U.S. warns FTAA targets may be missed

U.S. warns FTAA targets may be missed    After the sting of collapsed global trade talks last week, Bush administration officials are concerned about completing some targets of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement by January 2005.
   The FTAA includes 34 North American, South American and Caribbean countries. The FTAA concept originated in 1994 and promised to reduce and eliminate tariffs and non-tariffs to trade in the region.
   During the past year, some countries, especially those included in the South American Common Market (Mercosur), have expressed concern about the initiatives of the FTAA. Mercosur countries have proposed to confine the FTAA to tariffs, market-access rules, such as rules of origin and customs procedures, and dispute settlement.
   The Bush administration doesn’t believe the Mercosur proposal goes far enough. “A market-access-only agreement would be insufficient to promote economic growth and development,” Ross Wilson, the U.S. government’s senior negotiator for FTAA, told members of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation on Sept. 16.
   “There are real reservations about providing a high level of access to the U.S. market — permanent free trade — in the absence of some broader commitments on rules and disciplines of interest to us and others in the region,” Wilson added.
   At the World Trade Organization’s ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, Sept. 11-14, industrialized and developing countries failed to reach consensus on agricultural tariffs and market access.
   The U.S. position for FTAA regarding agricultural trade is to keep domestic supports, export subsidies and food aid off the table. Wilson said these issues would be better worked out in the WTO.