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Lagos, Bush to Discuss Free Trade in Washington
Bilateral and regional free trade negotiations would be a major topic in the meeting between Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and US President George W. Bush scheduled for April 16 in Washington.
"It will be a working visit, where a full range of bilateral issues will be discussed, although the accent will be on the free trade negotiations," La Nacion newspaper Monday quoted Vice Foreign Minister Herald Munoz as saying.
Chile's proposed purchase of F-16 fighters from the US will be among the issues to be discussed by the two heads of state, according to Chilean Foreign Ministry officials.
Other topics include the recent slowdown in the region's economy and Plan Colombia, a drug-busting campaign which Washington has promised financial and military aids, Munoz said. The announcement of US support ruffled regional feather as Colombia's neighbors fear that the county's decades-old guerrilla war may spill over to their territories.
Lagos said last week that he would ask the US government to speed up the free trade negotiations with Chile. The Chilean president will meet Bush in Washington on his way to Quebec, Canada, where both of them will attend the Third Summit of the Americas.
This will be the first meeting between the two leaders since Bush took office in January. Bush made a telephone call to Lagos early last month.
The third round of talks on the proposed free trade agreement between Chile and the United states began on Monday, in Miami, Florida. This is the first round of negotiations involving representatives of the Bush administration.
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