MIAMI -- Negotiations came to an earlier-than-expected end for the Free Trade Area of the Americas pact Thursday.

Trade ministers from 34 nations of the Western Hemisphere announced they had agreed to an "a la carte" trade document that allows some flexibility for countries that wish to make deeper commitments.

Formal deliberations began behind closed doors at the Hotel InterContinental in downtown Miami on Thursday morning, and before 6 p.m. the negotiators said the deal for the scaled-back accord was completed.

"We got our work done a few hours early," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. "The Cancun WTO meeting ended early, too, but not in as happy circumstances."

Unlike the World Trade Organization talks in the Mexican city of Cancun that fell apart in September, the scene in Miami on Thursday was close to cozy, as Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim spoke of "chemistry" between his country and the United States.

The WTO talks collapsed after a group of almost two dozen countries, led by Brazil, objected to U.S. and European Union agricultural subsidies.

"I am leaving Miami very satisfied with the results we have reached," Amorim said. "This will allow us to move forward. That is the spirit that we need."

The two-tiered FTAA has a minimum set of rights and obligations all the countries have signed on to, as well as the chance for countries to go deeper.

The FTAA, which is scheduled to be approved in January 2005, would create a free-trade bloc throughout the nations of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of Cuba, still under a U.S. trade embargo. At about 800 million people, it would be the world's largest common market.

Thursday's negotiations marked the FTAA's eighth ministerial meeting. The trade negotiating committee will meet again in February.

"The people up here want to open markets," Zoellick said of the trade ministers gathered for the announcement Thursday evening. "I know this from direct experience. A number of them are our free-trade partners."

Amorim emphasized that the countries within the FTAA differ greatly in size and development, from the United States to the small island nations of the Caribbean.

"Some countries have 80 percent of trade with the U.S. The countries of Mercosur have only 20 percent of their trade with the U.S.," Amorim said, referring to the trade bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. "These are different realities we have to take into account."

The FTAA has had a high profile in Florida because two of its largest agricultural industries, citrus and sugar, fear that an elimination of all trade barriers would leave them unable to compete with Western Hemisphere nations that can produce the same goods far more cheaply.

Citrus growers, in particular, most of whom produce orange juice, have argued that they cannot compete with the orange juice industry of Brazil without the 30-cents-a-gallon tariff the United States now imposes on juice from the South American nation.

Sources said Wednesday the citrus tariff was likely to remain in place for at least another 10 years, though that could change with expected decisions on agricultural issues sometime next year.

Miami wants to become the permanent headquarters of the FTAA, and its advocates say locating it in the city would bring about 90,000 jobs and $13.6 billion to the state's economy.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, who came to Miami for the talks, said he has been meeting off and on with U.S. trade officials as well as U.S. Agriculture Department representatives about citrus and sugar issues.

"We are saying we are willing to go into free trade as long as it is fair trade," Bronson said. "You have a lot of people who want to sell. How many want to buy?"