ISDS Case Map
FTAA
Free Trade Area of the Americas
As the outlook for the Free Trade Area of the Americas continues to be shrouded in uncertainty, CARICOM is looking to bilateral Free Trade Agreements as a means of improving market access for countries in the region.
Documents the progress of “competitive liberalization,” a strategy advanced by the United States Trade Representative to establish a network of bilateral international trade agreements as steps toward the multilateral GATS agreement.
The fifth annual World Social Forum will take place Jan. 26-31 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre amidst an upsurge in Latin American sub-regional integration efforts, bolstered by the obvious failure of the project to create the hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
This month negotiations for the creation of a Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, encompassing the 34 countries of the hemisphere (with the exception of Cuba) should have successfully finalized but strong objections from United States and Mercosur cut the dialogue short last April.
This report looks at major Customs Unions, Free Trade Areas, and economic
association agreements around the world, with particular attention to any clauses
covering social issues, core labour standards and trade union participation.
Many civic organizations in the SACU region and the US, especially the labor unions, as well as other governments within Southern Africa note many possible disadvantages to the proposed US-SACU FTA.
U.S. President George W. Bush's election to a second four-year term paves the way for the resumption of negotiations for a free trade agreement spanning the Americas.
Synoptic review of what is happening with US trade talks on agriculture, outside the WTO
The rationale for regional integration between two or more countries would suggest that such agreements would need to be based on substantial trading interests.
Welcome to the brave new world of “Free” Trade. This is a world that extends beyond the World Trade Organisation. This may be difficult to comprehend, but the fact of the matter is that global capital, led by the US government, seeks more and more to tread where even the WTO did not.
