Arguments driving the FTAA include not only easing commerce and investment in the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of Cuba, but also promoting democratic principles and raising the living standards of its people. The timing for the Summit of the Americas could hardly be worse. The participating countries, which range from the world's largest industrial power, the United States, to tiny, poverty-ridden Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti, are dragging along a grab bag of competing interests. Half of them are barely speaking to each other. Canada and the United States also are involved in disputes with Brazil, South America's biggest country.
Brazil is key.
There are also other, smaller disputes. Practically everyone is fed up with the president of Haiti. President Bush, who is among more than a dozen new faces at the summit, is staking his reputation on gaining a consensus among these friends and foes. The U.S. business community is barely registering support for a FTAA, which is seen by many as a boon to corporate interests. That's why Weintraub thinks summit participants will move toward an agreement.