 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Americas summit closes as leaders back free tradeQUEBEC CITY, Canada -- Leaders of nearly all Western Hemisphere nations endorsed a framework for a regional free trade pact Sunday after a two-day summit in Canada. The Summit of the Americas closed Sunday with the leaders of 34 countries calling for a free trade zone across the hemisphere by 2005. Membership would be limited to democratic states, which currently excludes only communist-ruled Cuba among Western Hemisphere nations. The treaty would strike trade barriers across the Americas from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn -- a region that is home to 800 million people. In addition, leaders adopted declarations supporting improved education, health care and participation in democratic institutions.
"Today we begin a new era in hemispheric cooperation," Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said in closing the conference. "Such common purpose is a precious asset -- an asset which we must use from this day forward to fulfill the hopes and dreams of the people of the Americas." Leaders signed the Quebec Declaration at the end of a two-day summit that drew an estimated 30,000 protesters opposed to the trade pact. Critics argue that free trade comes at the expense of workers and the environment. Most were peaceful, but bands of demonstrators fought pitched battles with police that left the convention center wreathed in tear gas. Demonstrators battled police until almost sunrise Sunday, setting fires and shattering windows outside the security perimeter encircling the summit site. As of Sunday morning, 403 protesters had been arrested since the summit began Friday, said Constable Elaine Lavergne of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Lavergne said 46 police officers had been injured by Saturday night, two of them seriously. Another 45 protesters had been injured, she said. Participants in the summit tried to address protesters' concerns by inviting representatives of labor, human rights and environmental organizations to meet with trade ministers: Previous meetings on trade, like those in 2000 in Washington and in 1999 in Seattle, have excluded critics of liberalized trade. But leaders remained unwilling to put specific environmental and labor protections in writing. Insisting that democracy was "fundamental to the advancement of all our objectives," the leaders said any undemocratic change of government would present an obstacle to joining the free trade zone. But doubters remained, both inside and outside the hall. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told CNN it was unreasonable to expect all countries to have ratified a completed pact by 2005. Other countries are unwilling to make concessions until the United States -- the hemisphere's largest economy -- grants President George W. Bush the kind of broad negotiating authority he wants. Bush reassured other regional leaders that he would push the U.S. Congress to give him that authority, which would give him broad power to negotiate trade agreements without amendments by legislators, by the end of the year. Bush called the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas a "logical extension" of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 1994. "It's a positive example for the doubters to look at, for the skeptics to see that wealth can be spread throughout our hemisphere," Bush said. The only country in the hemisphere not invited to the summit was Cuba, which is still under one-party rule. RELATED STORIES:
Protests delay start of Americas summit RELATED SITES:
Summit of the Americas |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to the top | |
© 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. |
