FTAA Civil Society Communications not Viable

 
The Committee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society convened its seventh meeting in Miami on October 23-24, 2000. The purpose was to review the report on submissions received from civil society organizations between April 10 and October 10, 2000.

Both in number and geographic distribution, the results were disappointing. Only 81 submissions were received, down from the 1999 total. The number of countries represented also fell, from 16 to 13. Most of the submissions came from the US and Chile, contributing at least to a north-south balance. Florida had a significant representation; of the 73 submissions that conformed to the formal aspects of the open invitation promoting the comments, four came from South Florida. These included the largest of all the submissions, which was sent by the North-South Center of the University of Miami. The rest of the US submissions came almost exclusively from the Washington, D.C. area.

The exercise was futile by any account. Most of the civil society organizations critical of the FTAA process boycotted the committee's invitation and instead signed a letter demanding transparency in the negotiations. The letter was directed to Dr. Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini, chair of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) of vice ministers that will consider the reports of the negotiating committees. It stated that:

"If the FTAA is to serve to advance the interests of all of the peoples of the Americas, then there must be a healthy public debate on the nature of such an accord. That debate will not be possible until accurate and up-to-date information is available on the content of the FTAA negotiations. The Chilean government recently published the annotated outlines from some of the negotiating groups as part of its dialogue with representatives of Chilean civil society. We welcome the precedent that this dissemination establishes. At this time, we urge the TNC to publish immediately the current negotiating texts from each of the nine negotiating groups. We would also appreciate receiving copies of the texts that each of the negotiating groups delivers to the ministers at the end of the year."

The FTAA Special Committee will meet again in December to consider its report to the ministers, who will meet in Argentina in early 2001. As currently framed, however, the process has proven unviable. The only curiosity is Chile, where what can be considered an overwhelming response came from across the entire nation, not just the capital. Although Brazil has also made a strong effort to involve civil society in trade and integration issues, Chile's Foreign Ministry has been even more active in promoting a dialogue. It is possible that this is the reason for such a large number of Chilean submissions. Brazil, with all its interest, accounted for only one of this round of papers. In the United States, as in Chile, submissions were sent in by organizations related to the Hemispheric Social Alliance, including the AFL-CIO and some of its affiliates.