MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bielsa: Mercosur ready to retake FTAA talks

Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Rafael Bielsa denied Monday that the 34 hemispheric countries project for a Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, is “dead”.

In a column published in Clarin, Mr. Bielsa argues that it would be more correct to underline it depends on the "negotiating willingness" of some of the sides involved.

"FTAA has failed so far because of the misbalance in negotiations, but there's no impediment or conditioning which impedes us to continue advancing", said Mr. Bielsa adding that Argentina and its Mercosur partners (Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) are "ready" to resume negotiations "as long as they are fair", because there's a "commitment and a permanent interest in this and other projects to reach substantial improvements in foreign trade".

However the Argentine official also pointed out that it's essential to "strengthen economic convergence mechanisms" so as to avoid "confrontation scenarios" and stop "hegemonic projects", in direct reference to Untied States that is the main sponsor of the FTAA project, extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. "We're prepared to advance negotiations as long as they are fair", insisted Mr. Bielsa who defended the need to address the process "without any ball hall ideology on one side, or manorial avidity on the other".

FTAA negotiations which include all hemispheric countries, but Cuba, were launched during the II Americas Summit in 1998 in Santiago de Chile with the purpose of a gradual reduction of trade tariffs among the 34 countries involved.

However Mercosur unsuccessfully requested the elimination of United States and Canadian farm subsidies and no agreement was reached so far, regarding the opening services markets and investments.