São Paulo, 11/3/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - According to minister of Planning, Guido Mantega, Brazil's position at the next round of Free Trade Area of the Americas talks in Miami at the end of this month will be to negotiate. Mantega, who will be a member of the Brazilian FTAA delegation, declared that the country does not have an "ideologized" position, and warned that rigid positioning leads to no agreements. "We are going to the negotiating table where everybody has to give a little," he explained.

Mantega declared that both Brazil and the United States should be prepared to make an agreement possible. He complained that the US has been rigid in its negotiating positions. "We have to go disarmed, believing in the possibility of an agreement, seeking to move ahead as far as possible." Mantega added that the controversial items on the agenda for the Miami meeting were intellectual property, investments, services and government procurement. (AB)