MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“FTAA on track”, says US.

The Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, that should become effective in 2005 involving 34 countries of the Americas “is 90% concluded, although we still have to solve, agriculture and intellectual property, which are the toughest issues”, remarked United States Ambassador Luis Lauredo in Guatemala.

"Agriculture has always been something different. Politically very strong, even when it doesn't sound rational, it's like touching people directly, a very emotional issue. Intellectual property is a piracy problem", indicated Mr. Lauredo who heads the US team of negotiators in the FTAA framework.

Ambassador Lauredo revealed in an interview with Guatemala's main Sunday publication that the "overall negotiation is almost 90% completed, but agriculture and intellectual property in the document remain enclosed in brackets, meaning we've agreed on nothing. Our working methodology is that nothing can be agreed until we agree the whole package, and we must admit that the remaining 10% is by far the toughest".

However Ambassador Lauredo pointed out that the date for the FTAA agreement to become effective 2005 can't be modified since it's a commitment ratified on three occasions by the governments of the 34 hemispheric nations involved totalling 800 million people.

Mr. Lauredo also stressed some of the political aspects of FTAA saying that the agreement rests on two main pillars that complement each other, "reinforcing democracy and institutions in the hemisphere", which means addressing issues such as transparency, combating corruption, making elections effectively fair, plus economic reforms based on open markets.

According to Mr. Lauredo the country that has shown most caution towards FTAA is Brazil, although "we can't blame current president Lula da Silva for this".

"Brazil has always wanted to be leader of South American, but has never achieved it. Brazil is thinking of a block but every time they've come to the FTAA full sessions this hasn't worked out, and they finally even voted in favour of the closing date for the negotiations", stressed Mr. Lauredo.