MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A more flexible FTAA.

Delegates from United States and fifteen other hemispheric countries meeting over the weekend in Virginia have apparently discovered the word “flexibility” which should help push aside fears of failure in the coming Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, and ministerial summit to be held in Miami.

Argentine and Brazilian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Rafael Bielsa and Celso Amorim described the Virginia meeting as "positive and realistic", during which there was "a contribution of ideas for the coming agenda" of the Miami encounter November 17/21.

Robert Zoellick US Trade Representative also shared Argentine-Brazilian optimism about Miami saying flexibility had become the crucial word.

"The idea of the meeting was not to reach specific agreements on different products but rather determine the degree of flexibility among country members to keep advancing with FTAA", said a reliable Brazilian source.

However the issue of bilateralism vis-à-vis multilateralism remained and progress is particularly up-road.

Mr. Bielsa in a brief exchange with the press said that the Argentine position regarding FTAA was of "non confrontation", adding that it must be a "fair association which enables Argentina to grow and create more jobs".

"We need palpable benefits from FTAA. Argentina is determined to solve problems but we must also show our people that these agreements don't confront or delay our priorities", said Mr. Bielsa.

Chilean Foreign Secretary Soledad Alvear said that the original FTAA included all issues and a great level of ambition, "which nowadays does not seem viable and we're now trying to find an equilibrium point for all the different member-countries' flexibility stance".

To that purpose Chile and Canada have made a proposal regarding the degree of trade liberalization the different FTAA member countries are willing to accept, and compatible with WTO regulations, "which should help better define flexibility".

Ms. Alvear described FTAA as a major political and economic project for Chile "that will allow us a convergence of the diversity of regional agreements" the country has.

"FTAA represents 45% of Chile's foreign trade, 70% of foreign investment and almost all Chilean investments overseas", argued Ms. Alvear.