Friday, November 4, 2005

Writer: Kim Cretors, 706/542-1168, kcretors@franklin.uga.edu
Contact: David Smilde, 706/583-8071, dsmilde@uga.edu

UGA sociology professor and Latin American specialist says reason for Latin Americans’ protest of the Free Trade Area of the Americas is largely misunderstood

Athens, Ga. – David Smilde, a professor of sociology and Latin American specialist in the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, believes the reason for current protests in Argentina regarding the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) initiative is misunderstood. The protests are being conducted amid the gathering of world leaders for the Summit of the Americas.

“Latin Americans who oppose the FTAA initiative are being portrayed as ‘against free trade’ while proponents are being portrayed as ‘for free trade,’” says Smilde. “But that completely misses what is going on. Latin Americans who oppose the FTAA do so precisely because the United States is not willing to engage in free trade: the United States wants to maintain farm subsidies, which are a huge obstacle for Brazil, Argentina and other countries. Yet it wants these countries to honor intellectual property rights of U.S. producers, which would cost them a lot of money.”

“So the issue is not one of supporting or opposing free trade but rather of the terms of trade. The terms of trade embodied in the FTAA are clearly advantageous to the United States and disadvantageous to Latin American countries and that is why the initiative is largely dead.”

Smilde’s research centers on the production and transmission of knowledge about the way global, political and economic restructuring is experienced at the ground level by everyday Latin Americans.