Summit of the Americas II, April 18-19, 1998: Background, Objectives, and Expectations

98-330 F

April 2, 1998

CRS Report for Congress

Received through the CRS Web

Summit of the Americas II, April 18-19, 1998:

Background, Objectives, and Expectations

(name redacted)

Specialist in Latin American Affairs

Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division

Summary

President William Clinton will attend Summit of the Americas II in Santiago,

Chile, on April 18-19, 1998, with 34 democratic Presidents and Prime Ministers from

Latin American and Caribbean countries expected to attend. This is a follow up to

Summit of the Americas I hosted by President Clinton in Miami in December 1994.

The 1994 Miami Summit created a Plan of Action with 23 initiatives in four major

areas. Under the leadership of various countries and organizations, these initiatives have

been advanced, and major agreements have been concluded and are in the process of

being implemented. The 1998 Santiago Summit will focus on four major items: (1)

promoting education, including programs for children, adults, and disadvantaged groups;

(2) strengthening democracy and human rights, including cooperation against illicit drug

trafficking; (3) promoting economic integration, including procedures for negotiation

of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA); and (4) eradicating poverty and

discrimination, including programs to protect women and indigenous populations. The

United States Congress may be particularly interested in plans to launch FTAA

negotiations, proposals to strengthen multilateral drug control efforts, and cooperation

initiatives to promote educational and socioeconomic reforms.

CRS products related to this topic include: Trade and the Americas, CRS Issue

Brief IB95017, by (name redacted).

Background

The Santiago Summit of the Americas to be held in mid-April 1998 is a follow up

to the Miami Summit of the Americas held in December 1994. The 1994 Miami Summit

was held at a point when the leaders of Western Hemisphere countries seemed to be

developing a shared sense of values, and it was felt that the countries should join together

to consolidate and strengthen the commitments to advance democracy, free trade, and

sustainable development. Conceived shortly after legislative approval of the North American

Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, Canada, and the United States, the

countries were particularly interested in seizing upon U.S. initiatives to advance free trade

Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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in the hemisphere, which had included President Bush’s Enterprise for the Americas

Initiative and President Clinton’s similar initiatives.1 After extensive consultation and

development of proposals, the hemispheric leaders agreed at the Miami Summit on a Plan

of Action with 23 separate initiatives under four major themes. With regard to the central

issue of promotion of free trade, the countries agreed to complete negotiations for a Free

Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) by the year 2005.2 Subsequently it was decided

that three sets of the initiatives should be implemented jointly, effectively leaving a total

of 20 initiatives.

Progress on Summit Initiatives under Four Major Themes

Since the 1994 Summit, the responsible countries and organizations have been

advancing the initiatives in a variety of ways, with varying results, as indicated below.

I. Preserving and Strengthening Democracies — (1) Strengthening Democracy/(2)

Promoting Human Rights: Under these two combined initiatives, the Organization of

American States (OAS) strengthened the Unit for Promotion of Democracy substantially,

with major efforts on electoral processes, improved governance, and conflict resolution;

the Working Group on Human Rights and Democracy that met at the OAS in December

1996 approved administration of justice as a main priority, especially training for police

and judges; (3) Invigorating Society/Community Participation: Governments are

encouraging citizen participation, especially by members of marginalized groups, with

assistance from international donors; (4) Promoting Cultural Values: Cultural exchanges

between countries have been facilitated through the OAS and the Inter-American

Development Bank (IDB); (5) Combating Corruption: Under auspices of the OAS,

countries negotiated the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption in 1996, which

entered into force in 1997, with seven of the 23 signatories having ratified it; (6) Combating

Illegal Drugs and Related Crimes: Working through the OAS’ Inter-American Commission

on Drug Abuse Control (CICAD) countries approved the Anti-Drug Strategy in the

Hemisphere in December 1996; countries are also implementing the Buenos Aires

Communique of December 1995 to strengthen laws and to share information to combat

money laundering; countries signed the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Arms

Trafficking in November 1997; (7) Eliminating the Threat of National and International

Terrorism: At the OAS Conference on Terrorism in April 1996, the countries agreed to

improve intelligence exchange and enforcement cooperation; (8) Building Mutual

Confidence: At the OAS Conference on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures

(CSBMs) in November 1995, the countries agreed to eleven CSBMs, including advance

notice of military exercises and exchanges of defense information; additional measures

are to be taken by the newly created OAS Committee on Hemispheric Security.

1

For background on the Miami Summit, see Summit of the Americas, December 9-11, 1994:

Background, Plans, and Hemispheric Expectations, CRS Report 94-911 F, by (name redacted).

2

For complete information on the 1994 Summit, see Summitry in the Americas: A Progress

Report (Washington, D.C. Institute for International Economics, 1997). For information on the

1994 Summit and action leading to the 1998 Summit, see the AmericasNet homepage maintained

by the Summit of the Americas Center at Florida International University at

http://summit.fiu.edu.

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II. Promoting Prosperity Through Economic Integration and Free Trade — (9)

Free Trade in the Americas: With support from the Tripartite Committee (OAS, IDB,

ECLAC3), hemispheric Trade Ministers, acting through four trade ministerials (Denver

in June 1995; Cartegena, Colombia in March 1996; Belo Horizonte, Brazil in May 1997;

and San Jose, Costa Rica in March 1998) reaffirmed the commitment to achieve a FTAA

by the year 2005, and to make concrete progress by the end of the century; (10) Capital

Markets Development and Liberalization: Through meetings of Ministers and Deputy

Ministers of Finance, countries created the Committee on Hemispheric Financial Issues

that developed a survey of national financial systems and plans for combating financial

crimes and for training banking and securities regulators; (11) Hemispheric

Infrastructure/(13)Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure4: Governments

and multilateral development banks are acting to encourage private investment in

infrastructure, particularly telecommunications infrastructure; with advance support from

the OAS’ Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL) the Senior

Telecommunications Officials Meeting of September 1996 adopted hemispheric guidelines

for future negotiations to promote telecommunications services; (14) Cooperation in

Science and Technology: Acting through Science and Technology Ministerials in 1995

and 1996, the countries agreed to promote hemispheric cooperation, utilizing new

telecommunications and information technology; (15) Tourism: The Inter-American Travel

Congress in April 1997 encouraged cooperation and implementation of 1996 Regional Plan

of Action for Tourism Development.

III. Eradicating Poverty and Discrimination — (16) Universal Access to Education:

Governments have been acting to achieve the 1994 goals, namely 100% primary school

enrollment and 75% secondary school enrollment by the year 2010, with special attention

to unmet needs of women, indigenous peoples and other disadvantaged groups, with $1.5

billion in assistance from the IDB for education and health services; (17) Equitable Access

to Basic Health Services: The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is implementing

a regional plan, including campaigns against measles and unsanitary conditions; InterAmerican Conference on Hunger in 1996 committed countries to work to eliminate hunger

and malnutrition; governments are implementing country plans to meet 1994 goal to reduce

child mortality by one-third and maternal mortality rate by one-half by the year 2000; (18)

Strengthening the Role of Women in Society: Governments and organizations are working

to advance women’s rights through the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995,

and through the hemispheric Conference on Women in April 1997 that established a system

of indicators to monitor progress on the role of women; (19) Encouraging Microenterprises

and Small Businesses: The IDB committed $500 million for these purposes and convened

a hemispheric conference in November 1995 to review problems and ways to encourage

private investment; (20) White Helmets/Emergency and Devlopment Corps: Plans are

being developed, in regional and global forums, to support the establishment of a corps

of volunteers to deal with natural disasters and developmental emergencies.

IV. Guaranteeing Sustainable Development and Conserving Natural Environment—

The following three themes were addressed at the Summit for Sustainable Development

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4

The U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Initiatives 11 and 13, 1 and 2, and 12 (Energy Cooperation) and 21 (Partnership for

Sustainable Energy Use) are being implemented jointly.

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at Santa, Cruz, Bolivia, in December 1996, with the countries agreeing to take measures

to protect the environment and to promote cooperation; the World Bank and the IDB have

committed over $21 billion for sustainable development projects; the OAS is coordinating

followup on the 1996 Summit commitments, particularly through the newly created InterAmerican Commission on Sustainable Development; (21) Partnership for Sustainable

Energy Use/(12) Energy Cooperation: The Fourth Meeting of the Hemispheric Energy

Steering Committee in 1997 reaffirmed efforts under these jointly implemented initiatives

to promote clean energy options, regulatory cooperation, opportunities for natural gas,

efficient use of energy, and rural electrification; (22) Partnership for Biodiversity:

Governments working to protect biodiversity within the framework of existing international

agreements, including commitments in the 1996 Sustainable Development Summit; (23)

Partnership for Pollution Prevention: Governments are working, with help from PAHO,

the World Bank and national agencies, to improve water quality and to phase out leaded

gasoline in the hemisphere.

While progress has been made in nearly all areas of a massive plan of action, the amount

of progress has varied considerably, depending upon the priority of the issue and the

resources committed to the task. The Leadership Council for Inter-American Summitry,

a group of 16 businessmen, academics, and former policy-makers suggests that progress

has been “modest” in most areas — democracy/human rights, anti-corruption, narcotics

and money laundering control , trade, education, and sustainable development. They rate

progress on promotion of civil society and capital market liberalization as “good,” and

progress on promotion of health as “very good.”5 To revitalize the summit process in the

Hemisphere, the Leadership Council recommends that the Santiago Summit take the

following initiatives: (1) Accelerate to 2002 the target date for completing negotiations

on a FTAA; (2) Create an Inter-American Financial Council to deal with financial crises;

(3) Form an independent Inter-American Commission on Corruption to implement the AntiCorruption Pact; and (4) Hold summits every two years to focus attention on the region

and on implementation of the action plans.

The Agenda for the Santiago Summit

Given the action in various areas of the original Miami Summit agenda, particularly

the emphasis given to sustainable development topics in the 1996 Summit on Sustainable

Development in Bolivia, the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG)6 developed

the following agenda for the Santiago Summit, with certain countries designated as

Responsible Coordinators. This agenda emphasizes education as an overall theme, places

5

The Leadership Council for Inter-American Summitry, From Talk to Action: How Summits

Can Help Forge a Western Hemisphere Community of Prosperous Democracies ( Coral Gables,

Florida: North-South Center, 1998), p. 11.

6

The Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) is a policy-level body of

representatives from each of the hemispheric governments which meets regularly, under the

authority of the countries’ Foreign Ministers, to review implementation of the Summit Plan of

Action and to make plans for future summits. Thomas “Mack” McLarty, the White House

Special Envoy for the Americas, has usually represented the United States at these meetings. The

key mechanism for developing the various initiatives is the Responsible Coordinator System,

under which selected hemispheric governments or institutions have volunteered to take the lead

in each of the areas.

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sustainable development topics in a category for review but little major action, and

emphasizes certain topics, such as free trade and labor issues, within each of the major

themes.

1. Education, to include action items on exchange programs, distance education,

new technologies, adult education, and worker training and skills improvement.

Mexico, as Responsible Coordinator, and Argentina and Chile, as Co-coordinators,

are preparing proposals to promote education-for-living programs, with short term goals,

targeted for children and adults. Special attention is to given to vulnerable and disadvantaged

groups (females with educational deficiencies, indigenous peoples, handicapped persons,

economically marginal groups, refugees, etc.) and to programs to prevent drop-out and

failure, such as preschool programs with involvement of mothers, and electronic media

programs. The OAS’ Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) would be

the principal promoting entity. The U.S. government is committed to supporting educational

initiatives, primarily through AID’s Partnership for Education Reform in the Americas

(PERA) project.

2. Preserving and Strengthening Democracy and Human Rights, to include action

items on education for democracy and human rights, protecting the rights of migrant workers,

public participation, municipal and regional governments, anti-corruption, counternarcotics,

anti-terrorism, confidence and security building measures, judicial systems, and

modernization of the state in relation to labor matters.

Brazil and Canada, as joint Responsible Coordinators, have presented proposals to

promote a culture of democracy and respect for human rights, especially for disadvantaged

groups; to strengthen electoral processes; to strengthen justice and related sectors (judiciary,

public defenders, prisons, police); and to develop a more responsive and professional public

sector. The United States, as Responsible Coordinator, with support from Argentina, Bolivia,

Colombia and the OAS is preparing proposals to strengthen multilateral drug control efforts

based on the Anti-Drug Strategy in the Hemisphere.

3. Economic Integration and Free Trade, to include action items on advancing the

FTAA, capital markets development, science and technology, regional energy cooperation,

and hemispheric infrastructure in transportation and telecommunications.

The Trade Ministers of the Americas, as Responsible Coordinators, agreed, in the

March 1998 meeting in Costa Rica, to launch FTAA negotiations at the Santiago Summit.

They established nine negotiating groups to deal with the substantive issues (market access,

investment, services, government procurement, dispute settlement, agriculture, intellectual

property rights, subsidies/anti-dumping/countervailing duties, competition policy). They

specified that negotiations will rotate from Miami to Panama City to Mexico City, and

designated certain countries as chairs and co-chairs of the negotiation process for various

periods of time, with Brazil and the United States as joint co-chairs in the final phase of

the negotiations.

In accordance with the agreement of the Hemisheric Ministers of Transportation, the

Western Hemisphere Transportation Initiative (HTI) will be considered.

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4. Eradication of Poverty and Discrimination, to include action items on

microenterprises and small- and medium-sized businesses, health, hunger, women,

indigenous people, effective systems of property registration, and promotion of

internationally accepted labor norms.

Responsible Coordinators will be making proposals in the mentioned areas, with

attention to education in several of the areas, such as educational programs for women,

indigenous people, and vocational training.

Congressional Interest in the Santiago Summit

Congress may be particularly interested in plans to launch FTAA negotiations, proposals

to strengthen multilateral drug control efforts, and plans for bilateral and multilateral

cooperation to promote educational and socioeconomic reforms.

Despite the Clinton Administration’s failure in November 1997 to obtain fast track

authority from Congress to negotiate free trade agreements, the hemispheric Trade Ministers

agreed to launch FTAA negotiations at the Santiago Summit, with the understanding that

negotiations would not be completed until the U.S. executive has obtained fast track

authorization.7 U.S. Trade Representative Barshefsky argues that the United States will

play a major role in the negotiations, with Miami as the designated site for the first three

years of negotiations, and with the United States and Brazil jointly co-chairing in the final

phases of the negotiations. Others argue that the United States was less successful than

it would have been if it had gone to the Costa Rica ministerial with fast track authority.

They note that agriculture was one of the main negotiating groups, that environmental and

labor issues were relegated to input to a committee without authority, and that the go slow

approach to integration will have a powerful voice with Brazil as a joint co-chair at the

end of the negotiations.

Efforts to strengthen multilateral drug control efforts may be watched closely since

Congress has been unwilling to modify the threat of aid and trade sanctions under the U.S.

drug certification process8, although Administration spokesmen have stated that multilateral

efforts will not affect existing U.S. legislation and procedures.

Cooperation for educational and socioeconomic reforms will be watched closely to

the extent that U.S. resources are committed or required for bilateral or multilateral programs

to meet obligations undertaken by hemispheric leaders in the Santiago Summit.

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8

See Trade and the Americas, CRS Issue Brief 95017, by (name redacted).

See Mexican Drug Certification Issues: U.S. Congressional Action, 1986-1998, CRS

Report 98-174, by (name redacted), for examples.

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