US ambassador to Brazil Peter Allgeier acknowledged in Rio De Janeiro on Monday that there exist difficulties to embody the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement in 2005.

"The discussion includes the opening of markets to industry, technology, telecommunications and agriculture. It is a very complex panorama," said Allgeier, who is co-president for Commercial Negotiations Committee of FTAA.

Addressing a technical meeting of presidents of the nine FTAA discussion boards, Allgeier said the United States still considers 2005 as a feasible deadline for the materialization of FTAA.

While stressing "there are many difficulties in the process to sort interests out," he reiterated Washington's stance to hold a multilateral discussion of the issues of agricultural and internal subsidies within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Brazil has suggested that the South American Common Market (Mercosur) and the United States discuss the issues between them.

"The most ambitious position to be presented at the WTO (ministerial meeting in Mexico) is the elimination of agricultural subsidies. But the US position on the issue cannot be separated from that adopted by the European Union and Japan, which have the highest levels of subsidies," Allgeier said.

According to Allgeier, the United States only channels 19 billion US dollars a year in agricultural subsidies, remarkably lower than the 62 billion of the EU and 30 billion of Japan.

He said negotiations on the subsidies issue could only be conducted within the framework of the WTO.

"For the United States to eliminate subsidies within FTAA, it will be necessary for the rest of the countries resorting to the same resources to do the same," he said.

FTAA is aimed at eliminating trade barriers across the Americas. If materialized, it would become the world's largest free trade zone with 784 million potential consumers, stretching from Alaska, the United States, to Argentina.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2003)