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Letter: Free trade area is wrong path

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004 | 8:50 a.m.

Although Vice President Dick Cheney claims that on Nov. 2 America gave President Bush a mandate to implement his agenda for our nation's future, it certainly was not a blank check. Moreover, the administration's vision for a badly misnamed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was barely even explained to voters.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told business leaders in Sao Paolo, Brazil, that the U.S. was firmly committed to seeing this Pan-American free trade deal take effect early next year. But is this what Americans really want?

Negotiations for an FTAA were actually launched at the 1994 Miami Summit of the Americans by the Clinton administration. The announced intent was to expand NAFTA into a hemispheric-wide free trade zone. But the architects of this proposal have revealed that they are seeking much more than economic integration of this hemisphere. Indeed, they seek political integration with a new layer of supra-government modeled after the European Union.

Americans had better not go down the EU road without a lot more explanation than we have been given. It is time to tell Congress to reject any agreement for an FTAA.

PIERO LLAMAS

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