MAR DEL
PLATA, Argentina (Bill Cormier,
Associated Press) November 3, 2005
—
Leaders from 32
American nations and thousands of protesters are
demanding the same thing as they converge on
this seaside resort: jobs and better wages. But
they disagree on how to accomplish that goal,
with President Bush expected to push free trade
and demonstrators angrily opposed.
Few believe the two-day summit that begins Friday will solve chronic unemployment and poverty, and even those with jobs in the Atlantic resort of Mar del Plata, where the summit is being held, question whether Bush and Latin American leaders will end up crafting deals that help the poor.
"I don't know what free-trade agreements can do for us, and I don't even know what these presidents are going to talk about," said 66-year-old fisherman Dante Vitelo, hauling nets brimming with sardines to shore from the south Atlantic.
The fourth Summit of the Americas to be held since 1994 will focus on poverty reduction and economic development. Bush plans to announce several job-creation programs.
"We have a great opportunity to deal with job creation or poverty by putting a system in place that encourages economic growth and entrepreneurship," Bush told Spanish-language reporters Tuesday in Washington.
But an ideological battle loomed between Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and outspoken critic of what he calls an "imperialist" U.S. government.
Chavez, a leftist whose government has used the country's vast oil wealth to fund social programs for the poor, said Venezuela would object to any attempt by the U.S. to revive talks on a proposed hemisphere-wide free-trade zone, the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
"They are trying to include an article (in a summit declaration) to revive the FTAA. They aren't going to revive it even if they produce a 100,000-page document," Chavez told the Caracas-based TV channel Telesur in an interview Tuesday.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told business leaders Wednesday in Argentina that free trade is the best way to create wealth and improve living standards for tens of millions of Latin Americans living in misery.
He cited the example of the North American Free Trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States - saying the three nations have had cumulative economic growth of 40 percent since NAFTA was put in place in 1994.
"Without the free-trade agreement, these results would not have been possible," Gutierrez said.
But other countries do not want this weekend's summit to be about the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The effort to create a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone has made halting progress for years, with the United States and some Latin American countries far apart on a number of issues - including U.S. protections for American farmers.
Negotiators missed an original January deadline for wrapping up the talks even under a scaled-down two-tier approach that has been dubbed "FTAA lite" by critics.
Argentine negotiator Victor Hugo Varsky said negotiators were "advancing very slowly" as they decide what level of importance the issue should have in the summit's final declaration. "Some countries don't want any mention. Others want to progress toward a trade accord," he said.
Washington is not alone in support of talks on a hemisphere-wide free trade zone. Mexican President Vicente Fox wants the summit to nail down a date for the relaunching of negotiations on the issue, Mexican official Yanerit Morgan Sotomayor said in Mexico City.
Few believe the two-day summit that begins Friday will solve chronic unemployment and poverty, and even those with jobs in the Atlantic resort of Mar del Plata, where the summit is being held, question whether Bush and Latin American leaders will end up crafting deals that help the poor.
"I don't know what free-trade agreements can do for us, and I don't even know what these presidents are going to talk about," said 66-year-old fisherman Dante Vitelo, hauling nets brimming with sardines to shore from the south Atlantic.
The fourth Summit of the Americas to be held since 1994 will focus on poverty reduction and economic development. Bush plans to announce several job-creation programs.
"We have a great opportunity to deal with job creation or poverty by putting a system in place that encourages economic growth and entrepreneurship," Bush told Spanish-language reporters Tuesday in Washington.
But an ideological battle loomed between Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and outspoken critic of what he calls an "imperialist" U.S. government.
Chavez, a leftist whose government has used the country's vast oil wealth to fund social programs for the poor, said Venezuela would object to any attempt by the U.S. to revive talks on a proposed hemisphere-wide free-trade zone, the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
"They are trying to include an article (in a summit declaration) to revive the FTAA. They aren't going to revive it even if they produce a 100,000-page document," Chavez told the Caracas-based TV channel Telesur in an interview Tuesday.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told business leaders Wednesday in Argentina that free trade is the best way to create wealth and improve living standards for tens of millions of Latin Americans living in misery.
He cited the example of the North American Free Trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States - saying the three nations have had cumulative economic growth of 40 percent since NAFTA was put in place in 1994.
"Without the free-trade agreement, these results would not have been possible," Gutierrez said.
But other countries do not want this weekend's summit to be about the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The effort to create a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone has made halting progress for years, with the United States and some Latin American countries far apart on a number of issues - including U.S. protections for American farmers.
Negotiators missed an original January deadline for wrapping up the talks even under a scaled-down two-tier approach that has been dubbed "FTAA lite" by critics.
Argentine negotiator Victor Hugo Varsky said negotiators were "advancing very slowly" as they decide what level of importance the issue should have in the summit's final declaration. "Some countries don't want any mention. Others want to progress toward a trade accord," he said.
Washington is not alone in support of talks on a hemisphere-wide free trade zone. Mexican President Vicente Fox wants the summit to nail down a date for the relaunching of negotiations on the issue, Mexican official Yanerit Morgan Sotomayor said in Mexico City.
