Free Trade

The U.S. announced last week that the implementation of CAFTA would not meet its Jan. 1 target date because Central American countries have yet to legislate new laws to come into compliance with the agreement’s […]

A free trade agreement reached between the U.S. and Peru last week could be fatal for Peruvian farmers and AIDS patients. The Analysis Group for Development conducted a study that states the agreement will mean […]

A new report published by Friends of the Earth exposes the once and future damage and dangers that free trade policies inflict on people and the environment. The report, "The Tyranny of Free Trade", reveals […]

The difficulties regional integration faces come from distortions caused by the free market—asymmetries, inequalities, and contradictions—that are virtually insurmountable.

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The U.S., Ecuador, Peru and Colombia have hit an impasse in negotiations for an Andean Free Trade Agreement. The Andean pact includes many of the components that made CAFTA so contentious. Intellectual property provisions in […]

In what has become a vindictive exchange of words between Mexican President Vicente Fox and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, which on the surface appears to be an ideological battle over trade policy, is in fact rooted in the future development and economic integration of the Americas. Although the Venezuelan president’s words may have isolated him for the moment from the Fox administration, it is actually Fox, and his party, who may be isolated from the Mexican people and government with elections coming up in July of 2006.

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The stage was set for a showdown. When the Bush cabinet announced intentions to revive the moribund Free Trade Area of the Americas at the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, the countries of the Southern Common Market closed ranks to prevent it. What followed was a diplomatic melee that reflects not so much divisions within Latin America, as a growing resistance to the current free trade model throughout the developing world.

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Although every Latin American government pays lip service to integration, taking the concrete steps needed to attain it is much more difficult than simply issuing declarations. In the wake of the collapse of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), Latin America faces the dilemma of remaining divided and at the mercy of the interests of the great powers, or setting out on the road to continental unity. Even if the forces in favor of integration prevail, the type of integration to be constructed remains to be defined.

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The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was passed in Congress by 2 votes on Wednesday, July 27th around midnight. Here’s a selection of articles on the passage of CAFTA, the trade agreement itself and […]

While the Bush Administration still aspires to ward off defeat, it is becoming increasingly clear that its failure to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) represents the latest in a series of setbacks […]