FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS: THE EAGLE AND THE CONDOR (2001)

During the Quebec Summit in April 2001, thirty-four countries of the American Continent ---all of them, with the only exception of the uninvited Cuba --- agreed to continue the conversations that would stretch a free trade area from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Here and there, bilateral or multilateral meetings spring up and many leaders, in the USA and in the rest of the countries, are starting to realize that the agreement known as the FTAA is not only about commercial issues.

The effect of a collision of the two predominant cultures– the English speaking culture with the Spanish speaking one --- as well as the new political meaning of a market with eight hundred million consumers, goes far beyond the scope of the usual worries about unequal commercial merges. While the labor unions in the USA and Canada on one side, and in the Hispanic countries on the other, may claim that they have everything to lose, and paranoically believe that their neighbor-- whoever it is-- will get all the profit, the political leaders, at least, have grasped that the serious matter will be the cultural, military and political effect of such a union. In addition, the September 11th attack on the USA made the war against terrorism a continental issue and common defense has become a priority, regardless of the old antagonism.

Is there an eagle flying over the Continent? Is there a condor getting ready to fly as high and as fast? In fact, both things seem to be happening on a Continent, whose casual mention will mean, --- even for the English speaking Americans --- the entire American Continent, in a necessary update and a cut of the umbilical cord to the old meaning of that word.

The first commercial issues that have been addressed concern the actual level of protection, and free markets. The main political objections of the countries who would enlarge the existing NAFTA till it embraces the whole Continent come from their perception of the FTAA as an imperialistic USA threat that could also change cultural and military conditions. From Brazil to Guatemala, the image people have is that of an eagle grasping the local markets and destroying the chances of any local production. In the USA and Canada, the primary reaction is about the same: North American workers are afraid of a condor breaking into their jobs, with lesser salaries and lower production cost, and they imagine factories and capitals migrating South.

But in reality what is to be built is a brand new political structure, a Continental community, where partners will be equal in their rights and subject to a common commercial organization. In this sense, a departure from the traditionally inefficient economies will certainly generate a drastic change, but a change for the best, engendering more productivity and competition. A complete understanding of the project is necessary in the minds of all eight hundred million American inhabitants of the American Continent. The desired equality in the rights of member countries is meant to include the treatment of cultures and languages, a common military commitment to the defense of the common Continent and the war against terrorism ---the last addressed issue and probably the most important in the months to come--- as well as a new reading of the word American, which will mean not just US American, but any kind of American.

As in the song, the condor flies, and so does the eagle, and a marriage of both is in the air more than a fight between them. And if we see some signs of a battle, let's not panic. It might only be one of those petty prenuptial quarrels that are quickly dissolved by the passions of fierce love.