 | |  The heads of state from 34 countries in North and South America pose for the press at the start of the Fourth Summit of the Americas, Mar del Plata, Argentina, Nov. 4. | | | ©2005 Americas Summit | | Thirty-four heads of state from the Americas began sessions of the fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Friday, during which strong disagreements emerged on regional free trade.
President of host nation Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, opened the summit saying "our continent, in general, and our countries, individually, are facing a tragic test of the failure of the 'trickle-down theory' that originated in Washington."
He added that past U.S. policies "not only generated misery and poverty but also a great social tragedy that added to institutional instability in the region, provoking the fall of democratically elected governments."
Kirchner met his counterpart, George W. Bush and described their talk as "very frank and forward," an indication of the tensions that loom large for the Americas Summit.
 | | | U.S. President George W. Bush and Argentine President Nestor Kirchner meet in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Friday | | | ©2005 Americas Summit | | As of Friday midnight, local time, the fate of the final summit agreement remains unknown. The refusal of Brazil and Argentina to support the North American proposal of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) indicates that perhaps the summit will conclude without a decisive declaration.
A North American refusal to eliminate their agricultural subsidies is at the center of the disagreement.
The defense of the FTAA was put forward not by George W. Bush but by Mexican President Vicente Fox. He heads a group of pro-FTAA countries which have already signed bilateral free trade agreements with the United States.
Fox said that a FTAA can be ratified despite the absence of a few member states, but since Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil compose 75 percent of the region's GDP, this shows how crucial it is to incorporate to these countries into the agreement.
The discord prevailing at the summit appear to be threatening to fracture the Common Market of the South (CMS) -- ratified by Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina -- because unofficial reports say that Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez may sign his own agreement with the U.S. if the CMS fails to do so.
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