Civil Society Calls for Linking FTAA and Summit Process

 
Forty-seven academic, NGO and other civil society representatives met in Miami on January 19-20, 2001 as the culmination of a consultation process coordinated by the Chilean NGO "Participa." Thirty-seven representatives of government and multilateral organizations also attended the event. The meetings followed a rigorous schedule of discussions, drafting sessions and reports which resulted in a text of recommendations to be presented to the Summit Implementation and Review Group (SIRG) at the end of January.

The basic document under discussion involved the systematization of 243 proposals from 18 national consultations coordinated by Participa with the help of close to 900 organizations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The Inter-American Development Bank and the US and Canadian Agencies for International Development also lent their support. The final version to be submitted to SIRG will be compiled from this document as well as suggestions from the floor and the three drafting committees.

Given the volume of the material and the complex review process, only a few of the many Summit areas were addressed. The decision to limit the scope of the meetings was prudent, but it was criticized by some participants, including Ambassador Marc Lortie. Lortie, the personal representative of the prime minister of Canada to the Summit of the Americas, noted the absence of discussion of such important issues as indigenous rights, labor, immigration, health and cultural diversity. Some of the proposals, he argued, fell short of those that Canada has already suggested for discussion at the next Summit of the Americas, to be held in Quebec City in April.

But the most controversial moment of the conference came during discussion of a possible "democratic clause" for participation in the Summit and even the FTAA. Since the suggestion was not part of the original consultations, it had to be put to a vote on the floor. The organizers accepted the idea of including a recommendation to strengthen OAS Resolution 1080 as well as the criteria for Summit participation to include a broader definition of violations of democratic governance and process. The recommendation stemmed from a position taken at the Carter Center's October 2000 Conference of Notables (former presidents of Latin American and Caribbean nations). Its exact wording will not be known until the final version of the document is released later this month.

Another important position taken at the conference involved the linkage of the FTAA negotiations to the Summit process. There is growing awareness that the trade negotiations have deeply affected the social questions being debated in the Summit process. Besides recommending that the FTAA negotiations be "synchronized" with the Summit process, the conference approved a call for participation by civil society groups in the FTAA that is "transparent, inclusive, effective and permanent and allows for their involvement in the processes which define policies and monitor their implementation." It also demanded "clear rules of access to complete and timely information for civil society on the negotiating text and process." Finally, participants urged "support for independent research, financed at least by the Tripartite Committee, which will examine the global implications of the FTAA process and not just of trade, and pay special emphasis to the impact on small economies, taking into consideration the recommendations of the Consultative Group on Small Economies as well as orient and inform the establishment of a Regional Development Fund to assist the more vulnerable countries."

Many of the governments and even some of the NGOs present expressed concern about the interjection of the FTAA into the Summit process. However, the conference organizers, with the support of the Canadian government, remained firm in their position. Some officials tried to make new recommendations that would dilute the attention the original document focused on trade, but the director of the Office of Summit Follow-Up, Jaime Aparicio, announced that the next open meeting of the Summit Management Committee on February 16 will include consideration of the FTAA.

Participa's efforts to increase civil society involvement in the Summit are showing signs of maturing. Unlike the Hemispheric Social Alliance, Participa has a less organic institutional structure. It is linked to the OAS process of developing civil society participation at the national level and through the Inter-American Network for Democracy. Through the Summit process, especially the OAS Summit Management Committee chaired by Canadian OAS Ambassador Peter Boehm, its efforts are gaining cohesiveness and a higher profile. Conference participants bombarded the Canadian Summit organizers with questions about how to continue this level of participation in Quebec City. Interestingly, no one, except Ambassador Lortie at the very end, mentioned the People's Summit being organized by the Hemispheric Social Alliance that will immediately precede the official Summit. Are these groups so separate that they don't know about each other's plans? More important, after bridging the gap between the Summit process and the FTAA negotiations, is there any compelling reason to have two distinct civil society processes in the Americas?