ISDS Case Map
FTAA
Free Trade Area of the Americas
A top Argentine trade official was quoted in Bs. Aires Tuesday as saying the Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, a hemispheric commerce initiative pushed by the Bush administration, "is dead."
The US government's announcement that it will review the possibility of limiting, suspending, or withdrawing trade preferences under the General System of Preferences (GSP) to three Latin American countries--Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela--is political pressure to make these nations participate in the model of regional integration proposed by the United States.
The Political Board of Uruguay's Frente Amplio on Tuesday ratified its rejection of the US-sponsored Free Trade Agreements within the framework of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Much has been written and theorized about the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) since President Chavez first proposed the idea at Isla Margarita at the III Summit of the Heads of State and the Government of the Association of Caribbean States in December, 2001.
Latin America is living in times of hope and changes where the longings of Simon Bolivar's plans for integration have a new validity; but there are also dangers posed by those who are committed to the traditional subordination and ties to Washington.
Sources say Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's challenge to the Free Trade Area of the Americas was on the top of the agenda of the Bilderberg Group meeting in Canada last week.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is widely seen to be at the center of Latin America's transformation by building a regional trade bloc through the creation of ALBA and Venezuela's membership in Mercosur to oppose US dominance and its constant push for free trade agreements with Latin American governments. However, the true democratic debate has been silenced in this simplified two-sided fight between the projects of macho men.
The Bolivian representative to an anti-“free trade” conference underway in Havana, proposed a “People's Trade Agreement” - a joint initiative between the government and social movements in that South American country.
Critics of a free trade agreement in the Americas point to what they perceive are missed deadlines and lost opportunities as proof that a hemisphere-wide pact is dead and gone.
Chavez argues that US-proposed free-trade pacts would help big US companies at the expense of Latin America's poor.
