MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Insulza sees tough going for FTAA at summit

OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said in an interview published Wednesday that he believed it would be hard to make progress on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) at the Summit of the Americas, which will be held later this week in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

"I think it will be difficult to end the deadlock on the issue of the FTAA without first making progress on the Doha Round" in the broader World Trade Organization scheme of things, Insulza told the El Mercurio newspaper.

He said talks on the FTAA have encountered the same problems affecting the WTO process, with agricultural subsidies proving to be the most contentious issue.

"This issue is absolutely non-negotiable for many developing countries in the world, and some of the main parties in the talks, such as Brazil and Argentina, are in the region," the head of the Organization of American States said.

The Bush administration had been pushing for approval of the FTAA, which would eliminate trade barriers from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, by this year. But the talks bogged down, mainly over the huge subsidies that the United States, and to a lesser extent Canada, pay their farmers.

Big Latin American agricultural exporters, including Brazil and Argentina, say the subsidies distort markets and harm their economies.

Insulza said that if the nations of the Americas went to the WTO meeting next month in Hong Kong with a common position, "that would be a major advance." "But, I sincerely do not believe that at the summit (this week) we are going to resolve the issue of the FTAA," Insulza said.

Insulza nonetheless defended the Mar del Plata summit, which some observers have criticized for having unclear goals.

"The theme of the summit is tremendously relevant. The principal problem in the region is poverty, lack of jobs and the way in which these two obstacles - linked together - affect governability of the countries," Insulza said.

The summit's slogan is: "Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance."