Crunch time. (Trade Talk).

First Chile, next Central America and then on to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the U.S. game plan through 2005, but the obstacles appear to be growing.

Brazil and the United States serve as co-chairs of the FTAA for the final leg of the negotiations, but the new Brazilian administration has already voiced its disdain for any accord. USTR Robert Zoellick has responded with a first-come, first-serve policy aimed at moving forward on a bilateral basis if multilateral trade talks get bogged down.

Central America is struggling with internal bickering plus the need to get up to speed on negotiating techniques. USTR officials say that they have requested a budget of US$140 million for so-called "trade capacity building," such as training Central American and other small country officials how to negotiate a trade accord.

Still more complications loom in Mexico, where the 10-year phase-out period of tariffs under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement is now rapidly approaching. President Vicente Fox is already seeking to provide increased subsidies to Mexican farms, but the arrival of unfettered competition promises to stir opposition.

Most worrisome? Banks, pharmaceutical, energy and high-tech companies, among other big U.S. supporters of open markets in the past, are not yet stepping up to the plate. Bill Lane, director of government affairs for Caterpillar in Washington, D.C., says, "They are no longer focused on free trade."