THE WAR AND THE FREE TRADE AREA FOR THE AMERICAS (2001)

From Monroe to San Martín, from Bolívar to Martí, from Kennedy to Perón, the union of the Americas in a one and only American nation has been the most cherished dream for American patriots. No matter which country they've stood for, the idea of a great America, where they all could found a new civilization, has led the most audacious continental projects since the days of Independence.

George Bush revitalized the dream in 1994, with the project of the Free Trade Area for the Americas (FTAA), but the Clinton administration, more inclined to other international issues, tabled the idea. Present President George W. Bush, during the Summit of the Americas in Quebec last April 2001, reaffirmed that the Free Trade Area would be completed by 2005. A few months later, the attack of September 11th on the USA drew the attention of both the government and the people to the new issue of terrorism and the war both in Afghanistan and on the home front. Shared by Americans from everywhere, but seen as a threat by the rest of the world because of the incredible amount of power that it would give to the United States and the associated American countries, the dream of the FTAA was again postponed.

While the United States keeps busy in its war for self defense, the rest of the world sees with certain unhidden relief that the Free Trade Area for the Americas, with its market of eight hundred million people and incredible military potential, is not for tomorrow. The complicated relationship between the USA and the rest of the American countries, where love and hate as well as envy and cooperation are tangled in unresolved feelings, also shows some cracks after September 11th. Last week President Fernando Enrique Cardoso, from Brazil, said that the United States was no longer reliable to rule the world, and that the countries from the Mercosur would do better to seek partnership with the European Union rather than look to the USA project for the FTAA. The Dominican Republic, which has suffered a substantial reduction of the traditional flow of United States tourists, has also turned its eyes towards Europe. Argentina, the most supportive continental partner in the project of the FTAA, sinks into an economic and political despair where the temptation to strengthen its traditional links with Europe is seen as a possible salvation. The war has obviously attacked the United States economy as well as its commerce with the rest of the American countries. Since the attacks, the message of expansion that the FTAA promoted has been suddenly reversed , and the dream of a common area of commerce could seem again a dream left to patriotic utopists, if the multiple commissions of the FTAA were not working on in silence, ahead of all public knowledge about the final triumph of the Americas cause.

We have heard enough about the Chinese character and how a crisis can be taken as an opportunity; maybe now it is time to think about how opportunities are lost because of unexpected crises. This November 13th, in Washington, DC, there will be held a FTAA meeting of the Special Committee on Inter-American Summits Management. Maybe there the extraordinary opportunity of the Free Trade Area, in opposition to a terrorism jealous of the unstoppable power of a Greater America, will recover its character of hope in a better life for all Americans.