Sunday, November 06, 2005
IV Summit of the Americas (Day 2)
Today, the IV Summit of the Americas ended and as we mentioned yesterday, the differences not only made it hard to move the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) forward but also kept the actual declaration from Mar del Plata from being written. Talks to finish this up had to be prolonged until they were finished. George W. Bush did not stay though and left much before hand which left Mexico's Vicente Fox in the lead. You can read further by checking the article (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/314289.html
At the end, the agenda to push the FTAA forward failed and only three points of it were included in the final Declaration from Mar del Plata. The points though are basically just a description of the division that was formed between countries at the Summit and that FTAA talks would resume once more after the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks of Hong Kong. You can read further by checking the article (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/314323.html
All of this is pretty much summarized with the fact that the disagreement on the FTAA overshadowed any other thing that was going to take place at the summit and also the commitment that was made to fight poverty and unemployment in the region.
Read what others have to say:
- Steve from the Tension says that Free Trade Agreement Delayed by Chavez and Others.
- Joel agrees that Latin America did well to stay out of the FTAA in the Americas Summit even with Chile's example.
- The 'Other Americans' say no to FTAA.
