MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FTAA conditioned to US subsidies elimination.

Mercosur said that there won't be any Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, “until the United States puts an end to subsidies”.

The harsh statement from Eduardo Duhalde, president of Mercosur Committee of Permanent Representatives follows US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick criticism claiming Brazil and Argentina were deliberately blocking a hemispheric trade agreement.

Speaking before leaving for Santiago where he was invited to the APEC summit Mr. Duhalde said FTAA negotiations "are still on" but United States that has given Mercosur "a rough time", is determined to impose its position.

"Mercosur is United States main competitor in crops and cattle. We are not asking them to brush away subsidies overnight, but yes a ten year program for their definitive elimination", argued Mr. Duhalde.

Earlier in the day Mr. Zoellick stated that the "APEC message to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay is quiet clear, in the FTAA negotiations we had non ambitious partners and we ended with a basic agreement which did not proliferate".

"Mercosur will not change its position" in spite of "voices favouring situations which are contrary to the interests of the region" and the fact that something as simple "as free trade, means free trade".

Mr. Duhalde is scheduled to talk at the APEC summit about the South American Union project which will be officially launched next December 9 in Peru and will comprise all South American countries including the Guyana.

The former Argentine president also insisted that the International Monetary Fund "must change its policies" because it can't sustain a line of action which "led Argentina down the path of total economic collapse".

"We can't forget that IMF policies and advices caused the collapse of Argentina in the nineties, amidst a lot of big money deals".