Cuban President Fidel Castro (L), Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (C) and Colombian Andres Pastrana talk during the closing of the III summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) on Margarita Island, Venezuela, December 12, 2001. Caribbean leaders signed cooperation and trade agreements where Chavez carried his left-leaning agenda into the Caribbean Summit urging his Caribbean neighbors to shun a U.S.-backed hemispheric free trade zone. REUTERS/Jose Miguel Gomez
Wednesday December 12 5:54 PM ET Caribbean Leaders Endorse Trade Pact -- By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, AP
[FULL TEXT] PORLAMAR, Venezuela (AP) - Caribbean leaders on Wednesday endorsed a Western Hemisphere free trade zone - with protections for developing economies - even as host President Hugo Chavez suggested an alternative to the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Concluding a two-day summit, leaders of the Association of Caribbean States called for FTAA negotiations to conclude by January 2005 and the free trade zone be opened by December 2005.
They denounced U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba and warned of the perils of globalization for the region's tiny economies, which rely heavily on a tourist trade that has fallen precipitously since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
As in previous summits, the leaders' declaration contained many calls for cooperation but relatively few concrete steps. The pattern has bedeviled the region since the Caribbean Community, comprising 14 of the ACS' 25 members, was founded in 1973 to establish a common market. It has yet to do so.
Despite the summit's formal FTAA endorsement, Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro warned that the FTAA could drown tiny economies at the hands of such powerhouses as the United States and Canada. Chavez said his government will put the deal to a popular vote.
``It is impossible to accept a unilateral trade process without some reciprocity,'' Castro said. ``For the first time, there is a coincidence between United States workers and Latin American workers'' against free trade because it threatens jobs, he claimed.
If developed nations fail to lower trade barriers for developing nations' products, Latin America and the Caribbean should consider an alternative to the FTAA, Chavez said. Providing few details, he suggested calling it the ``Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas,'' after South American independence warrior and native hero Simon Bolivar.
If developed nations fail to lower trade barriers for developing nations' products, Latin America and the Caribbean should consider an alternative to the FTAA, Chavez said. Providing few details, he suggested calling it the ``Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas,'' after South American independence warrior and native hero Simon Bolivar.
``We cannot just keep clamoring in the desert for changes by developed nations that we need,'' Chavez said. ``I have the feeling there is no will to make them. ... Meetings and summits, declarations, communiques. Demands for changes in the international financial architecture. Have you seen the will, anywhere, to make changes to the international financial system?'' Chavez said.
The FTAA would stretch from Alaska to Argentina. This week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation giving President George W. Bush power to negotiate the FTAA and other trade pacts.
The summit came after the U.S. State Department advised Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, that its application to join the ACS as an associate member could interfere with U.S. diplomacy in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon wants closer ties with the island's neighbors. [End]