Economic Integration in the Americas: An Unfinished Agenda

While the Doha Round negotiations have been at a standstill, countries have continued to engage in external trade by pursing regional and bilateral trade agreements. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Mexico and Chile have been leaders in spearheading free trade agreement (FTA) expansion in the region. The drift towards regional trade agreements, sub-regionalism and preferential trade agreements (PTAs) contrasts with the sentiment and momentum from nearly two decades ago. In 1990 (then) US President George H. W. Bush floated the idea of a free trade area that would stretch ‘from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego’, which was later outlined under the vision of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). In 1994, the US, Canada, and 32 LAC1 countries hoped to negotiate an all-embracing FTAA by 2005.