Finance Ministers to Prepare for Next Month’s Summit

Finance ministers from North and South America meet in Toronto this week to lay the groundwork for a summit meeting next month and discuss tremors rocking economies at either end of their region. The ministers from more than 30 nations will look at strengths and weaknesses in the Americas and beyond: Argentina is struggling to win market confidence, meet budget targets and climb out of recession, while the United States, powerhouse of the world economy during the emerging market financial crisis of 1997-99, faces a swiftly slowing economy. The two-day meeting opens Tuesday. It paves the way for a high-profile Summit of the Americas in Quebec City April 22-23, when talks on a Free Trade Area of the Americas will take center stage and at which demonstrators vow to turn into a rerun of events that halted Seattle trade talks in late 1998. U.S. Treasury officials said this week’s agenda would include discussions on economic growth policies in the Western Hemisphere as well as in Europe and Asia. Participants are expected to discuss cooperation on ways to counter financial abuses, including money laundering, tax evasion and other forms of corruption, Treasury said. U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill will attend, as will other ministers, the head of the International Monetary Fund and officials from the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank.