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The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...
, excluding Cuba. Negotiations to establish the FTAA ended in failure, however, with all parties unable to reach an agreement by the 2005 deadline they had set for themselves. Still, contemporary discourses have not been invalidated – re-newed talks are anticipated .


History

In the last round of negotiations, trade ministers from 34 countries met in Miami, Florida, in the United States, in November 2003 to discuss the proposal. The proposed agreement was an extension of the
North American Free Trade Agreement The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
(NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Discussions have faltered over similar points as the Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks; developed nations sought expanded trade in services and increased intellectual property rights, while less developed nations sought an end to agricultural subsidies and free trade in agricultural goods. Similar to the WTO talks, Brazil took a leadership role among the less developed nations, while the United States took a similar role for the developed nations.


Origins

Free Trade Area of the Americas began with the
Summit of the Americas The Summit of the Americas (SOA) is an international summit meeting that brings together the leaders of countries in the Organization of American States (OAS). Cuba was expelled from the OAS under pressure from the United States after the Cuban Re ...
in Miami, Florida, on December 11, 1994, but the FTAA came to public attention during the Quebec City Summit of the Americas, held in Canada in 2001, a meeting targeted by massive
anti-corporatization Anti-corporate activism refers to the idea of activism that is directed against the private sector, and specifically against larger corporations. It stems from the idea that the activities and impacts of big business are detrimental to the publ ...
and
anti-globalization The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...
protests. The Miami negotiations in 2003 met similar protests, though not as large.


Disagreements

In previous negotiations, the United States had 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 have restricted the importation or cross importation of pharmaceuticals, similar to the proposed agreement between the United States and Canada. Brazil posed a three-track approach that called for a series of bilateral agreements to reduce specific tariffs on goods, a hemispheric pact on
rules of origin Rules of origin are the rules to attribute a country of origin to a product in order to determine its "economic nationality". The need to establish rules of origin stems from the fact that the implementation of trade policy measures, such as tari ...
, and a dispute resolution process Brazil proposed to omit the more controversial issues from the FTA, leaving them to the WTO. The location of the FTA Secretariat was to have been determined in 2005. The contending cities were: Atlanta, Chicago, Galveston, Houston,
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
, and Miami in the United States; Cancún and
Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...
in Mexico; Panama City, Panama; and
Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...
, Trinidad and Tobago. The U.S. city of Colorado Springs also submitted its candidacy in the early days but subsequently withdrew. Miami, Panama City and Puebla served successively an interim secretariat headquarters during the negotiation process. The last summit was held at
Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...
, Argentina, in November 2005, but no agreement on FTA was reached. Of the 39 countries present at the negotiations, 20 pledged to meet again in 2006 to resume negotiations, but no meeting took place. The failure of the Mar del Plata summit to establish a comprehensive FTA agenda augured poorly.


Current status

The FTAA missed the targeted deadline of 2005, which followed the stalling of useful negotiations of the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2005. Over the next few years, some governments, most notably the United States, not wanting to lose any chance of hemispheric trade expansion moved in the direction of establishing a series of bilateral trade deals. The leaders however, planned further discussions at the 6th Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia in 2012, although these discussions did not take place.


Membership

The following countries were planned to be part of the Free Trade Area of the Americas: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Support and opposition

A vocal critic of the FTAA was Venezuelan president
Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
, who has described it as an "
annexation Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...
plan" and a "tool of
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
" for the exploitation of Latin America. As a counterproposal to this initiative, Chávez promoted the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (''Alianza Bolivariana para las Américas'', ALBA) which emphasizes energy and infrastructure agreements. Evo Morales of Bolivia has referred to the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas, as "an agreement to legalize the colonization of the Americas". On the other hand, the then presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Argentina, Néstor Kirchner, have stated that they do not oppose the FTAA but they do demand that the agreement provide for the elimination of U.S. agriculture subsidies, the provision of effective access to foreign markets and further consideration towards the needs and sensibilities of its members. One of the most contentious issues of the treaty proposed by the United States is with concerns to patents and copyrights. Critics claim that if the measures proposed by the United States were implemented and applied this would reduce scientific research in Latin America. On the Council of Canadians web site, Barlow wrote: "This agreement sets enforceable global rules on patents, copyrights and trademark. It has gone far beyond its initial scope of protecting original inventions or cultural products and now permits the practice of patenting plants and animal forms as well as seeds. It promotes the private rights of corporations over local communities and their genetic heritage and traditional medicines". On the weekend of April 20, 2001, the
3rd Summit of the Americas The 3rd Summit of the Americas was a summit held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, on April 20–22, 2001. This international meeting was a round of negotiations regarding a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. The talks are perhaps bette ...
was a
summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...
held in Quebec City, Canada. This international meeting was a round of negotiations regarding a proposed FTAA.


Agreements

There are currently 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere, stretching from Canada to Chile that still have the FTAA as a long-term goal. The Implementation of a full multilateral FTAA between all parties could be made possible by enlargement of existing agreements. At this point Agreements within the Area of the Americas include:


Previous agreements

* Canada: Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (1988; superseded by the NAFTA) * Canada, Mexico and United States:
North American Free Trade Agreement The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
(1994; superseded by the USMCA) * Costa Rica- Dominican Republic (superseded by DR-CAFTA) * Costa Rica- Trinidad and Tobago (superseded by a Costa Rica – CARICOM FTA).


Current agreements

* Canada, Mexico and United States: United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA; 2020) * Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and United States: Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA; 2008) * Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru: Pacific Alliance (2012) *
Chile–United States Free Trade Agreement The United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement is a free trade agreement between the United States and Chile signed on June 6, 2003. The pact came into force on January 1, 2004. On that date, tariffs on 90% of U.S. exports to Chile and 95% of Chil ...
(2004) *
Peru–United States Trade Promotion Agreement The United States–Peru Trade Promotion Agreement ( es, Acuerdo de Promoción Comercial Perú – Estados Unidos o Tratado de Libre Comercio Perú – Estados Unidos) is a bilateral free trade agreement, whose objectives are eliminating obstacles t ...
(2007) *
United States–Colombia Free Trade Agreement The United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) (Spanish: ''Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Colombia y Estados Unidos'' or ''TLC'') is a bilateral free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia. Sometimes called the Colombia ...
(2011) *
Panama–United States Trade Promotion Agreement The Panama–United States Trade Promotion Agreement (Spanish: ''Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Panamá y Estados Unidos'' or ''TLC'') is a bilateral free trade agreement between Panama and the United States that has been in effect since October 20 ...
(2011) * Canada – Chile * Canada – Colombia * Canada – Costa Rica * Canada – Honduras * Canada – Panama * Canada – Peru * Chile – Mexico * Chile – Costa Rica * Colombia – CARICOM * Colombia – Costa Rica * Colombia – Northern Triangle * Costa Rica – Mexico * Costa Rica – CARICOM * Mexico – Nicaragua * Mexico – Uruguay * Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela – Mercosur (1991) * Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru –
Andean Community The Andean Community ( es, Comunidad Andina, CAN) is a free trade area with the objective of creating a customs union comprising the South American countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The trade bloc was called the Andean Pact un ...
(1969)


Proposed agreements

; Active negotiations * Canada-CARICOM: * Canada-Central America (CA4TA – Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras) * Canada-Mexico-Peru-Chile
mong other Pacific nations Mong may refer to: People *A proposed original name for the Hmong people, based on the main group, the Mong community *Bob Mong (), American journalist and academic administrator *Henry Mong (), American surgeon and Presbyterian missionary *Mong M ...
Trans-Pacific Partnership ; Negotiations on hold * CARICOM- Mercosur: * United States-Ecuador: U.S.-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement * CARICOM-North American Free Trade Agreement, first discussed in 1993–1994


Security pacts

* United States-Central America-Mexico (
Mérida Initiative The Mérida Initiative (named after Mérida (Yucatán), the city where it was agreed upon, also called Plan Mexico, in reference to Plan Colombia) is a security cooperation agreement among the United States, the government of Mexico and the countri ...
) * United States-CARICOM-Dominican Republic (
Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean The Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean (PPS) is a regional-level dialogue with the stated purpose of providing greater cooperation on security and economic issues. The Partnership was founded in Bridgetown, Barbados on March ...


See also

*
Rules of Origin Rules of origin are the rules to attribute a country of origin to a product in order to determine its "economic nationality". The need to establish rules of origin stems from the fact that the implementation of trade policy measures, such as tari ...
* Market access * Free-trade area * Tariffs *
Miami model The Miami model are the tactics employed by coordinated law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies during demonstrations in Miami, Florida relating to the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) trade agreement in Novembe ...
* Pacific Alliance * Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations Treaty *
Transatlantic Free Trade Area A Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) is a proposal to create a free-trade agreement covering Europe and North America, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Such proposals have been made since the 1990s. Between 2013 and about 2017 an agree ...
(TAFTA) * Community of Latin American and Caribbean States * Union of South American Nations


References


External links


The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process – official home page

Comparing the official agreement and alternative visions


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080408141442/http://www.southernaffairs.org/2008_04_01_archive.html Chilean and Foreign Policy
Mit.edu

Harvard.edu


By Eric Farnsworth, Council of the Americas, December 2005
Whither the FTAA?
(November 10, 2005), Guyana Chronicle Newspaper

The Washington Times (washtimes.com AP)
Myths of the FTAA
FoodFirst.org Institute for Food and Development Policy
Why say no to FTAA
bilaterals.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Free Trade Area Of The Americas FTAA Foreign relations of Argentina Politics of the Americas Trade blocs United States federal trade legislation Proposed free trade agreements Free-trade areas Foreign trade of Argentina