Martin Redrado
PEOPLE PROFILE is published every Tuesday and describes the professional background of key people emerging in the political and economic scenario.
------------------- MARTIN REDRADO----------------------
WHO IS MARTIN REDRADO?
Deputy foreign minister, he has responsibility for international trade negotiations.
Why watch him?
He is in charge of Argentina's FTAA trade strategy and will have a key role in
Miami later this week. The FTAA is in danger of failing due to the hardline
taken by the chief protagonists, Brazil and the US. Argentina has shown itself
to be more open to a redefinition of the FTAA. Redrado is likely to act as an
intermediary between Brazil's vice-president of the FTAA, Adhemar Bahadian and
the US negotiators.
Place of birth: Buenos Aires
Education:
Universidad de Buenos Aires. Degree in economics. Masters in public
administration from Harvard University
Public life: He was head of the central bank in the early years of Domingo Cavallo's stint as economy minister under the presidency of Carlos Menem.
Timeline:
1996-1998 Secretary of State in education ministry
1994-2003 Founder and president of Fundación Capital, an entity committed to
economic investigation and the design of public policy.
1998-2003 President of Trident Investment Group, subsidiary of Medical
Management of America.
2002-2003 Deputy foreign minister and secretary of foreign relations and
international trade
Strong points
He has considerable experience in international negotiations. He represents a balance between the extreme anti-FTAA feeling found among some members of President Néstor Kirchner's cabinet and the pro-FTAA stance of the Menem and de la Rúa administrations. Argentina's foreign minister Rafael Bielsa has invested his full confidence in Redrado, delegating to him the meat of the technical negotiations.
Weak points
Redrado's role as an intermediary between the Brazil and the US will be
constrained somewhat by the fact that he will have to side with Brazil out of
Mercosur solidarity and due to the strong relations forged between President
Kirchner and Lula.
Prospects
Redrado will throw his weight behind Brazil's idea of a more modest and flexible
FTAA, rather than the US's original concept of a standardised agreement. Brazil
and its supporters argue that the differing levels of economic development
between North America and the rest of the Americas would mean that US companies
could steamroller their way across Latin America if tariff protection was
removed. They argue that it was unfair that Latin America should have to remove
protection on industrialised goods, where the US was more competitive, while the
US refused to amend its agricultural subsidies.