Free trade agreement of the americas (ftaa)

FREE TRADE AGREEMENT OF THE AMERICAS (FTAA)
GENERAL FACTS
In December 1994, at the first Summit of the
Americas, the 34 democratically-elected
Heads of State of the Western Hemisphere agreed to create a Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA) by 2005. The FTAA envisions the elimination of trade and investment barriers on virtually all goods and services traded by member countries, reducing prices for consumers and creating new markets for producers throughout the hemisphere. FTAA would be the world’s largest free market, with a combined economic output of nearly $13 trillion in 34 countries, and nearly 800 million consumers from Alaska to the tip of South America.

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FTAA negotiations collapsed in 2005 and have been suspended indefinitely. Opposition from Brazil and Venezuela over subsidies and agricultural provisions in the FTAA proposal was the main point of disagreement. With the prospect of a hemisphere-wide trade block uncertain, the United States is now focusing on bilateral trade agreements with multiple countries in Latin America. The FTAA project has not officially been abandoned, and it remains to be seen if negotiations will resume.
Organizational Structure of FTAA
(Map of the Americas. Austin: University of Texas, 2003)
The initial structure for the FTAA consisted of a vice-ministerial level Trade Negotiations
Committee (TNC) to oversee the negotiations, as well as nine negotiating groups (NG), and three non-negotiating entities. Each NG is responsible for negotiating a portion of the overall FTAA agreement. NGs meet regularly to negotiate the reduction of trade barriers in their issue area.
Whenever these different negotiating groups come together (most recently in Miami and Cancún), the meetings are referred to as Ministerials. To date, there have been 8 FTAA Ministerials. NGs were expected to develop a draft text by 2005 of their respective chapters that would serve as