Brasília, November 20, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Yesterday (19), the minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Lafer, told the Parliamentary Summit on Continental Integration that the pursuit of overall balance in negotiations over the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is fundamental to making the economic bloc a reality. In his view, it is necessary to further debate of the various issues involved, through the negotiation of commitments capable of satisfying the minimal interests of every country in the continent - except Cuba.

Brazil, together with its Mercosur partners, assigns great importance to effective progress in the FTAA's agricultural negotiations, not only in terms of tariffs, but also with respect to the elimination of export subsidies in the hemisphere and the correction of all practices that distort trade in agricultural products, including practices whose effects are equivalent to export subsidies," Lafer added. (DAS)