FTAA Draft Released
By JEFF GRAY Globe and Mail Update 6/3/2002

Anti-globalization groups and protesters at April's Summit of the Americas had criticized the talks to set up the Free Trade Area of the Americas as secretive because the draft text was not being released to the public.

At a trade ministers' meeting in Buenos Aires the first week of April, Canada pushed for the release of the document, which contains many bracketed sections, or areas on which there is no agreement.

A statement from International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew Tuesday hailed the release as a big step toward openness in trade talks.

"Canada was instrumental in getting agreement from all the FTAA countries to release the draft negotiating text, which I know many people are deeply interested in seeing.

"This represents a radical step toward greater transparency in trade negotiations," Mr. Pettigrew said.

He acknowledged that the text's release was delayed. "It took longer to come out than anticipated, but the simple fact is that the text could not be released until it was available in all four official languages of the FTAA: English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. This is one of the basic principles of the FTAA process and reflects the approach agreed to by ministers in Buenos Aires."

The FTAA talks are scheduled to finish in January 2005, with the deal coming into effect in December 2005. Ottawa says the deal will raise living standards and increase ecomomic growth, while critics of free trade say the deal will mean weaker labour and environmental policies.

One of the FTAA's chief critics Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the anti-free-trade group the Council of Canadians, said the release of the text was a small victory, because the document remains so inconclusive and hard to decipher.

"Well, I think that we shouldn't overdo it. I mean, it's a small victory, certainly for our movement, because we've been pushing this a lot. And it is the first international trade agreement that has been put out to the public to view, ever," Ms. Barlow told CBC Newsworld on Tuesday.

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