Marcela Valente

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina, Nov 4 2005 (IPS) — The opening of the fourth Summit of the Americas Friday was marked by a heated controversy among the hemisphere’s leaders over the future of Americas-wide trade integration, while activists caused disturbances outside the 20-block area that was cordoned off for the meeting.

In the summit’s opening ceremony, Argentine President Néstor Kirchner complained about the negative consequences of the structural adjustment policies that reigned in the region in the 1990s, said the market alone cannot alleviate poverty, and warned that Latin America does not need “just any old kind of integration.”

“The diversity among our countries must be recognised,” said the centre-left leader. “A free trade accord cannot be a one-way route to prosperity. The asymmetries must be taken into account; the different levels of development of the countries in the hemisphere.”

Also addressing the heads of state and government, foreign ministers and other high-level officials taking part in the summit were Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Miguel Insulza and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, whose country hosted the third hemispheric summit four years ago in Quebec.

By contrast with Kirchner, Martin said the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas “is not about making the hemisphere safe for capitalists” but about “providing opportunities for our workers, and better goods and services for our consumers, from the bottom rung of the income ladder to the top.”

“Freer and fairer trade will lift more human beings out of poverty than all of the assistance programmes in the world combined,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, extreme-left activists lobbed stones at police officers guarding the barriers around the security corridor, who responded by firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The violent incidents then spread to the streets of the city, where storefront windows were shattered, shops were looted, and a Banco de Galicia bank was set on fire.

The demonstrators taking part in the disturbances had not participated in the third Peoples’ Summit, which ended earlier Friday after a peaceful, massive march held to protest U.S. President George W. Bush’s visit.

Before the summit officially began, several presidents made clear their widely divergent positions on the FTAA, an issue that is not formally on the agenda but has nonetheless become a hurdle to reaching a consensus.

The failure to reach an agreement is obstructing the completion of the final declaration and plan of action meant to be adopted by the summit, whose official theme is “Creating jobs to fight poverty and strengthen democratic governance”.

The United States, Canada and Mexico, together with a group of Latin American countries, insisted Friday that the documents should include some reference to resuming negotiations for the FTAA in the medium term, while Venezuela is pushing to have the initiative abandoned once and for all.

In a speech to representatives of social and political organisations gathered in a local football stadium, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez declared that Mar del Plata is “the FTAA’s tomb.” The initiative, he said, was “buried by the peoples of the Americas.”

Mexican President Vicente Fox, by contrast, challenged Kirchner to make “an extraordinary effort” to prevent the meeting from ending in failure. Mexico has adamantly called for the summit’s final documents to schedule a meeting for continued FTAA negotiations, but the proposal has not received the backing needed.

Fox openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the current state of the discussions and proposed moving forward with a trade agreement among the 29 countries in the hemisphere that support the free trade initiative, and leaving aside those who oppose it.

The member countries of Mercosur (Southern Common Market) – made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay- recommend putting off further negotiations for the hemisphere-wide trade agreement until after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial summit to take place in December in Hong Kong, where further progress should be made in the Doha Round of talks on multilateral trade liberalisation.

At a press conference, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim called for less “drama” and “ideology” in the debates in order for a consensus to be reached. At the same time, however, he stressed the Mercosur’s position that it is impossible to move ahead in discussions of free trade one month before the WTO ministerial meeting.

“FTAA negotiations depend on the WTO negotiations,” he said. But he also commented that if there are countries that want to move forward, no one is denying them the right to do so. “We simply want to build on a real foundation,” he emphasised.

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos also referred to the lack of consensus that is blocking progress towards a final agreement. “Economic growth and increased trade must be achieved on the basis of fair rules, and agricultural subsidies are not fair,” he stated at a press conference.

“The issue here is not whether or not there is to be a free trade agreement, but rather the rules that will serve as the basis for reaching an agreement, because among countries with different levels of development there are naturally asymmetries,” he said. “When there are no rules, the powerful impose their own.”

Lagos also accepted the idea of moving ahead on an individual basis, noting that there are countries with more developed foreign trade that could be better prepared for the sort of integration entailed by the FTAA.

The leaders will meet again on Saturday, the final day of the Summit.