Brasília, October 23, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Ambassador Ademar Bahadian, Brazilian co-president in charge of negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), told the Senate Foreign Relations Commission that the United States intends to conclude an agreement along the same lines as the one concluded with Chile. According to Bahadian, the agreement with Chile is the reason that the Brazilian government is calling for such items as government purchases, investments, services, and intellectual property to be removed from the negotiating table.

The diplomat recalled that, since 1994, the US has had difficulty discussing issues related to the FTAA, such as agricultural subsidies and anti-dumping regulations. To make the Brazilian government's position clearer, the Ambassador cited some examples from the US-Chile agreement, showing that, in the area of government purchases, the Chilean government cannot favor domestic companies in federal, state, and municipal bidding processes. The same thing is true in the service sector. In the area of investments, the Chilean government cannot appeal to Chilean courts in the case of a dispute with an American company based in Chile.

Bahadian said he respects agreements signed with other countries, but the terms of the agreement between the US and Chile cannot be transferred to Brazil. Besides these items, which are clearly advantageous to the American economy, according to the Ambassador, the agreement does not deal with agricultural subsidies, one of the Brazilian government's chief concerns.

"It is important for Brazilian society to know what's at stake, to know what is meant when the Americans speak of level of ambition. I believe that the correct term would be level of greed," warned the Brazilian FTAA negotiator.

The Commission also heard the vice-president of the National Confederation of Agriculture (CNA), Gilman Rodrigues, who spoke about the potential harm to Brazilian farmers in case the United States does not agree to eliminate trade barriers to their products.

On November 6, the Senate Foreign Relations Commission intends to invite other specialists to debate the FTAA, among them, the special adviser to the Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, Fernando Rezende. (DAS)