Latin American Leaders Call for Regional Trade Zone

Leaders call for continent-wide trade
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP)
10/01/2005

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) -- South American presidents committed themselves Friday to establishing a continental free trade zone.
But no deadline was set for a 32-point plan that would lead to an economic bloc, unified by modern roads, railroads, bridges and airports.

The eight president signed a document that also encouraged plans to set up an "energy ring" that would supply natural gas from Bolivia and Peru to Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez used the one-day gathering to announce plans to move his country's foreign reserves out of U.S. banks, and he proposed the creation of a South American central bank that would hold the foreign reserves of the 12-nation continent.

"I'm ready right now with the Venezuelan central bank...to move $5 billion (of Venezuelan reserves), to a South American bank," Chavez said.

None of the leaders attending the South American summit commented on Chavez's remarks.

Chile had proposed 2010 for the start of the economic union, which would allow goods to circulate with little or no tariffs across the South American continent. But other countries, mainly Brazil, opposed setting a deadline.

The South American summit took place a month ahead of the Fourth Summit of the Americas to discuss implementing a U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Originally, the FTAA was scheduled to be launched this year, but it was postponed because of a mounting opposition especially from Brazil over concerns that its industries could not compete with U.S.-made products.

The South American summit was attended by the presidents of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina.