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Florida Position Paper
Its fortuitous location and crucial economic interest have
made Florida a natural and an active participant in strong
support of the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) and
the negotiation process that began in September 1998 in Miami.
The state's business and public sectors believe firmly that
Florida's future is intimately linked to the successful completion
of the negotiations by the year 2005. At the Cartagena, Belo
Horizonte, San Jose and Toronto meetings of the Americas Business
Forum, held in conjunction with the Hemispheric Trade Ministerials,
Florida's private and public sector representatives have repeatedly
demonstrated their deep commitment to the FTAA process. This
will happen again in Buenos Aires for the next ABF meeting
in April. Indeed, the efforts of the state delegation resulted
in the initial location of the temporary FTAA Secretariat
in Miami, where the first round of discussions has been very
effectively managed during 1999 and 2000. At present the Secretariat
is in the process of moving to Panama where it will remain
for the next two years.
Florida has a major stake in the movement toward
hemispheric free trade. For Florida, geography is destiny.
Originally part of the Spanish empire, Florida is as much
part of the Caribbean as it is of the Southeastern United
States. History, population, culture and commerce link the
state intimately to Latin America and the Caribbean. Canada
is another significant trading partner, and many Canadians
migrate to the state during their harsh winter months.
Miami is a major port of entry for Latin American
and Caribbean people and products. Orlando has become a mecca
for hemispheric tourists, Tampa and the Panhandle area have
an historic relation with Mexico and its most important Gulf
of Mexico seaport, Veracruz, while Miami and Jacksonville's
burgeoning health care industries offer much for Latin America
and the Caribbean. Workers from Latin America and the Caribbean,
many with special immigration treatment, regularly harvest
Florida's agricultural crop. Many Latin American and Caribbean
countries' largest population groups outside of their borders
are located in Florida. Finally, numerous Latin American internet
entrepreneurs have made South Florida's Internet Coast their
dot-com headquarters.
Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean are
major trading partners with Florida, with nearly $25 billion
in merchandise trade and hundreds of millions of dollars in
tourist revenue. Perhaps more than any other U.S. state, Florida
has benefited by the rebounding Latin American and Caribbean
economies. Indeed, Florida's trade fortunes in recent years
have been very favorably impacted by surges of US imports
into Central America, Colombia and Argentina. Co-production
and twin-plant operations in the Caribbean and Florida have
further linked our economies together.
Although the implementation of the North American
Free Trade Agreement has been a very positive step in the
promotion of hemispheric economic integration, NAFTA has tended
to shift the axis of north-south trade in the hemisphere away
from Florida. US-Mexico trade accounts for slightly more than
50% of US-Latin American trade. Texas is a major beneficiary
of deepened US economic ties with Mexico-providing nearly
$20 billion in exports to Mexico.
Nevertheless, Florida remains the major U.S.
trading partner of every Latin American country except Mexico.
If Florida is to maintain its primacy as a key Latin American
and Caribbean trading partner, formal hemispheric integration
must continue apace. No state in the United States will benefit
more from a concrete plan to link the hemisphere's economies
together than Florida. In short, hemispheric integration favors
Florida. The Summit of the Americas Center can be a major
catalyst for Florida's trade competitiveness in the global
economy.
With the second year of FTAA negotiations completed,
Florida's private and public sector leadership is even more
firmly convinced that, for practical, logistical, and now
for solid experiential reasons, Miami is strategically positioned
to become the permanent headquarters of the FTAA Secretariat.
Some of the reasons are obvious: Miami has more direct, daily
flights to and from Latin America and the Caribbean than any
other city in the Americas, and the infrastructure to support
the negotiating process - including physical space, translation
facilities and the like - is already in place. Furthermore,
the Florida and Greater Miami private sector has provided
considerable material support to the temporary FTAA Secretariat
and has pledged to expand support significantly for a permanent
installation. The public sector - the Office of the Governor,
the Secretary of State, the state's political leadership,
and the Miami-Dade County government - has committed itself
to insure that the Permanent Secretariat of the FTAA will
receive the support necessary to build its infrastructure,
recruit and organize its staff, link to an array of support
organizations, and be positioned to accomplish its goals.
Thus, it is plain that Florida is more than
a stopping-off point where the negotiators of the Americas
periodically converge to move the FTAA forward. Its business
and public sectors have been deeply involved in assessing
and backing the negotiating process through workshops, conferences
and other venues. Moreover, Florida's commercial ties to Latin
America and the Caribbean are reinforced by the strong social
and cultural bonds forged by an entrepreneurial and diversified
Latin and Caribbean population that lives, works, invests,
and vacations in the state.
To read more about the consensus of views
expressed by leaders of Florida's business and public affairs
communities on the movement toward hemispheric free trade
by 2005, please
click
here.
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