Speech by the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at the inaugural parliamentary meeting to discuss the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) — Brasília, 20 October 2003.

Your Excellency Senator José Sarney, President of the National Congress,

Your Excellency Deputy João Paulo Cunha, President of the Chamber of Deputies,

Your Excellency Raul Alfonsin, Senator and ex-President of Argentina,

Ambassadors of my Government,

My dear colleagues, Ministers of State: Roberto Rodrigues, Agriculture; Luiz Furlan, Development, Industry and Trade; Samuel Pinheiro, interim Minister for Foreign Relations; my colleague José Dirceu, Civil Chief of Staff; Miro Teixeira, Communications; and my colleague Olívio Dutra, Urban Development,

My dear Federal Deputy Ney Lopes, President of the Latin American Parliament,

Members of Parliament from other countries in the Americas who are participating in this seminar,

Brazilian Senators and Federal Deputies,

My dear friends,

The negotiation of the Free Trade area of the Americas (FTAA) is today one of the most debated subjects in Brazil. The National Congress, the press, academia and civil society follow the ongoing negotiations with ever growing interest. They concern an area of foreign policy that have important repercussions within our borders.

The FTAA does not merely involve trade liberalization and the opening of markets. Also at stake, in the proposals put forward so far, are complex and sensitive issues of great relevance to the development of Brazil, such as services, investment, government procurement and intellectual property rights.

Purely in terms of trade, it has already been made clear to us that certain issues of fundamental importance to Brazil, such as agricultural subsidies and antidumping measures, will not be included in the FTAA negotiations. This creates obvious limitations. Nevertheless, we are willing to negotiate in a constructive and pragmatic way, without losing sight of our essential interests or the irrefutable obligation to protect our national sovereignty.

We desire greater participation in world trade. Obviously we are attracted by the possibility of preferential access to the most dynamic market in the world, that of the United States. As is normal in any negotiations, we must be willing to make reciprocal concessions, oriented by the logic of mutual benefits.

But political lucidity obliges us not to be impressed merely by export opportunities, at the cost of losing sight of the bigger picture. Nor would it be wise to concentrate on immediate profit and forget about the medium and long term.

As the largest economy in South America, Brazil has not only the right but the obligation to help to create an FTAA project that is favourable for all countries, above all the poorer countries. This, alongside our Mercosul partners, is what we have done.

I have just returned from Argentina, where President Kirchner and I were in complete agreement that the Mercosul proposal has to be a basic point of reference for the FTAA negotiations. I want it to be clear to everyone, once and for all: for Brazil, for Mercosul, the question is not whether to say "yes" or "no" to the FTAA, but to shape the FTAA that best suits us.

What does not make sense is to concede preferential access to our markets without receiving in return concessions in areas in which we are more competitive, such as agriculture, and in which, apart from unfair competition in the form of subsidies, we face tariff and non-tariff barriers which impede access for our products. The offers presented so far indicate that the chances of gains in this area are very limited.

On the other hand, when considering the possible results of the negotiations, we cannot forget we are dealing with a group of countries that are extremely heterogeneous in terms of size, population and level of economic and social development.

Basically, what we want is a balanced FTAA that guarantees us genuine access to the other markets in the hemisphere, and which at the same time allows us space for development-orientated policies.

For all these reasons, the Mercosul proposal is characterised by its flexibility. That is to say, those countries which wish to assume greater commitments in any given area may do so, bilaterally or plurilaterally, without these commitments necessarily being extended to all the other countries.

As our Uruguayan colleagues have put it, "we want an FTAA that neither impedes nor imposes". It is not reasonable to want identical rules and obligations for 34 countries with such different characteristics and in such different situations. These are the principal standpoints of the government towards the FTAA negotiations.

Our strategy has been defined on the basis of wide consultation with the various different sections of Brazilian society, in meetings with all the ministers involved, in which I myself was present. What we have, therefore, is a government strategy, coordinated by the Ministry for Foreign Relations, with the participation of the Ministers for Agriculture and Development, who are responsible for conducting the negotiations on a day-to-day basis.

When it comes to the participation of civil society in the negotiating process, I re-emphasise the role of the National Congress. I consider the interest the two Houses have demonstrated in the FTAA negotiations to be extremely positive.

This seminar is not the first important initiative of this nature, and it certainly won't be the last.

I know the way in which Senators and Federal Deputies have closely followed the process. I know you have participated in meetings of the Trade Negotiations Committee, and in the FTAA Ministerial Meetings. I know about the weekly debates in the Foreign Relations Commissions of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, at which our negotiators are frequently present; I am aware of the personal interest on the parts of President José Sarney and President João Paulo Cunha in this matter.

Parliament has still to play its principal role, however. As we all know, the Constitution determines there should be a division of tasks when it comes to an international treaty - whether it is the FTAA Agreement or any other. The Constitution decrees that the Executive negotiates and signs the agreement, and it falls to the Legislative to ratify it. Without ratification, the Agreement is not valid.

And I am certain that a parliament that is informed, that participates, and that follows the negotiations with the interest shown by the Brazilian National Congress, will be fully equipped to evaluate what is presented by the government if, as I hope, the negotiations are successful.

I can assure you, Federal Deputies and Senators, that the Agreement that is placed before you will have taken into account the worries and concerns of our society. I say this because I know that Brazil is participating in the negotiations, in the words of our Minister Celso Amorim, "without either subservience or confrontation". The negotiations are being conducted professionally, transparently and in a way that maintains our sovereignty, seeking to preserve and promote our national interests.

My dear president José Sarney,

My dear president of the Chamber of Deputies, João Paulo Cunha,

Deputies here assembled, both Brazilian and from other countries,

The debate about the FTAA offers us a great opportunity to define what kind of nation we want to be, what kind of agriculture we want, what kind of industry we want.

From time to time I read, in the press, someone saying that Brazil is isolated, that Brazil could become isolated. I want to remind the Federal Deputies and Senators that what happened in Cancún, with the creation of the group G-22, was an extraordinary new political phenomenon, not because of what was achieved there, but because, for the first time, a group of countries sharing certain similarities in terms of their economies and their social problems discovered it was necessary to unite in order to try to make the rich countries open up a little space for us, and in order to have the right to continue dreaming that one day we shall no longer be a developing country, but instead shall transform ourselves into a truly developed country.

We recognise how important the United States and the European economies are for Brazil, and what other countries as a whole represent for Brazil. We do not seek to pursue a policy of confrontation for its own sake, merely in order to fall in line with some ideological position or other.

We want more than this. We do not just want to make speeches. We want to take up a pragmatic position, that of a sovereign country, putting forward our national interests —because a free trade agreement needs to take into account the differences between the economies represented at the negotiating table.

Within the European Union, the rich countries were sensible enough to create a fund to assist the developing economies, such as Spain, Portugal and Greece. In South America, however, there are countries much poorer than Spain, Portugal and Greece.

And in none of the proposals is there a policy intended to lift up the economies of these poor countries in order that they might begin to compete on equal terms.

If there is a lesson that we Brazilians have to learn from the United States, it is that we must not be ashamed to be Brazilians, because they are not ashamed to be Americans. We should not be ashamed to defend our agriculture in the way the European Union defends its agriculture.

We have to take advantage of these negotiations not in order to impose our interests, because in any case we do not have the power to do so, but in order for there to be a middle way between the agenda of the richest countries and that of the poorest, in which no one walks away with everything, in which everyone goes home with a piece of the prize.

This is the way in which we shall try to negotiate the FTAA. And this is the way I hope the National Congress can help Brazil to conduct the most fruitful ever negotiations on the way towards an important agreement such as this one.

We shall not quit the negotiating table. We shall negotiate with our heads held high, discussing, on equal terms, each of the items of interest to our country. After all, we are not asking for favours from anyone; we are merely claiming our right to have the opportunity for our economy to take a qualitative jump forward, free from the impositions the developed world has tried to place on us.

And, for this purpose, we are seeking partners. We are going to have a lot of meetings with other countries that think like us, because we are aware that issues not resolved in the FTAA negotiations can be resolved in the World Trade Organization where the debate could be more effective and more democratic, and have many more different interests involved.

Federal Deputies and Senators,

You can be sure that Brazil, as always, is open and willing to make the best possible agreement, but at the same time we will be careful not to accept the imposition of schemes that try to put us in an unfavourable negotiating position. This country has grown, it has matured, and now the time has come for us clearly to say what we are, who we are, and what we want for our people.

João Paulo, President Sarney, I offer you my congratulations for this seminar. I have no doubt this will show Brazilian society that the agreement to be made will not only be in the interest of the President of the Republic, the Minister for Industry and Commerce, the Minister for Agriculture or the Minister for Foreign Relations. It will not be the work of any one person. It will be, God willing, the result of a full debate which the National Congress is now embarking upon, and which, God willing, will be followed in the wider society.

Good luck to all who participate in this seminar.

Thank you very much.