Image:FTAAMainLogo14.jpg
The '''Free Trade Area of the Americas''' ('''FTAA''') is a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce trade barriers among all nations in the American continents (except Cuba). In the latest round of negotiations, officials of 34 nations met in Mexico on November_16, 2003 to discuss the proposal. The proposed agreement is modeled after the North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico and the United_States.
Discussions have faltered over similar points as the Doha_round of World_Trade_Organization (WTO) talks; developed nations seek expanded trade in Services and increased Intellectual_property rights, while less developed nations seek an end to agricultural subsidies and freer trade in agricultural goods. Similar to the WTO talks, Brazil has taken a leadership role among the less developed nations, while the United States has taken a similar role for the developed nations.
Talks began with the Summit_of_the_Americas in Miami on December_11, 1994, but the FTAA came to public attention during the Quebec_City_Summit_of_the_Americas in 2001, a meeting targeted by massive Anti-corporatization and Anti-globalization protests. The Miami negotiations in 2003 met similar protests, though perhaps not as large.
In previous negotiations, the United States has pushed for a single comprehensive agreement to reduce trade barriers for goods, while increasing intellectual property protection. Specific intellectual property protections could include Digital Millennium Copyright Act-style copyright protections, similar to the U.S.-Australia_Free_Trade_Agreement. Another protection would likely restrict the reimportation or cross-importation of pharmaceuticals, similar to the proposed agreement between the U.S. and Canada.
Brazil has proposed a measured, three-track approach that calls for a series of bilateral agreements to reduce specific tariffs on goods, and a hemispheric pact on Rules_of_origin and dispute resolution processes. Brazil seeks to omit the more controversial issues from the agreement, leaving them to the WTO.
The location of the FTAA Secretariat is to be determined in 2005. The main contending cities are Miami, Florida and Port-of-Spain, capital of Trinidad_and_Tobago. Twenty-one of the thirty-four total states so far have pledged a vote and support for it to be based in Port-of-Spain.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas is known in Spanish as the ''Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas'' (ALCA), in French as the ''Zone de libre-échange des Amériques'' (ZLEA), and in Portuguese as the ''Área de Livre Comércio das Américas'' (ALCA).
===History pre-1994===
In the 1960s there were several modest attempts at regional integration in South_America, Central_America, and the Caribbean. The approach of these regional initiatives was to lower tariffs internally while maintaining high trade barriers against non-members. Regional initiatives included the 1960 Latin_American_Free_Trade_Association (LAFTA), the 1960 Central_American_Common_Market (CACM), the 1965 Caribbean_Free_Trade_Association (CARIFTA), and the 1969 Andean Pact.
Many Latin American countries experienced a Debt crisis in the 1980s, such as Mexico in 1982. These debt crises contributed to a "lost decade" in terms of economic growth, the adoption of numerous stabilization and Structural_adjustment programs with the IMF, and a widespread re-evaluation of Interventionist, Protectionist and inward-looking development strategies. In 1984 the U.S. unilaterally lowered its tariffs against many states in the Caribbean_Basin, as part of its Caribbean_Basin_Initiative.
Many Latin American countries took non-discriminatory steps towards trade liberalization in the late 1980s (lowering tariffs against all countries — not just selected ones). This was done partly to follow through on GATT (now the WTO) commitments, but also unilaterally as a domestic policy choice or at the urging of the IMF, the World_Bank, the IDB, and USAID. Average Tariff levels fell to about 20% in the region by the end of the 1980s.
Another wave of regional trade agreements took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1989 the AP agreed to move towards freer trade within the region, as did CACM and the Caribbean_Community (Caricom) in 1990. The Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosul) notably including Brazil was established in 1991 with similar plans for freer regional trade.
The U.S. entered into the Canada-U.S._Free_Trade_Agreement (FTA) in 1989, and the beginning of negotiations towards free trade between Mexico and the U.S. were announced the next year in 1990. These negotiations were soon expanded to include Canada in the North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement (NAFTA). Several Latin American countries approached the U.S. after the announcement, seeking to negotiate their own bilateral free trade agreements with the U.S., but the U.S. refused to negotiate more bilateral PTAs in the region until NAFTA was implemented. Instead, in June 1990 U.S. President George_H._W._Bush announced the Enterprise_for_the_Americas_Initiative with the goal of achieving hemispheric free trade by 2000.
In 1994 NAFTA came into force and the 1986–1994 Uruguay_Round of GATT negotiations were completed. The goal of hemispheric free trade, which had been renamed the FTAA, was postponed until 2005 primarily at the request of Canada and the U.S.
==Opposition and critics==
One of the main critics of the FTAA is Venezuelan president Hugo_Chávez, who has described it as an Annexation planhttp://www.ahora.cu/english/SECTIONS/international/2005/noviembre/07-11-05a.htm and a tool of Imperialism for the exploitation of Latin America. As a counterproposal to this initiative, Chávez has promoted the Bolivarian_Alternative_for_the_Americas (''Alternativa Bolivariana para la América'', ALBA), based on the model of the European_Union, which makes emphasis on energy and infrastructure agreements that are gradually extended to other areas to finally include the total economic, political and military integration of the member states.
On the other hand, the presidents of Brazil, Luiz_Inácio_Lula_da_Silva, and Argentina, Néstor_Kirchner, have stated that they do not oppose the treaty but they do demand it to be really free and condition their participation to the elimination of agriculture subsidies, the provision of effective access to the markets and to the consideration of the needs and sensibilities of the members.
One of the most contentious issues of the treaty proposed by the United States is what concerns to Patents and Copyrights. Critics claim that if the measures proposed by the U.S. were implemented and applied this would prevent scientific research in Latin America, causing as a consequence more inequalities and technological dependence from the developed countries. On the issue of patents, analysts have accused the U.S. of attempting to patent everything, from inventions and discoveries to indigenous mythology and even living beings.
==Related articles==
* Free_trade
* Free_trade_area
* International_trade
* Trade_bloc
* North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement
* South_American_Community_of_Nations
* Bolivarian_Alternative_for_the_Americas
==External links==
*The official home page of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process
*Indymedia FTAA News
* Background information about the FTAA and public participation
* PDF Comparing the official agreement and alternative visions
*Stop FTAA
*Stop The FTAA, By the John Birch Society, a conservative alternative opposition
*FTAA Resistance
*Media Gallery of the FTAA Protests
*"The Miami Model" Documentary
*BBC News - The battle over trade
*Midwest Unrest
*Scheduled 2005 Demonstration in Montreal, QC
*{{es icon}} Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
==Articles and papers==
*Whither the FTAA? (November_10th, 2005) - Guyana Chronicle Newspaper
*Canada, Chile thwart U.S.-Brazilian plan - AP news article
*FoodFirst.org Institute for Food and Development Policy - Myths of the FTAA
*Analysis:Why say no to FTAA - bilaterals.org
Category:Trade_blocs
Category:United_States_treaties
Category:Politics_of_the_Americas
Ca:Àrea_de_Lliure_Comerç_de_les_Amèriques
De:Free_Trade_Area_of_the_Americas
Es:Área_de_Libre_Comercio_de_las_Américas
Eu:ALCA
Fr:Zone_de_libre-échange_des_Amériques
It:Zona_di_libero_scambio_delle_Americhe
Pt:Área_de_Livre_Comércio_das_Américas