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Fred
Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is in Mar Del Plata,
Argentina, representing The Prime Minister of The Bahamas at the 4th
Summit of the Americas
The
following is a statement issued by The Minister of Foreign Affairs in
Mar Del Plata, Argentina.
November
4, 2005
"This
is the fourth Summit of the Americas. The process began in 1994
when in Miami there was an agreement to create the Free Trade Agreement
of the Americas or FTAA. The other summits were held in Quebec, Canada;
Monterrey, Mexico and now here in a city called Mar del Plata, a resort
town on the southern Atlantic coast of Argentina.
The
meeting officially kicks off at 4 p.m. this afternoon and the Heads of
Governments of all 34 states of the hemisphere except Cuba are
represented here. The figures of most controversy are the
President of the United States George Bush and the President of
Venezuela Hugo Chavez. The city is like an armed camp, with
special passes required, iron fence barricades everywhere impeding free
movement, and armed guards accompanying you wherever you move.
There are also riot police in evidence around the streets.
The
city and the summit organizers are bracing for trouble with some 40,000
protestors said to be gearing up for demonstrations later today.
The
issue surrounds how the hemisphere moves forward with its development.
Inside, the delegates are working feverishly on the declaration for the
summit. The Bahamas has had a team working on this for the past year,
and our diplomats, Philip Miller, Ambassador Joshua Sears and Mr. Eugene
Torchon Newry are a part of that process. They worked up until
late last night on the document and the work still continues.
A
major sticking point for The Bahamas has been the issue of the rights of
immigrant labour, with The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and the
United States being on the side of the issue which argues for rather
more restricted rights for immigrant labour, lest there be some
implication of commitment in our law to provide vested rights for
illegal migrants. Mexico of course is on the other side of the divide.
So the wrangling over that paragraph continues.
The
Bahamas has a bilateral meeting with the President of Suriname today to
talk about a visa abolition agreement. There is also a caucus of
Caricom leaders to discuss amongst other items the question of Haiti’s
elections.
Hugo
Chavez the Venezuelan President has been involved with an alternative
people’s summit which is diametrically opposed to the objects of this
Summit. So this sets the stage for an interesting exchange of
ideas and values when the President of Venezuela and the United States
President appear at this evening’s opening and in the general debate.
As
for the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, the press has been
reporting that it appears that the U.S. believes that he matter is dead,
some are saying on hold, but the U.S. President has said that the
priority for his country is the finishing of the Doha Round of the WTO
where the issue of farm subsidies on world trade, the question of
services will be next discussed in Hong Kong in December.
"
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