The two co-chairs of the FTAA negotiations, President George W. Bush from the US and President Lula da Silva from Brazil, both recently reaffirmed their commitment to having the agreement ready by the beginning of 2005.
The US is still not sure whether to accept the Brazilian idea and kick agriculture into the World Trade Organization negotiations. Brazil has said that it will not sign up to the FTAA if the US persists with its current agricultural policies of subsidising farmers and blocking Brazilian (and other) agricultural exports.
Lauredo said that people on both sides were not rational about agriculture. He said it was as though there was something personal about the issue. The key issue, he said, for intellectual property was resolving the problem of piracy.
The FTAA would create a market of 800m people. It is also seen as a political initiative bolstering democracy and the rule of law.
Immigration: The issue is climbing up the list of priorities in Washington. Politicians seem to believe that being in favour of a deal to legalise illegal or undocumented immigrants in the US will play well with the voters in next year's elections. The House of Representatives' subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security issued a bipartisan statement agreeing that the current migration policy was not working. The committee was not, however, able to agree on a policy.
Sheila Jackson Lee, from Texas, the senior Democrat on the committee, said that she would present a draft bill aimed at making the investigation and prosecution of people-smuggling gangs easier. She is proposing to offer US$100,000 and a green card to people who provide information about such gangs. This follows the death of 19 illegal immigrants in an unventilated trailer as they were being driven into Texas in May.
The US immigration authorities reckon that the people-smuggling business around the world is worth US$9.5bn a year. There are estimated to be between 8m and 11m illegal immigrants in the US.
John Comyn, a Republican senator from Texas, is proposing a law to change the status of hundreds of thousands of migrants in the US. The core of the proposal is to legalise, temporarily, migrants working illegally in the country.
Under the Comyn proposal they will be able to apply for a three-year temporary residence permit, supported by their employers, and would be eligible for all the rights enjoyed by US workers. After three years they would be able to apply for a card.
Comyn denied that his suggestion amounted to an amnesty, but said it would recognise the contribution migrants were making to the US economy.
Religious right: Religious activists in the US say that they will support an initiative to legalise undocumented immigrants in the US. The religious groups say that they can mobilise a million people to call on congressmen and the White House to back the initiative. The religious groups are the latest to support the USA FAMILY ACT, proposed by Representative Luis Gutiérrez (Dem, Illinois).
The USA stands for Unity, Security and Accountability. The bill would legalise all migrants who have been in the US for five years and allow others to work in the country for shorter periods.
The US administration is heeding the call from Gutiérrez, who is one of the leading Latinos in Congress.
The president's spokesman's, Ari Fleischer, said that the president understood the necessity of giving migrants a chance.
Court case: The three people arrested after 19 illegal immigrants were found dead in the back of a trailer on 14 May, pleaded not guilty at their arraignment in Texas. Tyrone Williams, the Jamaican-born truck driver, and Norma González Sánchez, a Houston restaurant owner, pleaded not guilty of conspiring to smuggle undocumented immigrants. They both could face the death penalty, if they are convicted.
The local district attorney said that he expects guidance from the US attorney-general, John Ashcroft, on whether to seek the death penalty. Another nine people are in federal custody in the same case.
The immigrants each paid between US$1,500 and US$1,900 to be transported into the US. The leader of the gang is supposed to be a Honduran woman, Karla Patricia Chávez Joya.
Water: The US ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, said that Mexico still has to clear its water debt to the US: he said that Mexico had only supplied 60% of the water it should have provided from the Río Bravo (Grande). He said that Mexico still owes the US 2.03bn cubic metres.
Under the terms of the treaty, Mexico should supply 431m cubic metres a year. Garza pointed out that the US has fully complied with its commitment to provide its neighbour with 1.8bn cubic metres a year from the Colorado River.
TV Azteca: The number two broadcaster in Mexico, TV Azteca, has acquired two TV stations in Arizona. This means that it now covers 63% of the Hispanic market in the US.
Arizona, despite (or because) of its large Hispanic minority has taken a hard line on illegal immigration from Mexico. Around 25% of the Arizona population is Hispanic: in Tucson a third of the people are. TV Azteca now covers 12 of the 15 biggest Hispanic markets in the US. It also has 24 affiliates that carry its programming in major cities.
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