What is FTAA?

• Free Trade Area of the Americas

• The effort to unite the economies of

the Americas into a single free trade

area began at the Summit of the

Americas, which was held in

December 1994 in Miami, U.S.A.

• Barriers to trade and investment will

be progressively eliminated

• They agreed to complete

negotiations towards this agreement

by the year 2005

History..

• The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)

was an attempt to create a neoliberal free

trade agreement that expanded the North

American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to

every country in North America, Central America,

South America and the Caribbean, except Cuba.

• Negotiations began right after the completion of

NAFTA in 1994 and were supposed to have been

completed by January 1, 2005.

• But an exciting thing happened: the FTAA was

not signed.

History…

• Free Trade Area of the Americas began

with the Summit of the Americas in Miami,

Florida, on December 11, 1994,

• The Miami negotiations in 2003 met similar

protests, though perhaps not as large.

Members…• The following countries are in the plans of the

Free Trade Area of the Americas:

Chairmanship of the Negotiations…

Chairmanship Vice-

May 1, 1998 -

31, 1999Canada Argentina

November 1, 1999 -

April 30, 2001Argentina Ecuador

May 1, 2001 -

31, 2002Ecuador Chile

Co-Chairs

November 1, 2002 -

conclusion of the

negotiations

Brazil and United States of America

Objectives of the FTAA:

1. Member states of the FTAA stated the following

objectives:

2. Promote prosperity through increased integration

and free trade

3. Establish a Free Trade Area in which barriers to

trade in goods, services and investment are

progressively eliminated by no later than 2005

4. Maximize market openness

5. Facilitate integration of smaller economies into

the FTAA

6. Secure observance and protection of worker

rights

Function of the FTAA…

• Official Function of the FTAA:"We, the

Ministers, reaffirm our commitment to the

successful conclusion of the FTAA negotiations

by January 2005, with the ultimate goal of

achieving an area of free trade and regional

integration. The Ministers reaffirm their

commitment to a comprehensive and balanced

FTAA that will most effectively foster economic

growth, the reduction of poverty, development,

and integration through trade liberalization.

Function of the FTAA…

• Unofficial Function of the FTAA:The Free

Trade Area of the Americas is to guarantee

control for North American businesses over a

territory which stretches from the Arctic to the

Antarctic, free access over the entire

hemisphere without any difficulty or obstacle

for our products, services, technology and

capital.