The Free Trade Area of the Americas summit abruptly ended Thursday, a day earlier than expected, after ministers from 34 nations accepted a watered-down outline for creating a hemispheric economic community.
That document now becomes the framework for the next round of FTAA negotiations, which takes place early next year, with a goal of having a final agreement by early 2005. The agreement capped a weeklong series of trade events at the Hotel Inter-Continental and other downtown Miami sites.
At a hastily called news conference Thursday night, the ministers characterized the Miami summit as a success. The deal broke a string of repeated setbacks and perhaps set the stage for more concrete results next year.
''We got our work done a few hours early,'' U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said. ``We are moving the FTAA . . . into a new phase. We are negotiating it, not just seeking it.''
Zoellick's Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, contrasted the meeting's outcome with the September World Trade Organization talks in Cancun, Mexico, which collapsed after numerous countries walked out.
''The great difference is that everyone was dancing to the beat of their own drum,'' Amorim said of Cancun. ``Today we have reached a result that was all common.''
Yet the exuberance of the press conference contrasted with the pragmatism at the trade ministers' meeting earlier in the day.
At that highly secured meeting, several ministers characterized the compromise as falling short of expectations, according to an audience member who took notes for The Herald.
''This is not the comprehensive and wide-ranging agreement we would have wanted, but it reflects the reality of our region,'' said Soledad Alvear, foreign minister of Chile, which already has a free trade agreement with the United States. ``The political climate today is different than when the FTAA process was launched nine years ago.''
IN DOUBT
Hailed as a pivotal moment in hemispheric relations, the summit had been considered an opportunity for Miami to bask in its role as the gateway to Latin America and, perhaps, cement its bid to become home to the FTAA secretariat.
It is now no longer clear what form that secretariat might take, however, and the countries said they won't select a headquarters site until next summer.
The trade ministers ended the summit after endorsing a draft document that had broken an impasse between Brazil and the United States -- but which resulted in a proposed FTAA structure that critics have dubbed ``FTAA Lite.''
Specifically, the draft document allows an individual country to ignore the strictures of the FTAA that it doesn't like. The compromise was seen as a victory for Brazil, which had resisted calls to reform its laws in two areas that the FTAA is to govern: intellectual property like software and rules protecting foreign investment.
Conversely, the compromise was viewed as a setback for the United States, which has long pushed for an all-encompassing agreement.
Although several countries balked at the compromise, trade ministers said they felt obligated to accept it or risk a collapse of the FTAA process.
''From the Mexican point of view, the document is significantly below our expectations,'' said Mexican Economy Minister Fernando Canales, ``but we nevertheless understand that it is what was achievable.''
Business groups, lukewarm to the accord that pushed difficult decisions into the future, pledged to work with it.
''Today's decision has avoided having the door slam shut and gives us a chance for what can still be a very high quality agreement,'' said Frank Vargo, vice president for international economic affairs at the National Association of Manufacturers, in a statement.
But Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, said little had been achieved.
''All that was agreed was to scale back the FTAA's scope and punt all of the hard decisions to an undefined future venue so as to not make Miami the Waterloo of the FTAA,'' Wallach said.
The ministers refused a call from Venezuela to infuse human rights concerns into the FTAA pact.
''Human rights, cultural rights, social rights, the right to education, the right to access to goods and services are not reflected anywhere in this communiqué,'' said Wilmar Castro, Venezuela's production and trade minister, during the meeting.
Countered Didier Opertti, Uruguay's foreign minister: ``To open this document would mean a dangerous return to ground zero.''
TRADE HEADACHES
The summit occurred against a backdrop of increasing trade headaches for Washington, from the international outcry over U.S. steel tariffs to China's anger over new quotas on its textiles.
With the FTAA, Washington's biggest headache was a simmering dispute with Brazil, which wants access to the U.S. market for its agricultural products.
The United States, which protects citrus, sugar and other industries, insisted that farm issues be handled by the World Trade Organization, not the FTAA.
Reflecting American frustrations, U.S. Trade Representative Zoellick said Tuesday he will begin negotiating one-on-one trade agreements with many of the FTAA countries. But he said he would continue to pursue an FTAA, likening its creation to the fall of the Iron Curtain in terms of historical significance.
The goal has been to establish an FTAA by January 2005. However, that deadline could prove tough to meet. The draft document sets a deadline of Sept. 30, 2004, to finalize negotiations on tariffs, but doesn't give dates for dealing with any other issues under the FTAA's guidance.
Still, some experts said the crowning achievement of the Miami summit may simply be that the parties will keep talking.
''Instead of crashing and burning in Miami, these talks go forward with a framework agreement,'' said Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of the North-South Center at the University of Miami. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ © 2003 The Miami Herald and wire service sources.
