FTAA Trinidad Talks End In Deadlock

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

07 October 2003

The FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) talks in Trinidad and Tobago broke up without agreement last week with the United States and Brazil deadlocked on the issue of tariffs, leaving much ground to be made up to achieve a scheduled agreement by 2005.

At issue is the scope of the agreement. The United States is pushing for a wide-ranging FTAA deal that will cut tariffs on manufactured and agricultural goods whilst reinforcing rules covering trade, investment, intellectual property and government procurement.

Meanwhile, Brazil is proposing a more streamlined and focused arrangement which envisages a series of bilateral tariff agreements and a hemispheric agreement on dispute resolution which leaves more serious issues to be dealt with at the WTO (World Trade Organisation).

The next FTAA meeting is a ministerial conference to be held next month in Miami, and as Deputy US Trade Representative Peter Allgeier observed, all 34 countries will have to push for "as much compromise as possible," reports Reuters.

Once the negotiations are complete, the FTAA will be the largest free trade zone in the world with its 34 members representing some 800 million people.

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