Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela poised to sign anti-US trade pact

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29/04/2006 07h57

HAVANA (AFP) - The leaders of Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela are poised to sign what they call "a people's" trade accord designed to counter US efforts to forge a free-trade area of the Americas spreading from Alaska to Cape Horn.

Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela arrived in the Cuban capital Friday to prepare for the signing of the People's Trade Treaty that will streamline commercial relations between the three populist governments opposed to trade policies of the United States.

Nicaraguan Sandinistra leader Daniel Ortega, who will seek to return to power in the November elections, was also on hand.

"It will be a great meeting of three generations of revolutionaries, of people representing the three revolutions that we still have to broaden," declared Morales after his arrival at Havana airport.

The Bolivian leader expressed confidence the People's Trade Treaty will help promote "just trade, trade that generates jobs, ensures living standards and defends human dignity."

Cuban President Fidel Castro said the accord that is about to be signed was "an extraordinary document with profound humanitarian, social and economic content."

Morales, who swept to the Bolivian presidency on a wave of popular discontent last December, will also formally join the so-called "Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas," an initiative promoted by Castro and Chavez in an attempt to thwart US plans to build a free-trade zone in the Western Hemisphere.

Chavez praised what he described as economic achievements of socialist Cuba under the leadership of Castro, his key regional ally.

"I have been visiting this country for 12 years," said the Venezuelan leader, "and in all those years, I have seen nothing but progress, growth and victories."

The socialist summit is viewed with some concern in the region as members of the Andean Community that includes Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru fear their grouping could be dealt another blow, if Bolivia decides to follow Venezuela's lead and withdraw from it.

Venezuela officially pulled out of the Andean Community this past week in protest to its members signing bilateral free-trade agreements with the United States that Caracas insists threatens the commercial interests of Latin American countries.

Bolivian Finance Minister Luis Arce has already warned that Bolivia will follow Venezuela's lead, if Ecuador, Colombia and Peru continue to develop their free-trade relations with the United States.

Plans to pull out from the Andean Community worry, however, Bolivian farmers, who fear the move could negatively affect vital exports of soy beans.

But Morales sought to assuage their concerns by saying that he had received assurances that Cuba and Venezuela will buy all of Bolivia's soy bean crop.

"We have committed to buy all of Bolivian soy beans at a fair price," confirmed Chavez in his conversation with reporters.

Talks about forming a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) began at a Pan-American summit in Miami in December 1994, with the parties committing themselves to wrap up their work by 2005.

But Chavez was able to rally opposition to the accord at the last summit on the issue that was held at Mar del Plata, Argentina, in January last year.

The summit, attended by George W. Bush, ended in a fiasco for the US president: no agreement on FTAA was reached, although the parties pledged to meet again this year to resume negotiations.