Cuba, Venezuela reject US-sponsored FTAA, back Chavez plan
Anti-Imperialist | 17.12.2004 12:17
Cuba and Venezuela on Wednesday rejected US efforts to forge a free trade area of the two Americas and endorsed a Chavez alternative plan for Latin American and Caribbean integration.
Cuba, Venezuela reject US-sponsored FTAA, back Chavez plan
Taken from: People's Daily Online (China)
Date: December 16, 2004
Ref:
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200412/16/eng20041216_167620.html
Cuba and Venezuela on Wednesday rejected US efforts to forge a free trade area of the two Americas and endorsed a Chavez alternative plan for Latin American and Caribbean integration.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is "a full expression of the desire for domination over the region and, if it comes into effect, will lead to a deepening of neo-liberalism and create unprecedented levels of dependence and subordination," Cuban leader Fidel Castro and visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in a statement released Wednesday.
"We strongly reject the contents and the plans of the FTAA and share the conviction that integration on a neo-liberal basis can only lead to more divisions among Latin American countries," the statement added.
As an alternative, the two leaders supported the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a plan sponsored by Chavez, who arrived in Havana Monday for a two-day official visit marking the 10th anniversary of his first visit to the island in 1994.
The ALBA, named after the 19th South American revolutionist Simon Bolivar, "sets out the leading principles of a real integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, based on justice, and we promise to struggle together to turn it into reality," the two leaders said.
Under the alternative plan, trade and investment would be "instruments to achieve just and sustainable development because real Latin American-Caribbean integration must not be a blind daughter of the market," they said, adding that the idea was to achieve "economic complementarity and cooperation" rather than "competition between countries."
The US-sponsored FTAA is aimed at eliminating trade barriers across the Americas. If materialized, it would become the world's largest free trade zone with 784 million potential consumers.
Cuba has been excluded from talks for the FTAA and Venezuela has refused to join the process.
Taken from: People's Daily Online (China)
Date: December 16, 2004
Ref:
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200412/16/eng20041216_167620.html Cuba and Venezuela on Wednesday rejected US efforts to forge a free trade area of the two Americas and endorsed a Chavez alternative plan for Latin American and Caribbean integration.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is "a full expression of the desire for domination over the region and, if it comes into effect, will lead to a deepening of neo-liberalism and create unprecedented levels of dependence and subordination," Cuban leader Fidel Castro and visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in a statement released Wednesday.
"We strongly reject the contents and the plans of the FTAA and share the conviction that integration on a neo-liberal basis can only lead to more divisions among Latin American countries," the statement added.
As an alternative, the two leaders supported the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a plan sponsored by Chavez, who arrived in Havana Monday for a two-day official visit marking the 10th anniversary of his first visit to the island in 1994.
The ALBA, named after the 19th South American revolutionist Simon Bolivar, "sets out the leading principles of a real integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, based on justice, and we promise to struggle together to turn it into reality," the two leaders said.
Under the alternative plan, trade and investment would be "instruments to achieve just and sustainable development because real Latin American-Caribbean integration must not be a blind daughter of the market," they said, adding that the idea was to achieve "economic complementarity and cooperation" rather than "competition between countries."
The US-sponsored FTAA is aimed at eliminating trade barriers across the Americas. If materialized, it would become the world's largest free trade zone with 784 million potential consumers.
Cuba has been excluded from talks for the FTAA and Venezuela has refused to join the process.
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