In the inaugural period of the initiative, along with the United States will be Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.
More than half a year after the Association of the Americas for Economic Prosperity was presented at the Los Angeles Summit by President Joe Biden, the United States government has announced concrete steps for this regional initiative.
“This is not something that the United States is basically presenting as a US-led initiative, but it really becomes an equitable partnership between regional governments that have been actively working, since the president’s speech, to develop a common approach to execute this shared vision,” a senior government official said in a telephone exchange with reporters on Thursday.
The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, opened a virtual meeting for the presentation of the Association in the early afternoon of this Friday, accompanied by the US Trade Representative, Katherine Thai.
The countries that make up the initiative in a first start are: Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay, informed the senior official.
Regarding the Summit in June 2022, Biden he claimed “There is no reason why the Western Hemisphere should not be secure, prosperous, and democratic.”
To a question from voice of america On why Brazil is not part of the initial group, a second official responded that the US has focused on those countries with which they already have a trade agreement framework. “We are very focused on developing this robust framework that sets a level of ambition that can deliver really tangible benefits,” he said.
He added that for the US “Brazil is important as an economy and as a regional and global bilateral actor” and stressed that Biden is expected to meet with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to “see what the United States and Brazil” can do “together ”.
For its part, the State Department, when announcing the Blinken meeting, stressed in a release that the main objective is “to build new models of cooperation that strengthen regional economic resilience and integration, address our common challenges and provide shared prosperity to our peoples.”
[Con información de Jorge Agobian, corresponsal de la Voz de América en la Casa Blanca]
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