Madrid, July 15, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Brazil, Chile, and Argentina made an important move in their negotiations with the United States over the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). At the meeting, in September, in Mexico, of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the three countries will stand firm together, without differences in their interests.

The three countries assumed this compromise on Monday (14), in England, at the Progressive Governance Summit, attended by the presidents of the three countries: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Ricardo Lagos (Chile), and Néstor Kirchner (Argentina). "Brazil is convinced that the agreements should be negotiated as a bloc, and we want to fortify the Mercosur, because, the stronger we are, the more power we'll have to negotiate in the FTAA," Lula affirmed.

The President of Brazil underscored the need to discuss barriers that stand in the way of exports, especially when it comes to agricultural products from developing countries. The FTAA negotiations are scheduled to end in January, 2005. From Lula's point of view, it is essential to discuss how to prevent the loss of competitiveness on the part of poor countries, once the FTAA goes into effect. "The US wants to submit everything in which they are interested to the WTO. Therefore, if it is not possible to discuss all that we want by 2005, we should also present these questions at the Doha Round," he declared.

As far as Mercosur integration goes, Lula pointed out that he is supporting the entry of other countries, such as Peru, as well as working on behalf of improving relations with the European Union. "Since we don't want to be frozen in time, we are struggling for the Mercosur to become a solid bloc," he added.

The President of Chile, Ricardo Lagos, underscored that the three countries will also present an infrastructure proposal to Uruguay and Paraguay, as part of their Integration Actions, to obtain international financial backing. "Within 60 days, we have to provide a very concrete response to the question of how our geographical integration will be carried out," Lagos said. He received an immediate "thumbs-up" sign from Kirchner. (DAS)