The Prospects for the Free Trade Area of the Américas in the Bush Administration

Abstract

The Free Trade Area of the Américas (FTAA) is an international trade agreement that aims to eliminate the remaining barriers to the free flow of money, goods, and services across borders in the Western hemisphere (excluding Cuba), to create one large integrated open market. If successful the FTAA would encompass 655 million people and a combined gross domestic product of $9 trillion. The stated goals of the FTAA, according to the Organization of Américan States (OAS) and the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) are to provide “free market access to goods and services for the entire continent,” to link less open and less developed economies in a spirit of solidarity and commercial interdependence, promoting modernization, efficiency and “more open, competitive and stronger democratic societies in Latin América and the Caribbean.”1 The FTAA falls within the wider free trade and free markets approach promoted by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Trade Organization (WTO) to be part of a solution to poverty and inequity. In reality, the rules and policies of free trade are designed to create a stable and profitable environment for corporations and investors. Like other previous economic integration projects, the primary backers are the business community and the politicians over which they have the most influence. Not surprisingly, the opponents of the FTAA can be found among groups concerned with labor rights, human rights, the environment, and indigenous concerns.KeywordsFree TradeWorld Trade OrganizationTrade PolicyTrade AgreementFast TrackThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.