MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New thrust for FTAA?but with flexibility.

Four of Latin America's main leaders agreed to grant the US sponsored Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, a greater thrust. However they also pointed out that this must be done “with flexibility so as to benefit the weakest and poorest nations”.

Speaking at the end of the Ibero-american summit held this Saturday in Bolivia, president Vicente Fox from Mexico, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from Brazil, Argentina' Nestor Kirchner and Chile's Ricardo Lagos underlined they were committed "to continue forward with the FTAA negotiation, but with great flexibility, and above all favouring the economic and social development of the poorest countries and weakest economies".

The FTAA agreement must include compulsory clauses but also some "voluntary clauses" that can act as caveats for the weakest economies, said President Lagos.

Mexican president Fox insisted that it would be a mistake for the big nations to see FTAA as an only opportunity to gain markets and make business".

"The main condition is that such an agreement benefits the weaker economies emphasizing social and human aspects, we're talking of sustainable growth, if not it would not make sense", he added.

The statement from the four countries is encouraging for the coming Miami FTAA summit scheduled November 20/21 when crucial decisions must be adopted if the timetable of 2005 is to be reached.

United States and Brazil, who co-chair the FTAA final rounds, and following the fiasco of the recent WTO Cancún ministerial meeting, have anticipated that they will jointly sponsor a proposal by which each country can exclude from the negotiations those issues that are considered "sensitive".

"We agreed to go ahead with FTAA and give it a greater thrust since we see it as an opportunity for growth and for creating jobs", added president Fox.

President Lagos said the four countries (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Chile) had agreed to work in a common strategy to unbind and make negotiations more fluid.

"We also considered what type of proposals to present and we've agreed on some basics, if possible to have an FTAA that acts as minimum common denominator for all of us".

"We believe it's essential that the treaty encompasses the realities of each of the economies that make up the three Americas", insisted Mr. Lagos.

Chile is the only South American country that has a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States.