Cuban President Criticizes FTAA

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 17, 2002

Cuban President Criticizes FTAA

Cuban President Fidel Castro criticized the planned Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) as a

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Cuban President Fidel Castro criticized the planned Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) as a

"colonization instrument" of the United States and urged developing countries to protect their industries.

In a lengthy closing speech at the 4th International Conference of Economists on Globalization and Development Problems here, he said FTAA "wants to send us back to the Banana-Republic era."

"It is more expensive to produce fruit in California (of the U.S.), where the salary is 15 times higher than in our countries."

Rich countries developed themselves without FTAA-like efforts, he noted, while calling on Latin American countries to protect their industries from competition with those who have more modern technology.

The development of rich countries was partly achieved by brain-draining other countries who are even not able to develop a lab, he said.

"More than 500,000 Latin American professionals have migrated to industrialized countries, to the U.S. in particular," the Cuban leader told about 1,000 economists from 43 countries attending the

economic forum. The forum, which opened last Monday, also attracted representatives from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and specialized U.N.

agencies.

On the debt burden of Latin America, Castro said the total figure for the region tops 800 billion dollars at the moment and is still growing.

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