Chief negotiators of the Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement (FTAA) are reportedly keeping an eye on Brazil, co-chair for the process that is expected to remove tariffs that hamper the free movement of goods, according to Trade and Industry Minister, Leslie Miller.
Minister Miller said in an interview with the Journal yesterday that much of the attention is now focused on Brazil because how that country proceeds may be a determining factor for other nations.
“I believe the FTAA concept will not fly without Brazil,” Minister Miller said. “Brazil is the catalyst to FTAA. If there is no Brazil, there is no FTAA, because Brazil has almost 50 percent of the people. [It has] by far the biggest market in the entire region. Brazil is the catalyst. That’s the driving force,” Minister Miller said.
“As the process evolves, obviously there will be some setbacks, some deliberate and some will just naturally occur. I believe the process will be slowed.”
Expected to encourage economic growth, the major objectives of the FTAA were established in the Summit of the Americas Declaration of Principles in Miami, Florida back in 1994. The comprehensive agreement is envisioned to be consistent with World Trade Organization rules on regional agreements.
Following a meeting in Quito, Ecuador last fall, the United States and Brazil assumed the co-chairmanship of the FTAA negotiating process.
And as persons become increasingly anxious about mass migration due to the FTAA process, Minister Miller reiterated that there needs to be no cause for alarm.
“There’s no need for anyone to be overly concerned or to panic about this FTAA because the real, substantive dialogues are not going to be initiated until such times that the countries in the hemisphere agree on what goes into the proposed document…that in itself is a time-consuming process that would take years – and I’m talking about a minimum of five years to have the information disseminated,” Minister Miller said.
“The Bahamas is a small country with very little to offer. We export very little and small countries such as ours and obviously those in the Caribbean regions, will be looking for certain omissions to enable our economies to move on,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Minister Miller doubts that the trade liberalization process will meet its 2005 deadline.
Mr. Miller told The Bahama Journal that it is ambitious to complete negotiations by December 2004 with the expectation of having it enforced by the country’s respective legislatures by 2005.
οΎ
And although a referendum would make it clear whether or not the Bahamian people want the government to proceed with the FTAA proposal which will create the largest trade bloc in this hemisphere, Minister Miller doesn’t consider a national vote to be necessary.
He feels that due to the level of consultation that is ongoing regarding the Bahamas signing on to the FTAA, taking the referendum route is non-essential, particularly as the government doesn’t intend to sign on to any international or regional agreement that would adversely affect the Bahamian people.
Minister Miller is adamant that all 34 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean negotiating to sign onto the agreement, won’t reach any consensus during the time frame that was initially set. This, despite the FTAA being the driving force to remove tariffs.
“The difficulty is, once we would have attempted to agree and once that document would have been written – which hasn’t been written yet, not even a quarter of it – that document then has to go to those respective countries’ cabinet, then it has to go to parliament, then it has to be disseminated among the people of those respective 34 countries to enable true dialogue to take place,” Minister Miller said.
“Well, that is no way that could even conceivably happen between now and the year 2005. It’s just not going to happen. That is remotely possible,” he added.
Meanwhile, as debate heats up on the issue, Bahamians Agitating for a Referendum on the FTAA (BARF), intends to petition residents throughout the country, claiming that the FTAA is far too complicated an issue, not to be dealt with through a national vote.
But former member of the FTAA’s Working Group, Rick Lowe, feels that a referendum is not essential.
“It could be a very interesting educational period, but those people can have their town meetings as well and educate people on the cons of the issue…personally, I don’t agree. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” Mr. Lowe said.
“We’ve got to look after our interest and the way the talk is, you get cut-off it you don’t participate, so I think it is in our interest to participate.”
The government has repeatedly stated that it will not sign on to any regional or international agreement that would adversely affect the Bahamian people and the country’s sovereignty.
The Bahamas and other Caribbean nations are negotiating in some respects as a bloc – pressing for special considerations as smaller economies.
The Bahama Journal
