Leaders arriving for the Summit of the Americas in Quebec yesterday have set themselves a goal as ambitious as that of the founders of the European Common Market half a century ago - the creation of a free trade area for North, Central and South America and the Carribbean by 2005.
The effort is being strongly promoted by the United States, backed by American business interests eager to get tarriff-free access to the growing markets in Latin America, and by Latin American leaders anxious to achieve higher living standards for their people.
Leaders from 34 nations have gathered in Quebec, ranging from President George W Bush of the United States with a population of 275.6 million, to Prime Minister Denzil Douglas from St Kitts and Nevis, population 38,819.
US President George Bush, making his first appearance as US leader at an international forum, has made the Americas his foreign policy priority, said US ambassador to Canada, Mr Paul Cellucci.
Mr Bush, who arrived with his wife Laura, said: "This third Summit of the Americas will take the next step toward creating an entire hemisphere that is prosperous and free." He added in Spanish: "It's a great task and an extraordinary opportunity to make the Americas the land of opportunity."
He has enthusiastic support from Mexican President Vincente Fox, who came to Quebec with a message for the participants, that the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of the US, Mexico and Canada has demonstrated the benefits of open markets. "Free trade has been extremely successful for Mexico," said Mr Fox, responding to criticism that it mainly benefited big corporations. "It has brought in many jobs. When we reach full employment then salaries and wages start going up. Of course companies benefit, demonstrators don't produce jobs, companies and entrepreneurs produce jobs."
He also brought a warning, to Mr Bush especially, that free trade alone was not enough. Rich countries like the US with a $9.2 trillion economy must help those countries vulnerable to exploitation, he said. "My proposal is that we popularise free trade by advocating massive spending by rich countries for the development of underdeveloped areas."
Latin America "lost the 20th century" by not developing like the Europeans, said Mr Fox, whose election last year ended 71 years of one-party rule. Now that most of the region was democratic they had a chance to co-operate for mutual benefit. Mr Fox was challenged by a coalition of Canadian church groups which alleged that NAFTA had worsened income disparities in Mexico and perpetrated a "monstrous fraud" on the poor. The 281,000 mostly poor people assembling electronics for export in 397 malquiladoras in the border city of Ciudad Juarez were living in economic slavery, they said.
"The minimum wage in Mexico is seven dollars a day and people working in malquiladoras get four times that," Mr Fox responded.
The three-day summit is not just about free trade. The agenda includes improved access to education, and poverty alleviation, a major concern for Latin American countries eager to show that free societies bring more benefits than military dictatorships.
MANY participants want to strengthen democracy in Latin America by excluding non-democratic countries from the club. The most noted absentee is Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, said he failed when on a trip to Cuba to get Mr Castro to sign the UN convention on economic, social and cultural rights and release political dissidents, and therefore had excluded him from the summit.
Human rights activists in Quebec say the agreement is a danger to democracy, as it would lead to new corporate dictatorships based in the United States, locking people into poorly-paid jobs and avoiding environmental laws they must adhere to in the US.
