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 Business News | November 2005 
President Fox Says Hemisphere Trade Talks Possible Without Dissenters
 Nestor Ikeda - Associated Press
| | Mexican President Vicente Fox gives a press conference before the start of the second day at the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, November 5, 2005. (Reuters/Ivan Alvarado) |
Mar Del Plata, Argentina – President Vicente Fox said Friday that a majority of the nations in the Western Hemisphere will consider moving forward with negotiations to create a huge new free trade zone without the participation of dissenting nations like Venezuela.
Speaking to reporters at the fourth Summit of the Americas, Fox said 29 of the 34 countries participating in the event support such a move. Besides Venezuela, the dissenting countries include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Fox said.
Top-level negotiators at the summit have failed to agree on key language aimed at starting talks next April for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. The trade zone would eclipse the European Union as the world's largest, but its creation has been stalled for years.
Fox came to this seaside resort planning to push the FTAA negotiations forward, but told reporters that a bilateral meeting that was scheduled between him and Argentine President Nestor Kirchner for Friday was canceled.
He said Kirchner "must do more to save this conference."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez bitterly opposes the idea of the 34-nation FTAA, and has vowed to "bury" it at the Americas Summit.
The other countries, all members of the Mercosur trade bloc, do not oppose the FTAA but have been reluctant to set a date at the summit for key high-level talks to move forward on negotiations.
U.S. President Bush says the FTAA would generate wealth, create jobs and help lift tens of millions of Latin Americans out of misery.
About 10,000 protesters who have gathered in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata to protest the summit insist the zone would enslave workers and benefit big American companies.
Associated Press Writer Alan Clendenning contributed to this story from Mar del Plata. |
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