EU pushes free trade at Latin America summit
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales will come under EU pressure to embrace free trade at this week’s Vienna summit.
As the EU prepares to host the fourth Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) summit from Friday, the Andean leaders will be pressured to use free trade as a way to fight poverty.
EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the LAC summit would attempt to launch trade talks with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela despite recent moves by Venezuela and Bolivia to join regional trade pacts instead.
EU officials will be watching Morales and Chavez’s closely – hoping for moves to bolster efforts to create a stronger south American trade group, built around Mercosur.
The Mercosur was founded in 1991 and includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Mercosur is currently trying to seal a free trade pact with the EU. Venezuela is expected to join shortly and Bolivia has also expressed an interest.
In September, EU and Mercosur negotiators agreed to relaunch stalled talks with the aim of reaching a final deal by the Vienna summit.
An EU-Mercosur free trade area would cover almost 700 million people and boost trade by cutting tariffs between Europe and South America.
But earlier this month president Morales proclaimed "a historic day has arrived. Now the gas and oil that flows from our land will no longer belong to foreigners".
The Bolivian premier seized the countries national resources in response to US free-trade agreements with Colombia and Peru that have severely damaged Bolivian exports to other Andean nations.
Sixty per cent of Bolivia's major agricultural export, soya beans, currently goes to Colombia.
The US-Colombian accord means cheap, subsidised US grains will flood Colombia, driving out Bolivian soya.
And in Vienna campaigners fear the EU will be using free trade agreements to extend Washington’s right wing agenda.
“Latin Americans have rejected neo-liberalism on the streets and, in several cases, in the ballot boxes too,” Gonzalo Berron of Hemispheric Social Alliance told reporters this week.
“Our meeting in Vienna will send a clear message that we do not want neo-liberalism by the back door, in the shape of ‘strategic partnerships’ and interregional free trade strategies.”
More than 1,000 campaigners are expected to gather for an “alternative summit” in Vienna that calls on the EU to give up its free trade agenda.
Amnesty International say the government leaders should discuss the murders of human rights workers in Latin America.
“The leaders face a disturbing record: there have been more killings of human rights defenders in this region than anywhere else in the world,” the NGO says in a statement.
"Governments should be confronted with these numbers. Unless they create a safe environment, human rights defenders will continue to have no one to turn to for protection.”
Campaigners will also seek support for the development of a global treaty to regulate the international arms trade.
As the EU prepares to host the fourth Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) summit from Friday, the Andean leaders will be pressured to use free trade as a way to fight poverty.
EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the LAC summit would attempt to launch trade talks with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela despite recent moves by Venezuela and Bolivia to join regional trade pacts instead.
EU officials will be watching Morales and Chavez’s closely – hoping for moves to bolster efforts to create a stronger south American trade group, built around Mercosur.
The Mercosur was founded in 1991 and includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Mercosur is currently trying to seal a free trade pact with the EU. Venezuela is expected to join shortly and Bolivia has also expressed an interest.
In September, EU and Mercosur negotiators agreed to relaunch stalled talks with the aim of reaching a final deal by the Vienna summit.
An EU-Mercosur free trade area would cover almost 700 million people and boost trade by cutting tariffs between Europe and South America.
But earlier this month president Morales proclaimed "a historic day has arrived. Now the gas and oil that flows from our land will no longer belong to foreigners".
The Bolivian premier seized the countries national resources in response to US free-trade agreements with Colombia and Peru that have severely damaged Bolivian exports to other Andean nations.
Sixty per cent of Bolivia's major agricultural export, soya beans, currently goes to Colombia.
The US-Colombian accord means cheap, subsidised US grains will flood Colombia, driving out Bolivian soya.
And in Vienna campaigners fear the EU will be using free trade agreements to extend Washington’s right wing agenda.
“Latin Americans have rejected neo-liberalism on the streets and, in several cases, in the ballot boxes too,” Gonzalo Berron of Hemispheric Social Alliance told reporters this week.
“Our meeting in Vienna will send a clear message that we do not want neo-liberalism by the back door, in the shape of ‘strategic partnerships’ and interregional free trade strategies.”
More than 1,000 campaigners are expected to gather for an “alternative summit” in Vienna that calls on the EU to give up its free trade agenda.
Amnesty International say the government leaders should discuss the murders of human rights workers in Latin America.
“The leaders face a disturbing record: there have been more killings of human rights defenders in this region than anywhere else in the world,” the NGO says in a statement.
"Governments should be confronted with these numbers. Unless they create a safe environment, human rights defenders will continue to have no one to turn to for protection.”
Campaigners will also seek support for the development of a global treaty to regulate the international arms trade.
posted by Alice at
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
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