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U.S., 13 Nations Negotiate Trade Deal

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Still unable to agree on a hemispheric free trade agreement, the United States and 13 other countries are negotiating a side deal within the overall negotiations that would open markets from Canada through Panama and a few other countries, a U.S. trade official said Saturday.

The official said the United States hopes the negotiations might give impetus to a solution among the 34 nations involved in the overall talks, which aim to a free-trade pact covering every country in the Western Hemisphere. President Bush has made the pact a major goal for his administration.

The latest round of the overall talks in Puebla, Mexico, ended without agreement Friday. The official, in a conference call with reporters under rule protecting his identity, said negotiators agreed to reconvene in a few weeks after consultations with their governments.

A bloc headed by Brazil and Argentina has been holding out for more concessions from in several categories, particularly market access. As stated at Puebla, the official said, that position would make no significant improvement in market access for services but would demand major concessions by the United States and others on market access for merchandise.

Countries in the 14-nation talks are the United States, Canada, Mexico, all of Central America and Panama, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile.

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