FTAA

Unlike the World Trade Organization, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an entity still in the process of being created.

Although negotiations are currently stalled, the new FTAA would be a hemispheric-wide free trade zone covering 34 countries in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, minus Cuba.

Touted to be the largest free trade zone in the world, the FTAA would encompass a population of over 800 million people and a combined annual gross national product of U.S. $11 trillion.

The FTAA gained prominence in the public eye during the demonstrations against the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001, where thousands of people raised their voices in the midst of teargas and police repression, to demand that democracy come before trade and that governments place the rights of people before the desire of corporations to make a profit.

For more information about the FTAA and the fight for global fair trade, contact us at inquiries@canadians.org or 1-800-387-7177.

Materials

• Refusing to Adapt: Civil society statement on the the International Economic Forum of the Americas, a gathering of the world's financial and political elite which met in Montreal June 10 to 12, 2009 to discuss how countries can adapt to the new world order.
• FTAA ministerial meeting, Miami, 2003
• Making the Links: A Peoples’ Guide to the WTO and the FTAA

Summit of the Americas, Quebec City, 2001

• Summing up the summit
• Stop the FTAA (PDF)
• The FTAA and the threat to social programs, environmental sustainability and social justice in Canada and the Americas
• Statement on non-violence
  

Information

updated May 14, 2012