MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil proposes a “light” FTAA.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's main foreign policy advisor Marco Aurelio García forecasted that the United States sponsored Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, could become effective according to the tentative timetable but “in a far less embracing way than Washington pretends”.

"We believe in a more modest FTAA, a "light" FTAA, for January 2005, leaving complex affairs for future negotiations", said Mr. García when addressing the International Socialist Congress that is taking place in Sao Paulo.

The Lula da Silva administration fears the overwhelming hegemony of the US and is more inclined towards an FTAA drafted as an aggregate of general rules regarding free trade and mechanisms to solve disputes, leaving for a more appropriate opportunity direct negotiations with the United States regarding the liberalization of agriculture and industrial goods.

The US is pushing for a comprehensive FTAA involving the 34 countries of the three Americas and extensive to a whole range of issues such as agriculture and industrial goods, investments, government purchasing patents and services.

"We are defending our interests in the same way the US is defending their interests. They don't want to talk in FTAA about farm subsidies, and we don't want to address issues such as government purchasing, services and patents", indicated Mr. García who added that "Brazil's position is shared by Mercosur country members, particularly Argentina".

Mr. García also underlined that 2004 is presidential election year in the US and it's hard to see "Republicans or Democrats being generous in sensitive issues for the American electorate, such as farm subsidies and protection to the steel industry".

Brazil's declared policy has been to first consolidate a solid Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) in association with the Andean Community countries (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela) creating a strong South American block.

However, Chile has a bilateral free trade agreement with the US; Peru has began talks for a similar accord; Colombia is conditioned by the strong US military and economic aid to fight guerrillas and drug lords, and Mercosur small partners Uruguay and Paraguay, with vulnerable financial situations, are not entirely convinced about unnecessarily upsetting Washington.