U.S. Official Praises Openness of Summit of Americas Process
by Eric Green Washington File Staff Writer

Washington--Lauredo spoke at a February 1 news conference on the results of a just-concluded 3-day Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) meeting, which concerned the Plan of Action being developed for the April 20-22 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. He said "there is no civil society in the world that has not had an opportunity to give input" in the summit process. In fact, Lauredo added, "some people, some countries have been critical of how open" summit organizers have been in soliciting the viewpoint of all groups from the private sector.

"We've gone considerably further than [it] seems could be reasonably expected, to have input from the broadest possible range of civil society," Lauredo said. Read More

Brazilians hold beef barbecue protest outside Canadian Consulate in Sao Paulo

SAO PAULO, Brazil (CP) - As protesters barbecued half a tonne of Brazilian beef in front of the Canadian Consulate on Monday, union leaders said longshoremen would refuse to unload Canadian products arriving in the port of Santos.

It was the latest demonstration of growing public indignation against Canada's ban on Brazilian beef, prompted by concerns about mad cow disease. Canada's partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement - the United States and Mexico - were obliged to follow suit. Read More

The Power of Fast Tracking
by Naomi Klein, Wednesday, February 7, 2001 in the Toronto Globe & Mail

 When Prime Minister Jean Chrétien went to the White House on Monday, he said he felt like "kind of a cousin coming to visit."

What kind of cousin? From the looks of it, a very poor cousin.

When asked at the post-meeting press conference to name the greatest challenge facing U.S.-Canada relations, President George W. Bush didn't bother mentioning any of the numerous ongoing disputes between the two countries. He didn't say oil drilling in Alaska, softwood lumber or farm subsidies. Read More

Trade protest to target Ottawa in April
Anti-free trade activists hope to shut down Foreign Affairs HQ
Andrew Duffy, The Ottawa Citizen

Peter Dejong, The Associated Press / Demonstrations in Seattle against the World Trade Organization succeeded in bringing the U.S. to its knees. Now, according to a detailed strategy paper, Ottawa will be the target of a large scale demonstration held for two days in early April at
the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on Sussex Drive prior to the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. Read More

COCHABAMBA'S WATER REBELLION -- AND BEYOND
Sunday, February 11, 2001
by Lewis Dolinsky, San Francisco Chronicle

Protesters celebrated in Cochabamba, Bolivia, last April after the government rescinded a contract with a private consortium to run the city's water system.

Known for its artisan and farmers markets and the nearby coca fields, Cochabamba (population 500,000) is Bolivia's third-largest city. A successful insurrection there was one of last year's underreported stories: Read More

Beef ban begets Brazilian backlash Canada's prohibition due to mad cow scare prompts intense reaction
Toronto Star, Feb. 8, :35 PM

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Restaurant owners are dumping Canadian ducks in the trash. Protesters in the capital delivered a cow to the Canadian Embassy and offered to barbecue it. Politicians urged a ban on imports of Canadian goods.

Canada's ban on Brazilian beef, prompted by concerns about mad cow disease, has triggered a backlash so intense that the government warns that it could spell the end of the dream of a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone. Read More

UPS delivers a threat to Canadian business via NAFTA
By Donald Mazankowski
The Globe and Mail Thursday, February 8, 2001

As people across the Americas look forward to a discussion of a new free-trade area, a wrinkle in the North American free-trade agreement is threatening the future of some businesses that
perform important functions in Canada. The U.S.-based courier company United Parcel Service is pursuing a NAFTA case that could undermine Canada Post and other legitimate Canadian businesses like it. When NAFTA was signed in 1992, it included under Chapter 11 provisions designed to protect foreign companies from unfair government intervention. These allow investors from one NAFTA country to sue the government of another NAFTA country for any commercial losses they suffer as a result of having their assets expropriated, or for not being treated the same as domestic companies. Read More

'Party of protest' MPs to raise ruckus at Quebec City summit
January 26, 2001 Justine Hunter, National Post

OTTAWA - In an attempt to brand itself as the party of protest, the NDP yesterday vowed to send all its MPs to join demonstrators at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April.

The plan was announced by Alexa McDonough, the NDP leader, after she met with her caucus to discuss how to build party support after winning just 8.5% of the popular vote in the November election. Read More

War on free trade tops the agenda at activist school
Saturday, January 27, 2001
MARK MacKINNON, Globe&Mail

PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL -- They sit in a sweaty classroom with the summer sun beaming through an open window. Fifty-three people -- overcrowded by any standard -- take notes and raise their hands to ask questions as the teacher speaks.

The subject isn't math or science. It's the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas and how to stop it. This southern Brazilian city is filled with antiglobalization activists from North and South America, some of whom are veterans of the protests that rocked Seattle and Prague in the past two years. The lesson being taught now is simple: The FTAA, like the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, is an anti-democratic tool that will make big corporations richer while the average citizen's quality of life erodes. Read More

Chritien vows to look out for smaller economies
Canada to consider separate regional free trade deal
January 20, 2001
Andrew McIntosh National Post

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica - Jean Chritien yesterday tried to reassure nervous Caribbean political leaders that their concerns will not be ignored in any hemispheric free trade talks.

And the Prime Minister pledged to examine a separate new free trade deal with Caribbean countries following criticism that a previous 14-year-old economic agreement was outdated. Read More

New U.S. Government to Face Challenges in Latin America

The George W. Bush administration will face a series of challenges in its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean, said specialists on Monday.

Main challenges will include the signing of a free trade agreement with Chile, negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (ALCA) and relations with Cuba, reported Caracas- headquartered Latin American Economic System (LAES) in a communique. Read More

Far Cry From Seattle: Tiny Qatar Is Picked as WTO Meeting Site
January 24, 2001 By HELENE COOPER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The World Trade Organization finally has found a country willing to host its next big meeting: Qatar.

The WTO formally accepted Qatar's offer to host the follow-up to the 1999 Seattle meeting. WTO Director-General Michael Moore said the event, which may launch a round of trade talks, will be held in Doha, Qatar's capital, Nov. 5-9. Read More

Canadian negotiators might not assess FTAA's environmental impact

Pierre-Olivier Savoie
from CMAQ (see )

Canadian negotiators may be unable to assess the environmental impact of their trade negotiations at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City next April, according to a government official.

Frangois Lasalle, a spokesperson for the department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, couldn't say if Canada's new Environmental Assessment Framework for Trade Negotiations will be ready for the next round of trade negotiations Read More

Ecuador union, Indian groups plan more protests
January 15 - Reuters

QUITO, Ecuador, - Ecuador labor unions and Indian groups said on Monday they planned to intensify their protests of government-mandated hikes in transportation fares and fuel prices with marches and strikes in the next three weeks.

The National Confederation of Indians, or CONAIE, plans a nationwide march on Jan. 22 to mark the first anniversary of a coup, led by Indians and military officers, that overthrew former President Jamil Mahuad. Read More

Robert Zoellick Nominated for US Trade Representative
NY Times Article
Financial Times Article

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 - A visitor to Robert B. Zoellick's seventh- floor office in the State Department in the early 1990's might have mistaken the young diplomat for a college prankster. He stacked his coffee table with a parody of Time magazine and a picture book of rat-eating snakes. Felt posters of poker-playing dogs lined the walls. Read More

Behind Clinton's Chile Trade Deal, a Grander Strategy
January 8, 2001-New York Times

The final days of any administration are a time for tying up loose ends and polishing a president's legacy. That is why President Bill Clinton is going the extra mile in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. It also explains why he took steps to fulfill a seven-year-old promise to Chile when he had just 52 days left in office.

In 1993, before the ink had dried on the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mr. Clinton said Chile was first in line to join Canada and Mexico in that trading bloc. The United States is Chile's No. 1 trading partner, and NAFTA is one of the world's premier trading blocs. Chile could not wait to say yes. Read More

Argentina Needs Attention
January 10, 2001 -Washington Post

Argentina may be the first Latin American country to require the immediate attention of the new Bush administration, according to a report by a group of experts on the region, most of them Republicans.

At the end of last year, a rescue package of almost $40 billion dollars in loans was announced to ease Argentina’s financial crisis. Read More

Quebec Fortress Prepares for Summit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

QUEBEC (AP) -- Normand Houle's finger traces a line around the historic ramparts of this European-style fortress on the bluffs above the St. Lawrence River, showing the plan for a new barrier.

The towers and walls built to repel invaders of centuries past no longer suffice for protecting 34 heads of state coming for the Summit of the Americas in April. Read More

Brazil chides Chile for Going Alone
‘Unity key to trade success’
(Reuters—December 18, 2000)

Chile continued to draw fire yesterday at the closing of the Mercosur Presidential Summit, with Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso warning Chilean President Ricardo Lagos that more concessions would be gained from the United States if the region’s nations negotiated free trade together instead of alone.

Chile shocked its neighbours and partners in Mercosur when Lagos announced on November 29 that he would begin free trade talks with the United States. Brazil reacted by suspending negotiations set for this summit to make Chile a full rather than associate member of Mercosur. Read More

Latin America Is Priority on Bush Trade Agenda
December 18, 2000 By ANTHONY DePALMA

He may not be comfortable discussing unrest in East Timor, or pronouncing the name of the leaders of Turkmenistan, but President-elect George W. Bush considers the rest of the Western Hemisphere "our backyard" and will have several opportunities in his first year in office to make Latin America a trade and foreign policy priority. Read More

Unions Want FTAA Put To Popular Vote
December 15, 2000 -Interpress Service

FLORIANOPOLIS, Brazil - Giving in to the demands of the United States in the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would be tantamount to suicide, warned central trade unions from the Southern Cone countries.

Some 700 representatives of the central trade unions of the members of South America’s leading trade bloc, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) Read More

Draft of Trade Pact for all Americas Due Soon
from the Toronto Star, December 12, 2000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiators could complete a draft free trade agreement covering from Canada to the southernmost tip of Latin America by the end of the year, setting the stage for a final package in 2003, the U.S. trade representative said Tuesday.

Charlene Barshefsky also told a briefing it was critical that the United States and Brazil work together to make the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) pact a reality. Read More