Bush promotes trade at Americas Summit (AP) Updated: 2005-11-04 20:45
Bush has acknowledged that the FTAA, which was once one of his highest trade
priorities, has stalled. Thomas Shannon, the new assistant secretary of state
for Western Hemisphere affairs, said aboard Air Force One on the flight to
Argentina that the U.S. is still promoting the FTAA even though it has been
"slowed down," but also is pursuing regional and bilateral agreements to move
the president's free trade agenda.
Bush is highlighting his success by gathering first thing Friday with leaders
of Central American nations involved in a recently approved trade pact with the
United States. Later in the day, Bush has one-on-one meetings with the president
of Chile, which negotiated a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S., and the
host of the summit, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner.
Bush and an outspoken critic, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, were likely
to meet Friday, shortly after Chavez's speech to a demonstration of mostly
anti-Bush protesters. Chavez has joked about whether Bush is afraid of him and
said he might sneak up and scare Bush at the summit.
Chavez has said he would use the meeting as a stage to denounce the U.S. as a
"capitalist, imperialist model" of democracy that exploits the economies of
developing nations.
Bush's trip comes as he faces the lowest job approval ratings of his
presidency back home.
Argentina's economy is recovering faster than many leading analysts expected,
in part because of a boom in exports. But the country still suffers from
double-digit unemployment and high poverty.
Bush applauded Kirchner, the populist leader who was elected in the political
upheaval that followed the economic collapse, for being a good steward of the
people's money. But he said Kirchner shouldn't look to the United States to help
Argentina reach a new financial settlement with the International Monetary Fund.
"Since he has proven himself to be capable of performing, it seems like to me
that the best policy ought to be for the Argentine government to deal directly
with the IMF, without the U.S. having to be a middleman," Bush said earlier this
week.
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