IV Summit of the Americas (Day 1)

Today, the IV Summit of the Americas started in Argentina. And in the start of the Summit the focus went to fight two of the largest woes in Latin America: poverty and unemployment.

As is expected, all 34 nations will sign a document to fight these two ailments of Latin America and once again show "commitment" to reducing both in their countries. Nevertheless, as we all know, what really would help Latin America is if this "commitment" was actually implemented by the Latin American governments (since one would reckon the US and Canada might not be involved?). Read the full article here (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/314162.html

Latin America has been growing economically on average nearly 5 percent of GDP but the growth has not trickled down to the masses. Some economists say that this is because, Latin America would need to grow something more like 6 to 10 percent. Others say that there must be something done to strengthen political institutions and avoid election social tensions. Finally, there are others which point to improving infrastructure, education and corruption and in this way improve their competitivity. Personally, I tend to agree with the last two, specially in Mexico, where generally sound monetary and fiscal policy has seen economic growth despite unfavourable market conditions. Improving political institutions, fighting corruption and investing in makign Mexico more competitive, is the way to use market forces in our favour and seek to mirror the growth of China and India, while at the mean time, letting our least fortunate people have a better standard of life. There is actually a very interesting article in this month's international edition of Newsweek by Jeffery E. Garten where Latin America's troublesome place in the world is explained in the article "Plummet of the Americas".

Which brings me to the other topic that starts to rear its head at the Summit: the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (ALCA in Spanish).

So far, ALCA has been in the background where leaders comment that one of the reasons that keep it from being drafted is the migratory policies of some countries. Others, like Vicente Fox of Mexico, have shown a larger and more important break in the talks. Fox clearly states that there are countries opposing the ALCA in which he names Venezuela specially. Venezuela, says Fox, is making the agreement surround its own interests and not of the whole region. There are also apparent rifts with the countries of Mercosur and possibly with the United States over the aforementioned, migratory policies. Other countries, such as Canada, allied themselves with Fox and took their own blow at the United States asking for free trade where "everyone played by the rules" & also to Venezuela's anticapitalist rhetoric. You can read about Fox's comments here (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/314068.html and you can read Canada's Paul Martin in the article in the Toronto Star.

And that is how the first day of the Summit ended. It seems tough to believe that by the end of it (tomorrow), the ALCA will be accepted. We can then only hope that the commitment to create jobs and lower poverty are at least followed by our leaders.

Read what others have to say:
- Gretchen Gordon is on site at the Summit and she gives us her own review of Day 1 at The Democracy Center.
- Matt Rosenberg says that Bush must sell the FTAA (ALCA) to Willing Buyers and explores a bit more of the Latin American reality.

Tags: Current events, International, In the News, News and Politics, Mexico, Canada, Latin America, Venezuela, FTAA