MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

O'Neill personally apologizes

In the eve of his tour of Mercosur member countries, US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill personally apologized to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in three separate statements, following last week's remarks when he said that foreign aid to these countries ended in secret Swiss accounts.

Regarding Brazil Mr. O'Neill said he expects to meet President Fernando Cardoso, Finance Minister Pedro Malán and Central Bank president Arminio Fraga, "who have done an extraordinary job in sustaining strong fiscal and monetary policies".

Mr. O'Neill added he favors financial support to Brazil and other nations that work towards the building of strong, sustainable and growing economies. US Secretary of the Treasury indicated he wishes to meet businessmen and personally see how the policies of the Brazilian government have helped to build a solid foundation for the development and continuous flourishing of economic activity.

In Uruguay Mr. O'Neill will be meeting president Jorge Batlle and the economic team, to express the US ongoing support for additional financial aid to Uruguay from the IMF and other multilateral institutions, "as part of a wider solution to the recent difficulties of the country. Uruguay's commitment to sound economic policies merits the current backing of the international financial community".

As to Argentina, Mr. O'Neill will be checking government progress on the implementation of a sustainable economic program, and also expects to meet local businessmen, visit health and education institutions, "to have a better understanding of the real economy, social issues and the civil society".

"The people of Argentina have suffered great economic difficulties and we're anxious in finding the return to a position of soundness and stability".

Trade with the Americas

United States Congress finally granted the Bush administration special powers to negotiate international trade agreements. The Trade Promotion Authority, TPA, previously known as "fast track" had been denied to the White House by Congress since 1994 when President Clinton was in office.

After months of debate and bargaining TPA was approved in the Senate by 64 to 34 votes, including additional legislation to contemplate US workers that could be affected by new global trade policies.

The House of Representatives had approved the bill last Saturday by a very close margin basically on partisan lines. "This is a great and historic day for the United States", said US Commerce Secretary Donald Evans. President Bush had been pushing Congress for TPA since he took office eighteen months ago. "We can now show the world that United States can lead the creation of a new world consensus on international trade", stressed Senator Max Baccus, the Democrat that presides over the Finance Committee of the Upper House.

The Bush administration has an ambitious strategy of simultaneously reaching several regional and global trade agreements that should spur the US economy, create new jobs and bring an injection of trust and optimism to the depressed securities markets.

Among the agreements currently under negotiation is the Free Trade Association of the Americas, a far reaching understanding that would create an only free market from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, engulfing the whole of the three Americas with the only exclusion of Cuba.

The approval of TPA was hailed as a great advance in most of the Americas and particularly in Chile, the Andean Region and several Central American countries all of which are involved in advanced negotiations.

In the United States, mostly Democrats, trade unions, environmentalists and members of Congress with sensitive industries in their circumscription (such as textiles) were against the special powers legislation fearing future trade agreements could mean job losses in the United States and the non compliance of similar US labor and environmental legislation in associate countries.