Briefing the Assembly Thursday was Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Clement Rohee who represented Guyana at that meeting.

In his address, Rohee noted that in the run-up to the Miami Meeting and especially following the failure of the WTO Cancun Conference in September, the general sense among FTAA countries was that the FTAA process would not be able to sustain its original scope and ambition for the agreed 2005 completion date.

According to Rohee, the major disagreements which had erupted earlier between the US and Brazil, had threatened the Miami Ministerial with a Cancun-like failure.

The Minister recalled that the United States, backed by Chile, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica and Central America had insisted on a comprehensive Agreement, which maintains the original scope, and coverage of each negotiating area, in keeping with the mandates established by Ministers at the launch of the negotiating phase in San Jose in 1998.

Rohee also recalled that in the case of agriculture, the US and Canada, both being large producers and exporters of agricultural products, had, however, argued that unless the multilateral disciplines were first settled in the WTO regarding agricultural domestic support and similar issues, it would not be realistic to implement hemispheric rules.

According to Rohee, the FTAA Ministerial meeting saw the MERCOSUR Group, led by Brazil, wanting a scaled down version of the FTAA and advocating a hemispheric trade accord to be comprised or achieved through different components such as bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral arrangements.

The group advocated that countries wanting to negotiate deeper for additional commitments would do so in the context of bilateral or plurilateral agreements but within the framework of the FTAA.

"As regards agriculture, MERCOSUR's position was diametrically opposed to that of the US/Canada," Rohee said.

According to Rohee, who is also the Ministerial spokesperson for CARICOM on WTO negotiations, Guyana has always considered it to be in the Community's best interest to hold on to the stated deadline with a trimmed agenda, common for all countries, since delaying the conclusions of the FTAA key market access issues beyond 2005, could likely complicate matters for the Region in the other external negotiations. It could also delay any adjustment assistance, which is important for all negotiations and which could likely accrue to the region under the hemispheric and sub-regional process.

CARICOM therefore, reaffirmed its support for the January 2005 deadline, but argued that the agreement must have a balance of ambition, accommodating capabilities and need, and include a comprehensive package of special and differential measures in each negotiating area.

In his address, Rohee said the Meeting agreed on a FTAA vision which would be realised through a two-tiered approach. At the first level, all countries will accede to a common set of rights and obligations. At the second level, countries on their own determination may agree to additional rights and obligations on a plurilateral basis.