The creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) depends on negotiations among countries that integrate the Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market), says Brazil’s president special assistant for International Affairs, Marco Aurélio Garcia.
“It would be very important if the United States realized that we are not negotiating alone, but with Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. We are together with our Mercosur partners.”
According to Garcia, the FTAA has its own agenda, and the meetings will continue. “We will continue to defend our positions.”
He informed that different opinions about the FTAA are being discussed for years, and in the last meeting, in Miami, Brazil and United States reiterated their desire to maintain negotiations.
Garcia’s declaration was made after the State Secretary of the United States, Condoleezza Rice, defended the creation of the FTAA on her speech about her country’s foreign policy, this Tuesday, April 26, during her visit to Brasília.
Rice said that the FTAA would be a way of uniting 800 million people “from the Southern part of Chile to the Northern of Canada, in a free community.” According to the State Secretary, Brazil’s leadership is fundamental for the advancement of this relationship.
ABr