).



Attending this week¹s talks were the U.S. and Brazil, the co-chairs of the
FTAA, the remaining three Mercosur countries Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay
as well as Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela and a representative
from the Caribbean Community.