Free Trade Area of the Americas

1
Free Trade Area of the Americas

• FTAA A Good Idea or What?

2
Whats it about?

• This trade agreement was first proposed in
  December, 1994 in Miami.
• It represents the effort to unite the economies
  of the Americas into a single free trade area
  like an expansion of NAFTA.
• The Heads of State and Government of the
  democracies involved agreed to construct FTAA in
  which barriers to trade and investment will be
  progressively eliminated.
• The FTAA is considered to be as important for the
  Americas as the EU is for the Europeans
• Currently, FTAA is still a proposed idea an
  agreement was hoped to be reached by 2005 but
  this goal was not yet met.

3
Proposition

• It will include 34 countries in North, Central,
  and South America
• Main objectives are
• To continue to lower trade barriers(eg. Tariffs,
  immigration policies, etc.) between the countries
  in small steps and eliminate them over time
• To promote investment without government
  interference or preferential treatment
• Finalizing this proposition will require a lot of
  negotiations and debates around issues such as
  environment, human rights, culture and labour.

4
Countries Involved

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Belize
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Canada
• Chile
• Columbia
• Costa Rica
• Uruguay

• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Jamaica
• Mexico
• Venezuela

• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Suriname
• Trinidad and Tobago
• USA

5
Problems with FTAA

• Some are afraid that what happened to NAFTA(job
  losses due to lower labour costs, taxes, etc. in
  other countries) will happen to FTAA
• Argentinas economy has recently collapsed,
  weakening faith in free trade. Along with Chile,
  Argentina was Latin Americas model of prosperity
  built on economic integration and structural
  adjustment then the system imploded, leaving
  massive unemployment and financial and political
  turmoil
• Brazil now has a negative stance toward FTAA.
  Conflicting views exists within Brazilian society
  and even within the cabinet but it is clear that
  Brazil will not sign on to the current agreement
  without reserving the right to opt out of clauses
  crucial to U.S. interests
• Consensus is breaking down it is possible that
  FTAA will not come about after all

6
Individual Opinions
Although the countries involved are very eager
to finalize this agreement, some citizens of
these nations are opposed to it. For example, in
the U.S., there are those who believe they are
suffering an immigration nightmare which will
worsen if FTAA opens the borders. These people
are afraid of losing freedoms and having lowered
standards of living. Also, although free trade
is generally seen as a benefit to all parties,
once FTAA is finalized domestic businesses will
have more trouble competing. They will have to
compete with businesses in all of the other 33
countries, after all. People in the less wealthy
countries dont mind the free trade agreements
because they will be given a chance to trade with
two of the biggest economies in the world today.
However, the more powerful economies in the FTAA
are afraid the poorer countries will slow them
down. There is much protesting against FTAA.
Protesters feel they should have a voice in
creating new, more equitable policies.
7
FINISH
Although negotiations for FTAA have stalled, the
countries are still confident that they will be
able to sort it out. An Argentine negotiator has
been known to describe the resulting FTAA text as
a skeleton that we now need to flesh out. One
thing is for sure if the FTAA proposition is
finally signed, it will have a significant impact
on us, the citizens of other countries, and maybe
even the world.