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TPD > FTAA > United States Negotiating Positions - Summary > Position |
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Summary of the United States Negotiating Positions in the FTAA |
Status of Negotiations In 1994 President Clinton hosted the Summit of the Americas in Miami, at which time the 34 FTAA countries committed to conclude the negotiations of a comprehensive free trade area no later than 2005. The Leaders of the 34 democratically-elected governments at the 1998 Santiago Summit of the Americas reiterated the Miami mandate and timetable and instructed that formal negotiations be initiated. Accordingly, in June 1998 nine FTAA Negotiating Groups were established, covering: market access (which includes non-agricultural tariffs and non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, customs procedures, standards, and safeguards); agriculture (which includes agricultural tariffs and non-tariff barriers, agricultural subsidies and other trade-distorting practices, and sanitary and phytosanitary procedures); services; investment; government procurement; intellectual property; subsidies, antidumping, and countervailing duties; competition policy; and dispute settlement. The FTAA Trade Ministers at their November 1999 Ministerial meeting in Toronto instructed the nine Negotiating Groups to prepare initial draft, bracketed texts of the nine areas and to submit those draft texts to the Ministers at their next meeting, to be held in Buenos Aires on April 6-7, 2001. The initial draft chapters in these nine areas have been developed based on texts proposed by individual countries or groups of countries (e.g., Andean Community, MERCOSUR). These texts have been consolidated to avoid duplication and to express clearly the range of positions to date. Summaries of the current U.S. positions put forward in the FTAA negotiations follow. The U.S. positions were developed with input from the full range of federal executive branch agencies, with advice from non-governmental sources and in consultation with Congress. Advice from non-governmental sources has been obtained primarily through the formal private sector advisory committee system and in response to regular requests in the Federal Register for public comment. The U.S. International Trade Commission has performed the economic analysis of the probable economic effects of an agreement. An environmental review of the FTAA is being conducted by the Trade Policy Staff Committee led by USTR and including all environmental agencies; additional information about the environmental review can be found on the USTR website (www.ustr.gov). The Negotiating Groups will resume work following the Ministerial meeting in April, at which the 34 Ministers will provide directions for conducting the next stage of negotiations. In the meantime, USTR will continue its consultations with interested parties in the United States to ensure that the full range of views is taken into account in the development of U.S. positions. |
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