Americas Summit-Q and A
12-12-1994
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
Undated (AP) _ The Summit of the Americas sets the hemisphere on track to create the world's largest free-trade zone and establishes other goals, ranging from protection of the environment to targeting drug traffickers' assets.
A few questions and answers on the details:
Q. What is the agreement on trade?
A. It commits the 34 heads of state, comprising all the nations in North and South America and the Caribbean except Cuba, to finish talks to set up a free trade zone by 2005. "Concrete progress" must be made by the end of the century, though what constitutes concrete progress wasn't established.
Q. What will the free trade zone be called?
A. The Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Q. When will the free trade zone be established?
A. No date was set.
Q. Was any strategy outlined for creating it?
A. Existing agreements among nations will serve as a framework for linking all the nations, broadening and deepening them until everyone is in the bloc. Among the existing agreements are the North American Free Trade Agreement, comprising the United States, Mexico and Canada, and the G-3 accord between Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.
Q. What does creation of a free trade zone mean for me?
A. Items which now face import tariffs should be cheaper when those tariffs are eliminated. For example, roses from Colombia - the world's second-largest exporter of flowers after Holland - may be as much as 40 percent cheaper. Clothing also is among the many items that should be cheaper, since textiles are hit by tariffs now.
Q. How does the agreement benefit Latin America and the Caribbean?
A. Sales of their goods, entering the United States and other countries free of tariffs, should increase since they'll be cheaper.
Q. Was Cuba an issue during the summit?
A. President Carlos Menem of Argentina sought to have the summit formally say Cuba should move toward democracy, but there was no mention of Cuba in the final declaration of the heads of state. Cuba was excluded from the summit because only democratically elected governments were invited. More than 70,000 Cuban-Americans demonstrated peacefully in Miami on Saturday to press for Cuba to be added to the summit agenda.
Q. What else was accomplished?
A. A panoply of goals were outlined, with varying degrees of steps to accomplish them. Among them:
-Phase out the use of leaded gasoline.
-Fight corruption by developing reforms to make government operations open and accountable.
-Ratify a U.N. measure against drug trafficking and criminalize money laundering.
-Remedy inhumane conditions in prisons and lower the number of pretrial detainees.
-Guarantee universal access to quality primary education. Seek to attain by 2010 a primary-school completion rate of 100 percent and secondary-school enrollment rate of at least 75 percent.
-Create a corps of "White Helmet" volunteers to help with natural disasters and emergencies, as well as social and developmental needs.
-After the summit, Clinton announced a drive to make Chile the first South American nation to join NAFTA.
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
Undated (AP) _ The Summit of the Americas sets the hemisphere on track to create the world's largest free-trade zone and establishes other goals, ranging from protection of the environment to targeting drug traffickers' assets.
A few questions and answers on the details:
Q. What is the agreement on trade?
A. It commits the 34 heads of state, comprising all the nations in North and South America and the Caribbean except Cuba, to finish talks to set up a free trade zone by 2005. "Concrete progress" must be made by the end of the century, though what constitutes concrete progress wasn't established.
Q. What will the free trade zone be called?
A. The Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Q. When will the free trade zone be established?
A. No date was set.
Q. Was any strategy outlined for creating it?
A. Existing agreements among nations will serve as a framework for linking all the nations, broadening and deepening them until everyone is in the bloc. Among the existing agreements are the North American Free Trade Agreement, comprising the United States, Mexico and Canada, and the G-3 accord between Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.
Q. What does creation of a free trade zone mean for me?
A. Items which now face import tariffs should be cheaper when those tariffs are eliminated. For example, roses from Colombia - the world's second-largest exporter of flowers after Holland - may be as much as 40 percent cheaper. Clothing also is among the many items that should be cheaper, since textiles are hit by tariffs now.
Q. How does the agreement benefit Latin America and the Caribbean?
A. Sales of their goods, entering the United States and other countries free of tariffs, should increase since they'll be cheaper.
Q. Was Cuba an issue during the summit?
A. President Carlos Menem of Argentina sought to have the summit formally say Cuba should move toward democracy, but there was no mention of Cuba in the final declaration of the heads of state. Cuba was excluded from the summit because only democratically elected governments were invited. More than 70,000 Cuban-Americans demonstrated peacefully in Miami on Saturday to press for Cuba to be added to the summit agenda.
Q. What else was accomplished?
A. A panoply of goals were outlined, with varying degrees of steps to accomplish them. Among them:
-Phase out the use of leaded gasoline.
-Fight corruption by developing reforms to make government operations open and accountable.
-Ratify a U.N. measure against drug trafficking and criminalize money laundering.
-Remedy inhumane conditions in prisons and lower the number of pretrial detainees.
-Guarantee universal access to quality primary education. Seek to attain by 2010 a primary-school completion rate of 100 percent and secondary-school enrollment rate of at least 75 percent.
-Create a corps of "White Helmet" volunteers to help with natural disasters and emergencies, as well as social and developmental needs.
-After the summit, Clinton announced a drive to make Chile the first South American nation to join NAFTA.
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