FTAA Negotiations

CARICOM remains deeply concerned about the protracted impasse in Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations. 
 
Negotiations for the FTAA, a proposed 34-country hemispheric free trade agreement, broke down in February 2004 following failure by Senior Trade Officials to agree on the scope of obligations to be assumed by all FTAA countries, as well as procedures for the conduct of plurilateral negotiations.

Attempts by the US and Brazilian TNC Co-Chairs to revive the talks have been unsuccessful.  The FTAA faces several competing agendas both in the hemisphere and globally, which diminish its political and economic priority for several countries in the hemisphere.  For example, MERCOSUR, in particular Brazil, is seeking to consolidate its own sub-regional integration process, and has embarked on an aggressive campaign to extend and consolidate trade relations and other strategic alliances within and outside of Latin America.

At the hemispheric level, the US has pushed ahead with separate, faster bilateral trade agreements with several countries involved in the FTAA process.  This has prompted a re-evaluation of strategic trade options by various countries in Latin/Central America, as regards utilizing the FTAA as a springboard for securing access to the US market.

The IV Summit of the Americas was held in Mar del Plata, Argentina in early November.  The Declaration of Mar Del Plata, issued at the close of the Summit, pronounces on the troubled FTAA negotiations, signalling two distinct views on the way forward for these talks.  Paragraph 19 (A) reflects the viewpoint of a group of countries committed to a “balanced” and “comprehensive” accord, while Paragraph 19 (B) takes account of the views of another group of countries, that view the conditions as not being in place to achieve a “balanced” and “equitable” accord.  These opposing views raise the spectre of further delays in reengagement in the beleaguered process. 

Further complicating matters, a link is made in the Summit declaration between the FTAA process and WTO talks.  However, hinging the former on the latter predicates forward momentum for hemispheric trade talks on multilateral trade talks.  Emerging from the Sixth WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong in December 2005 only incremental progress was made as regards the agenda for struggling WTO talks. 

Colombia offered to facilitate consultations.  The Declaration notes just such a role for Colombia, in connection with the convening of a meeting of officials.  This has heralded a new focus for Americas-wide trade talks, where initiatives such as the one taken by FTAA Members in August this year to convene a meeting in Mexico, primarily to discuss funding of the FTAA Secretariat, will likely be encouraged.  It would appear government-to-government interchange in directing the floundering FTAA process is receiving support.  This approach to engagement could prove useful, as criticism has been levelled at the Trade Negotiations Committee Co-Chairs over the last twenty months of hiatus in FTAA talks for not taking a leadership role in guiding the process.