Statement on Joint Brazil-US Proposal for the FTAA

Posted: 17 November 2003

Statement by Phil Bloomer, Head of Trade Campaign, Oxfam on joint Brazil-US proposal for the FTAA:

The new proposal for an "a la carte" or "FTAA lite" will permit countries to agree to some issues and not others within the framework of the hemispheric agreement. This proposal seeks to rescue the FTAA from the impasse created by the substantial difference between countries about the scope of the FTAA.

However, it doesn't offer a solution that will promote development and poverty reduction for the 220 million people in poverty in the hemisphere. Instead it creates new dangers. It will open up smaller countries to new political pressures to sign bilateral agreements that go further than WTO agreements and even the current FTAA.

The US also warns that countries will only get access to their markets if they open up and sign on to issues explicitly rejected at the WTO meeting in Cancun. The US Trade Representative has expressed this as "You get what you pay for." The reality is developing countries would be forced to pay twice—once with market access and again with additional agreements that only favor wealthy countries.

This type of proposal could not even be tabled in any multilateral forum. The EU and Japan would take it as a joke. It's time to get back to the WTO and create a real development round.