Brasília - Deputy US Trade Representative, Peter Allgeier, declared yesterday (22) that "only a miracle" could garantee the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by January, 2005. "It would be a miracle for us to meet this target. But people say that Brazil is the land of miracles," he restated. FTAA negotiators set this date as the deadline for the free trade area to go into effect.

Allgeier disclosed that the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, and the US Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, should soon begin talks on a new timeframe for the FTAA.

According to Ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney, Subsecretary for Economic Affairs in the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations, the negotiations for the creation of the FTAA suffered a lull in the first half of the year in order to advance the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO). "Efforts were concentrated on the WTO, and, fortunately, they were successful," the Brazilian Ambassador pointed out.

The Ambassador affirmed that, with the victories achieved in the WTO concerning agricultural subsidies, the creation of the FTAA is closer to becoming a reality. For Hugueney, the WTO negotiations "clear the way" for progress in various areas of world trade.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Gabriela Guerreiro
Translator: David Silberstein
09/23/2004