FTAA Business Forum closes meetings to public, press and NGOs

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

I was part of the FTAA "Business Forum" meetings in Costa, along with
Dr. Benoit Marchand, representing Health Action International (HAI), and
Steve Suppan, for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).
We attended the working group on Intellectual Property.  I will have a
report on those meeting out soon, but I thought I would pass on this
Journal of Commerce article regarding the closing of the meetings this
year.  We were told that NGO's that represented consumers were not
permitted to speak this year, under the new Business Forum rules.  Only
if you represent business interests were you supposed to participate. 
In fact, Benoit, Steve and I did participate, but in a limited way.  
More on this later.  Jamie

--

Friday, March 20, 1998
Call for transparency comes at
price of closed doors

Eyebrows are being raised as business groups shut 
workshops to the public so they can draft issues calling for 
greater openness in the hemisphere.



BY KEVIN G. HALL
JOURNAL OF COMMERCE STAFF

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- In a move likely to heighten skepticism
about the transparency and inclusiveness of hemispheric trade          
integration, business groups organizing the annual Business Forum
of the Americas have closed their deliberations.

Organizers of the IV Business Forum of the 
Americas this week in San Jose took the unprecedented step of closing
the workshops to the public -- where recommendations were drafted on 
issues ranging from package-express services to 
intellectual property protection. Traditionally, those sessions have
been monitored by academics and the media.

Call for transparency

After deliberating secretly, the business forum 
organizers on Wednesday went before trade ministers to present 
their recommendations, which ironically included the call 
for greater transparency.

The groups also rejected inclusion of non-business 
issues like labor and the environment in the hemispheric talks -- a 
move that will not help President Clinton promote the trade initiative 
to a wary Congress.

"They're doing what they have criticized us for," 
said one surprised diplomat closely involved in the 
hemispheric negotiations.

The organizer of the San Jose forum said the 
business groups will continue to keep their dialogue closed during 
sessions expected every 18 months until hemispheric trade talks 
conclude in 2005.

"That is because there were strong positions, very 
dissimilar, that could be wrongly interpreted, not by the press but 
by the very people in the private sector -- (and) that they 
could take advantage that the press is there to make issues bigger than 
they are," explained Marco Vinicio Ruiz.

Those explanations surprised Costa Rica's Deputy 
Trade Minister Carlos Murillo, who oversaw the four-day 
hemispheric forum and trade ministers meeting.

"In all the (planning) meetings I was in, it was 
never said that the press cannot be involved. It seems strange to me," 
he said.

Politics still plays role

The closed sessions, however, apparently did not 
stop the politics.  The intellectual property working group again ran 
into hostile exchanges Tuesday and concluded with opposing 
interest groups firing off nasty releases attacking each other and 
seeking out the media.

The decision to discuss key hemispheric trade 
issues behind closed doors is significant for several reasons. 
Such secrecy creates an environment in which groups from larger 
countries can, at the behest of governments, reach compromises 
that could be imposed on other countries in the hemisphere.

The flap is likely to further polarize debate in 
Washington over the value of negotiating a hemispheric trade pact with 
countries in a region where many do not have a free press, a 
reliable judiciary and governments scarcely participatory.

The December 1994 Summit of the Americas creating 
the hemispheric trade initiative had at its core the 
promotion of greater civic participation and democracy.

Unaware of decision

Both U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky 
and Thomas "Mack" McLarty, President Clinton's special adviser 
on Latin America, said they were not aware the business 
groups have decided to meet in secret and said they would look 
into the matter.

Having recently battled trade ministers to begin 
releasing documents and compendiums to the public, the head 
of the Organization of American States' trade unit -- 
former Venezuelan Trade Minister Miguel Rodriguez -- said the 
business groups' action erodes needed public faith.

Trade ministers this week made it clear they are 
leaning to greater public participation. The same trade ministers, who 
this week drafted a structure for hemispheric negotiations to 
be launched next month in Chile, must still decide how they will 
disseminate information about their workings to the public in 
34 participating countries.