Thread: Mexico's Fox: FTAA Possible Without Dissenting Countries

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Mexico's Fox: FTAA Possible Without Dissenting Countries

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina -(Dow Jones)- Twenty-nine countries in favor of a planned Free Trade Area of the Americas may establish it without the participation of five dissenting countries, Mexican President Vicente Fox said Friday.

Fox said these pro-FTAA countries - which include the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Chile - are discussing an alternative agreement.

The five dissenting nations include the four members of the South American trade group Mercosur - Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - which have opposed plans to establish a deadline for relaunching FTAA talks, as well as Venezuela, which outright opposes the region-wide trade deal.

Fox said he was "very unsatisfied" with the handling of the Summit of the Americas, which started Friday in this Argentine coastal town, because the agenda had excluded key issues such as the FTAA agreement and immigrant-rights concerns. He was speaking at a press briefing attended by the Associated Press.

He said the summit's host, Argentina President Nestor Kirchner, "must do more to save this conference."

http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/ap/200 ... 19002.html

Update 3: Fox: Majority Wants FTAA Negotiations
11.04.2005, 09:16 AM

Mexican President Vicente Fox said Friday that a majority of the nations in the Western Hemisphere will consider moving forward with negotiations to create a huge new free trade zone without the participation of dissenting nations like Venezuela.

Speaking to reporters at the fourth Summit of the Americas, Fox said 29 of the 34 countries participating in the event support such a move. Aside from Venezuela, the dissenting countries include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Fox said.

Top-level negotiators at the summit have failed to agree on key language aimed at renewing talks next April for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. The trade zone would eclipse the European Union as the world's largest, but its creation has been stalled for years.

Fox came to this seaside resort planning to push the FTAA negotiations forward, but told reporters that a bilateral meeting that was scheduled between him and Argentine President Nestor Kirchner for Friday was canceled.

He said Kirchner "must do more to save this conference."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez bitterly opposes the idea of the 34-nation FTAA and has vowed to "bury" it at the Americas Summit.

The other countries, all members of the Mercosur trade bloc, do not oppose the FTAA but have been reluctant to set a date at the summit for high-level talks to move forward on negotiations.

U.S. President George Bush says the FTAA would generate wealth, create jobs and help lift tens of millions of Latin Americans out of misery.

About 10,000 protesters who have gathered in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata to protest the summit insist the zone would enslave workers and benefit big American companies.

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