San Diego Union Tribune November 7, 2005 Bush renews trade pact call He touts 'opportunity' during visit to Brazil By Finlay Lewis COPLEY NEWS SERVICE BRASILIA, Brazil – President Bush renewed his call for a hemispheric free-trade agreement yesterday in Brazil, just 24 hours after the proposal suffered a setback at the Summit of the Americas in Argentina. And in a clear jab at Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Bush called on Latin Americans to boldly defend strong democratic institutions and reject any drift back to the days of authoritarian rule. During the second leg of a swing by Bush through Latin America, he said, "Our goal is to promote opportunity for people throughout the Americas, whether they live in Minnesota or Brazil, and the way to do this is by expanding free and fair trade." Bush described Latin America as being the object of a struggle between "two competing visions" in which the proponents of democracy and freedom are being opposed by those who would roll back democracy "by playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor." Chávez has allied himself with Cuban President Fidel Castro, saying Bush has plans to invade Venezuela to plunder its natural resources. Chávez also said the U.S. would use a hemisphere-wide free-trade deal to subjugate the poorer nations of Latin America. Bush met privately for about 90 minutes yesterday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had been one of five Latin American leaders at the summit who blocked plans to resume talks toward a hemispheric Free Trade Area of the Americas. They then appeared side by side to deliver cordial statements, glossing over differences that surfaced a day earlier at the wrap-up session of the 34-nation summit. Instead they emphasized areas of agreement, particularly the importance of greatly reducing farm subsidies and tariffs that almost entirely benefit growers in rich countries. "Our partnership is grounded on a solid economic basis," da Silva said. "The United States (is) the largest individual partner of Brazil as the largest market for our exports and our main source of direct overseas investment." At the summit, Chávez had joined forces with da Silva and the leaders of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to defeat a move by the United States and 28 other countries to restart the FTAA negotiations by next April. In his speech, Bush plugged the FTAA by noting that the North American Free Trade Agreement nations of the United States, Mexico and Canada tripled trade among themselves in the agreement's first decade. Saying that the hemisphere could experience similar benefits by eliminating trade barriers across the region, Bush said he appreciated da Silva's "discussion with me today about working to see if we can't make that become a reality." In his statement yesterday, da Silva alluded to his main objection to accelerating the FTAA negotiations by citing the need to remove "unjustified barriers to our bilateral trade." But he also said he saw a solution to the problem in the global trade arena, a conclusion shared by Bush. The main negotiations on the hemispheric trade agreement have been conducted by the U.S. and Brazilian governments. But they have been suspended because one of the main issues, agricultural subsidies, is also a key stumbling point in parallel negotiations on a world-trade agreement. The thinking of the architects of the FTAA is that a settlement of the farm-subsidy question on the global level would then pave the way for regional trade talks also ensnared by that issue. Da Silva said: "The successful conclusion of the (world-trade talks) by the end of 2006 is a priority for the United States, as much as it is for Brazil. We agree that the reduction, with a view to the elimination, of agricultural subsidies will be a key to balance in that round." Bush started his day with a closed meeting with Brazilian business leaders. Afterward, Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said the discussion focused on the importance of world trade to the Brazilian economy. Bush also met with a group of leaders from the Brazilian academic, business and educational communities, telling them, "It's in our interests that our neighborhood be a prosperous neighborhood." Carlos Pio, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia and one of the local leaders, told Bush that Latin Americans have long had a "love-hatred relationship with the United States," reflecting a resistance to the "somewhat missionary nature" of U.S. justifications for "its international actions." Bush, referring to street demonstrations on the first day of the summit last week, said: "People should be allowed to express themselves. . . . And so what happened in Argentina happens in America. That's positive." The president also said that he has "a deep desire" to promote democracy abroad, noting that "democracies do not fight each other." Later, Bush flew to Panama for talks with leaders there on trade and regional security. The Associated Press contributed to this report. »Next Story»