Standoff between United States and Brazil jeopardizes FTAA goal

[Say_What]

<clips>

WASHINGTON- One of President Bush's most cherished economic goals _ creation of the world's largest free trade area covering 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere _ is being threatened by a tense standoff between the United States and Brazil.

The differences seem so wide that some predict that an upcoming meeting of trade ministers scheduled for the week of Nov. 17 in Miami could end just as disastrously as the September meetings of the World Trade Organization in Cancun, Mexico. Those talks on a global trade deal collapsed after negotiators were unable to narrow the wide gap between rich and poor countries.

"This is a very perilous trade situation facing the United States and the world," said Fred Bergsten, head of the Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based think tank. "You could have another Cancun in Miami. That would mean the administration's goal (of a hemisphere-wide free trade area) would be, if not up in smoke, at least in suspended animation."

In hopes of breaking the current impasse, the United States on Friday and Saturday will hold hastily arranged discussions with trade ministers from 16 of the 34 countries involved in the effort to craft a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/home/article/0,1651,TCP_996_2409997,00.html

[bemildred]

1. Heh heh heh ...

Zoellick called Brazil the leader of the "won't do" countries and
warned that America could turn away from a stalled FTAA and
strike separate free trade agreements with "can do" nations in
Latin America and elsewhere.

The first rule of bullying is that you cannot threaten someone with
something he is not afraid of. What a moron.

[guernica]

2. Bush has managed to destroy the WTO

It's rather incredible really. All the activism in the world didn't seem like it could shake the monster. All it took was one obvious tool of big business to take the American levers of power and he brought the whole thing crashing down faster than I ever imagined.

[9215]

4. Thus spoke Nader.......

He nailed this dynamic down before the 2000 campaign.

[loudnclear]

3. You just knew the Bushcos would be after Lula...Lula is for the people...

I guess we might even try the same thing in Brazil that we did in Veneauela. Also, Lula is friendly with Castro. As we are forced to focus on the ME, thanks to the neocons, the Americas are getting their act together and just might become a formidable, economic enemy. Not everyone needs weapons of mass destruction to kill Goliath. Brains of mass construction will do the trick.

[burrowowl]

5. Yeah!

Good for Lula!

[damnraddem]

6. Good.

I hope Venezuela throws a few wrenches in the works, too.

[Say_What]

7. Lula reiterates that Brazil does not need an agreement with the IMF

<clips>

BRASILIA, November 5.— After returning from a tour of several African nations, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reiterated today that Brazil does not need an agreement with the IMF, although he did not rule out the possibility of signing one on a new basis after seeing the technical details, reported PL.

The statement, published by the state-run Agencia Brasil, was drafted in Mozambique in respect of the announcement that Anne Krueger, the IMF’s deputy director, would be arriving this Wednesday to begin negotiations at the invitation of Housing Minister Antonio Palocci.

... Lula insisted that Brazil does not need an agreement with the IMF. “We don’t even need the $8 billion that was set aside for us to use from the last accord, which expires this December.”

He remarked that the IMF needs to change its conduct, so that countries assume commitments for growth and economic development, in place of the fiscal adjustment that it demands and which has “failed in the majority of countries.”


http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2003/noviembre03/juev6/45lula-i.html

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. Palocci is not "Housing" Minister. Bad translation

Ministro da Fazenda. His job is, maybe, equivalent to the Secretary of Treasury in the US.

[9215]

9. Ohhhh, haaaa "after seeing the technical details"

Ohhhhhhhh. I love it!

The IMF is used to having a dupe in place after they ravage a country with debt dependency while the fascists stir up social and political unrest. Lula is a thinker who knows the history of the IMF and how countries never seem to make it out of the hole after the IMF "helps them out".

Now everybody should be happy that Brazil is standing on its own two feet and not looking for a handout. This is great news. They don't need the IMF. Isn't independence what democracy and freedom, even "Republicanism", is all about?


Our Latin American brothers and sisters are fighting back and throwing some nice punches too!

[Judi Lynn]

10. This story is getting better and better

From the article:

Brazil's demands are coming at a politically awkward time for the Bush administration with the 2004 presidential election looming. Florida farmers do not want to see increased competition from cheaper-priced Brazilian oranges, and Brazil's other big exports _ sugar and soybeans _ also touch sensitive nerves in the U.S. farm belt.

Likewise, putting U.S. antidumping practices into the FTAA bargaining mix would upset such politically sensitive industries as steel and textiles, which benefit under the current rules.

The Bush administration is unhappy with Brazil because it organized a group of 22 developing countries who stood up to industrialized nations during the Cancun talks, resulting in the stalemate there.
(snip/...)

It's a joy seeing the countries in Latin America coming from under the heavy burden of domination they bore for so damned long, completely at the mercy of powerful American companies, and right-wing, power-mad American politicians.

[tedzbear]

12. Florida farmers my a--!

I love how the media always uses the term "farmers" when what they really mean are the handful of agri conglomerates like ConAgra who own all of the production in the USA these days.
The average Joe (like me) never learns that the individual farmer with a hundred acres and a barn hardly exists anymore in America. And if he does, he is a slave to the huge agribusiness that dictates his selling prices.

Shame!

:kick:

[Judi Lynn]

11. Something strange is going on.

I was listening to CBS radio news at 1:00am, E.S.T. when they ran a story about Lula da Silva on a trip to Namibia, who "stuck his foot in his mouth" when he claimed "this town is so clean you wouldn't know you're in an African country."

Connecting the dots, you have to ask yourself when the last time was the American press has been handing around the remarks made by ANY Latin American leader. It has been the tradition of our own press to virtually IGNORE Latin America altogether, not to mention individual leaders. (Think of all those hundreds of thousands of people missing from the Reagan years up 'til now in Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, etc.)

As soon as I heard it, I was drawn to think of the stories we've been reading about the great independent moves he's making for Brazil, and his participation in moving Latin America to a greater unity, WITHOUT U.S. interference. Hearing this story from outta nowhere tells me that the word is out here to smear him, preparatory to some rigid pressure coming his way from the _Bush administration.

Good luck to Lula da Silva. His country deserves a fair chance, by God, without getting mauled by the right-wing lunatics who have wormed their way into our government.

[bemildred]

13. Lula has been moved over to the shit list.

But I think that is all they can do about it.