Meet me in Miami.

Before talks on a potential Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) conclude 12 months from now, trade ministers from the hemisphere must choose the trade secretariat's home. Billions of dollars in jobs and economic growth are at stake. Getting the FTAA in Miami, for instance, would mean $13.6 billion extra to the state's annual output, according to Florida's economic development agency.

Now, LATIN TRADE readers have voted. Of 791 responses from readers polled by e-mail, nearly half--360 votes--voted for Miami as the headquarters for the secretariat. Panama City came in second, with 100 votes, while Puebla, Mexico ranked third, at 67 votes. Eighty-two percent of LATIN TRADE subscribers reside in Latin America or the Caribbean.

Sao Paulo, a write-in candidate, got 46 votes, Atlanta polled 38 votes and Houston 12 votes. Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, a favorite since 14 of the 34 voting countries are Caribbean nations that would benefit from being nearer to the secretariat, got 19 votes. At least 20 respondents took pains to say that the secretariat should be in Latin America--not the United States. "Any city but a U.S. one," wrote one reader.

Miami makes sense, says Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, campaigning on behalf of his state's most international city. "Most people would agree, but where you get the push back is politically. We're part of the largest country in the region; I think it's completely understandable." Like LATIN TRADE readers, Bush says Miami's most serious competitor for the secretariat is Panama, due to its infrastructure, centrality and its trade history as the home of the Panama Canal.