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LATAM-CARIBBEAN: Everyone Is Invited to the Summit

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 7 2008 (IPS) - For the first time ever, the heads of state and government of Latin America and the Caribbean will gather for a summit meeting Dec. 16 and 17 in Salvador, the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, in a new attempt to further regional integration, at present fragmented in several subregional blocs.

The meeting will be “unprecedented,” as the heads of the 33 countries in the region have previously come together only when convened by an external entity, such as the European Union, said Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim at a press conference Monday, following a meeting of foreign ministers to prepare for the summit.

Integration and development will be the central themes, but the agenda will be “broad,” so that the top authorities can discuss what they regard as the most pressing issues, from trade and financial and agricultural cooperation, to racism against migrants and natural disasters, he said.

The summit will be “the point of departure for building unity in Latin America and the Caribbean,” and the region will at last “speak with its own voice,” but “it will not be able to ignore the four simultaneous crises affecting the world: the financial, food, energy and environmental crises,” said Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque.

Asked why Brazil is proposing this initiative towards regional integration via summit meetings, at a time when the region appears to be divided into different blocs and mechanisms that have failed in the past, Amorim stressed that subregional or sectoral processes “have shown the potential benefits of integration.”

The recent history of different initiatives confirms that integration across the region “is indeed possible” and “necessary,” since “crises demand integrated solutions,” although integration is not “the only answer,” Amorim said.

The Brazilian foreign minister mentioned two examples of how integration “helps to overcome crises”: Brazil is “mitigating” the impact of the present financial turbulence in the United States by diversifying its export markets, and by eliminating the dollar in its bilateral trade with Argentina, which as of this week will be undertaken in the national currencies of both countries.

Trade expansion within the Southern Common Market (Mercosur, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and agreements with other countries in the region have allowed Brazil to sell 26 percent of its exports within Latin America and the Caribbean, in contrast with the decline of sales to the United States, which used to buy 25 percent of Brazilian exports and now purchases 15 percent.

“Integration has reduced Brazil’s vulnerability” in terms of foreign trade, and trade with Argentina in national currencies has reduced dependence on the dollar, said Amorim.

Subregional integration processes have “gained clout” and demonstrated their importance in many fields, including politics. The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) contributed to seeking solutions for the present crisis in Bolivia, the foreign minister said, referring to violent protests by the rightwing opposition in relatively rich provinces in eastern Bolivia and the fears of a civil coup against the government of President Evo Morales.

Brazil has made South America its priority in the last six years of the administration of President Luiz Inácia da Silva, but “not to the detriment of the integration of all of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Amorim said.

Regions with a higher degree of integration, like Asia and Europe, have “performed better” on development, according to Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, who said her government is committed to promoting Latin American and Caribbean unity that is respectful of “diversity and plurality.”

“We must be more ambitious,” in comparison with the integration processes adopted in the region over the past 50 years, she said, adding that “greater communication and coordination” is needed between the existing mechanisms, as well as “great flexibility.”

Today’s world is made up of “large blocs,” with the United States and China each a bloc in themselves, and there is no reason why Latin America and the Caribbean should not form a bloc of their own, with a “respectable” combined gross domestic product of some four trillion dollars a year, Amorim said.

The greatest challenge at the Salvador summit, however, will be to define more precise goals, since there are many interests and issues that could lead to a loss of focus in the discussions.

Some questions from journalists at Monday’s meeting received no reply, such as security issues arising from the reactivation of the United States’ Fourth Fleet, whose presence in the South Atlantic drew expressions of concern from the governments of Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, and the fact that a number of agreements between Latin American nations have not entered into force because they still lack parliamentary ratification.

The nearly five-decade trade embargo imposed by Washington on Cuba, the position of the regional bloc in relation to the Organisation of American States (OAS), the crisis in Haiti, as well as trade issues such as the World Trade Organisation Doha Round of multilateral talks, at which Latin American countries’ positions were divided, are further touchy topics that may diffuse the focus of the summit.