10 South American nations to form a trade bloc

(3) MEDIA: The rest of the world's news
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BY PHILLIP CRYAN
Colombia Week columnist

You'd think an accord by 10 South American nations to form a trade bloc would be big news in the United States.

U.S. officials, after all, are pushing instead for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a hemispheric pact that would protect unfair advantages for U.S. agribusinesses and "intellectual property" holders. Since last year, the main U.S. tactic has been bullying countries one at a time through direct negotiations such as those with Colombia and Peru set to begin May 18. The last thing Washington wants is to be excluded from a bloc of countries with 344 million inhabitants and a combined gross domestic product of nearly $1 trillion--a bloc that will give Colombia and Peru more bargaining confidence and help Latin American countries stick together in the hemispheric talks.

Yet most U.S. news outlets, apparently taking cues from Bush administration officials, have played down or completely ignored the historic accord, signed April 3 in Buenos Aires by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela and set to take effect July 1. In an April 9 piece, Associated Press reporter Martin Crutsinger didn't even mention the South American consolidation while examining how global trade developments might affect the U.S. presidential race.

Latin American outlets, in contrast, have given it extensive coverage. A triumphant April 6 editorial in the Uruguayan daily El Pams described "the region's most ambitious project: the great South American bloc." The Costa Rican daily La Nacisn observed two days later that Mercosur, a bloc that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, "seems to have won this game over Washington by attracting [Andean] countries more quickly as allies."

The accord has also received significant attention in Asia and Europe. The German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted a U.N. official criticizing Colombia for negotiating with the United States on its own. Josi Luis Machinea, executive secretary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America, said such talks weaken South America's collective bargaining muscle.

As ample as the coverage outside the United States has been, there have been gaps. Only a handful of outlets have reported Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez's April 12 promise to "advance as quickly as possible" in his country's proposed trade talks with Mercosur. Such talks worry Washington because of Mexico's close U.S. ties and the size of its economy, one of Latin America's largest.

And only Ecuadoran outlets have reported on a March offer by the United States to include that country in the talks with Colombia and Peru. Ecuador's participation reportedly hangs on the degree to which it supports U.S. military intervention in neighboring Colombia.

Though the U.S. media have all but ignored the South American accord, the Houston Chronicle reported on the Mexican impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The April 2 piece by Ken Bensinger exposed how the 10-year-old pact has failed to deliver the improved living standards its promoters promised for Mexico's impoverished majority.

U.S. media outlets shouldn't wait another decade before reporting what the U.S. trade agenda holds in store for the rest of Latin America.

) 2004 Colombia Week. Phillip Cryan returned to the United States in November after 18 months of human rights work in Colombia. Next year Common Courage Press will publish a book he's writing about U.S. policy in the country. Find previous installments of "Media," his biweekly Colombia Week column, at http://www.colombiaweek.org/series.html#media. Link to this one at http://www.colombiaweek.org/20040419.html#media.