The face of international trade is changing rapidly. But while much attention is focused on the new post-Doha round of WTO negotiations, there are other important developments. This book focuses on one of the most strategic - the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement.

The face of international trade is changing rapidly. But while much attention is focused on the new post-Doha round of WTO negotiations, there are other important developments. This book focuses on one of the most strategic - the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement - due for completion in 2005. This US initiative aims to replicate the NAFTA Agreement (binding the USA, Canada and Mexico into a free trade area since 1994) across all 34 countries of South and North America (except Cuba). This huge integrated continental market will be built around US-defined notions of free trade and protection of foreign investment, but will exclude the free movement of labour. The contributors explain the origins and ongoing process of the negotiations and why the US wants to expand its NAFTA model.

1. Introduction - Paulo Fagundes Vizentini and Marianne Louise Wiesebron
Part 1 Strategic Issues
2. The FTAA and the US Strategy: A Southern Point of View - Paulo Fagundes Vizentini
3. The US, the FTAA, and the Parameters of Global Governance - Dorval Brunelle
4. Through the Looking Glass: A Canadian Perspective on the NAFTA as a forerunner to the FTAA - Marc Lee
Part 2 FTAA: Structures and Procedures
5. The Puzzle of Institutionalising a Free Market Continental Zone - The nuts and bolts of the FTAA - Michel Duquette and Maxime Rondeau
6. The Forgotten Society:Lack of Transparency and Democracy - Marianne L. Wiesebron
7. Social and Economic Rights within the Context of the FTAA - Jorge Witker
Part 3 Implications for South America
8. Brazil, Mercosur, the FTAA and Europe - Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes
9. Brazil's strategy toward the FTAA - Jan van Rompay
Part 4 Wider Consequences of the FTAA
10. FTAA: Implications for the World Trade System - Pitou van Dijck
11. FTAA versus the EU Association Agreements - Willy J. Stevens
12. The impact of the FTAA on Japan and China
- Kurt W. Radtke
13. China's Reaction and Strategy towards the Creation of the FTAA - Yang Zerui
14. Effects of the FTAA on Japan - Mitsuhiro Kagami
15. Conclusions - Raymond Buve
Annex A Chronology of the Latin American economic integration process
Annex 2. Potential FTAA Member Countries: Basic Data
Annex 3. Economic Blocs: Basic Data
About the Authors
Bibliography
Index.