FTAA nations must fight corruption

TRADE and Industry Minister Ken Valley issued a clarion call to the 34 member nations of the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) to band together to eradicate corruption or face the grim prospect of this malevolent scourge undermining the socio-economic benefits which their respective populations should obtain from this emerging regional market. Addressing the opening of the 15th Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) of the FTAA conference at the Hilton Trinidad last week, Minister Valley observed: “For all the progress in the Hemisphere over the past decade, many elected governments throughout the region are still struggling to show improvements in the quality of life. Too many of our citizens in the Americas are not meeting basic needs for health and safety.” Valley said the reason for this abnormality in some countries was because “corruption erodes the civic trust and undermines confidence in the economic system.” “Together, we must combat terrorism, fight corruption and transnational crime and the sins of the drug trade,” he told the assembled FTAA delegates.

The Minister also noted that while nations that are more integrated into global and regional economies policies and have implemented sound macro-economic policies “have been able to grow and expand and create better economies for their citizens, there is no doubt that in order to make the hemispheric initiative viable, we must protect the more vulnerable among us.” “The fact is that trade negotiations are no longer simply the realm of the specialists. Today, trade issues are at the heart of domestic politics and foreign policy,” he declared. Valley urged the FTAA delegates to “acknowledge the political and social nature of the process towards a hemispheric free trade area.” The Minister added that, “the certainty that we have a joint commitment and a set of common goals and objectives will help us to construct patiently, a vigorous consensus in all delicate matters.”