Reuters
March 7, 2001
By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- An environmental group filed suit Wednesday to force the Bush administration to release U.S. negotiating documents for a proposed free trade agreement covering most of the Western Hemisphere.

"The USTR is willing to give these documents to 33 foreign nations, but not the American public," said Stephen Porter, attorney for the Center for International Environmental Law.

Earthjustice, formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, filed the suit after the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) office refused a request to make the documents public.

"To hide what it is doing from concerned citizens is shameful for a government that considers itself the world's model for democracy," Porter said in a statement.

U.S. trade officials said they had not yet seen the lawsuit and were not prepared to comment.

President George W. Bush has made completing negotiations on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement a top trade priority. The pact would essentially expand the North American Free Trade Agreement to every country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba.

The current goal for implementing the FTAA is Jan. 1, 2005. But U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday he would "be delighted if it could enter into force before then."

The United States hopes to use two key meetings in April to push up the timetable for the talks.

The first is a trade ministers meeting in Buenos Aires the week of April 4-6. The second is Bush's first summit meeting with 33 Western Hemisphere leaders in Quebec City on April 20.

At the hearing Wednesday, Zoellick described the proposed FTAA as a "historic" opportunity to solidify economic reforms and democracy in the region.

Martin Wagner, director of international programs for Earthjustice, said democracy was thwarted by USTR's decision not to release the negotiating documents.

"If citizens are kept in the dark until negotiations are completed, they will never be able to provide useful advice concerning rules that directly affect their lives and their health," Wagner said in a statement.