Prospects for Free Trade in the Americas

Negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were officially launched at the Santiago Summit in April 1998. This study examines the prospects for the FTAA in light of recent economic and political turmoil in Latin America and the continuing impasse over US "fast-track" authority. The study evaluates progress to date in the trade talks and proposals for accelerating the target date of January 2005 for concluding negotiations, and it takes into account the results of the April 2001 Quebec Summit. It surveys regional interests in the wide-ranging negotiating agenda and assesses the "readiness" of countries to participate in a hemisphere-wide free trade zone (based on updated "readiness indicators" originally developed by Hufbauer and Schott in their 1994 study, Western Hemisphere Economic Integration).