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Latin America

Overview of bilateral free trade and investment agreements
13-Oct-2006
A general overview of free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties that have been signed or are being negotiated all over the world. Organised by region, it provides a snapshot of the many processes currently under way, some of the controversies they raise and opposition movements against these agreements.
Nations rush to make trade pacts
10-Sep-2006
Within days of taking office, Peruvian President Alan García named economist Hernando de Soto — a man he calls ’’the most prestigious Peruvian’’ — as his chief lobbyist to push a free trade agreement through the U.S. Congress.
New context helps economic drivers face threats
6-Sep-2006
Shifting world dynamics mean that a proposed overhaul of the US tariff preference system threatening to exclude Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela — the three main countries currently driving trade within Latin America — needs to be examined in a global context.
Divided Latin America arrives in Vienna summit
11-May-2006 MercoPress
A deeply divided Latin America, in the midst of several growing conflicts, meets with the European Union 25 leaders in the framework of the two regions’ fourth summit.
TCP: For a just trade between peoples
28-Apr-2006 Movimiento Boliviano por la Soberanía y la Integración solidaria de los pueblos: Contra el TLC y el ALCA
The Trade Treaty of the Peoples (TCP in Spanish) - proposed by President Evo Morales - is a response to the failure of the neo-liberal model, based as it is on deregulation, privatisation and the indiscriminate opening of markets.
Chavez says South America should unite, reject US trade pacts
27-Apr-2006 AP
South American nations will have to choose whether they want continental unity or individual trade agreements with the United States — but not both, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday.
US free trade deals leave a bitter taste with Latin Americans
26-Apr-2006 AP
"Nobody who sat across the negotiating table from the United States came out of the talks feeling they got a fair deal," said Peter Hakim, president of the nonpartisan Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. "And many feel they’ve been outright cheated."
Shifting centres of gravity in Latin America
26-Apr-2006 Scoop
COPA the Panamanian airline is now flying the Brazilian company Embraer’s E-190 commercial airliners on routes previously dominated by Boeing 737s. This detail highlights broader shifts in the economic balance of power in Latin America away from United States corporations.
EU-Latin trade up
17-Apr-2006 Latin Business Chronicle
The European Union posted strong trade growth with Latin America last year, led by Venezuela and Mexico. But future EU relations with the region will depend on expanding free trade agreements.
EU-Latin America: Doubts arise over May summit
4-Apr-2006 IPS
The European Commission’s objective is to ’’establish an enhanced partnership through a network of association agreements (including free trade agreements) involving all the countries of the [Latin America and Caribbean] region and liable to contribute to the integration of the region as a whole.’’
Korea wants FTA with Latin America
2-Apr-2006 Korea Times
South Korea hopes to establish free trade agreements (FTAs) with other Latin American and Caribbean countries following one with Chile, Vice Finance and Economy Minister Kwon Tae-shin said Sunday.
Ways and Means chair says US should drop lagging FTA partners
21-Feb-2006 Resource Center of the Americas
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) this week said the U.S. should drop partners in free trade agreement negotiations if talks on those agreements are not progressing.
Free trade in reciprocity
17-Feb-2006 Le Monde Dipliomatique
The new political climate is favourable to projects for regional integration other than the US-led free trade area of the Americas, the most radical being the mutually helpful Bolivarian Alternative.
10 reasons why Latin American women oppose Bush’s free trade agenda
20-Dec-2005 MADRE
Bush is branding Latin Americans’ broad rejection of his trade agenda at last month’s Summit of the Americas in Argentina as an attempt to "roll back the democratic process of the past two decades". What Latin Americans are actually rolling back is the US-driven economic process of the past two decades, which worsened poverty, income inequality, displacement, and cultural and environmental destruction.
Timely demise for Free Trade Area of the Americas
6-Dec-2005 La Prensa San Diego
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.
Is an ’FTAA Lite’ a real possibility?
10-Nov-2005 IPS
Most of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean want a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), even in a less ambitious form, as opposed to a handful of nations - albeit an economically powerful minority - that reject the idea.
No pax americana
8-Nov-2005 Khaleej Times
Indigenous movements are indeed a threat to the free-trade policies Bush is hawking, with ever fewer buyers, across Latin America. Their power comes not from terror but a terror-resistant strain of hope, so sturdy it can take root in the midst of Colombia’s seemingly hopeless civil war.
Groups to rally against Bush in Argentina
30-Oct-2005 AP
"We think his policies are totally contrary to what we want for Latin America and are promoting genocide, domination of workers and their communities and the plundering of natural resources," said Argentine labor leader Juan Gonzalez, who is heading a protest "People’s Summit" coinciding with Bush’s visit Thursday through Saturday.
Cumbre de las Américas, Cumbre de los Pueblos y Marcha contra Bush
26-Oct-2005 Rebelión
Del uno al cinco de noviembre la ciudad turística de Mar del Plata vivirá acontecimientos y movilizaciones sin precedentes en su historia. Allí, a cuatrocientos kilómetros de Buenos Aires, se darán cita durante esos días la Cumbre de las Américas, la Cumbre de los Pueblos y la Marcha contra Bush. Las cifras son escalofriantes: decenas de miles de funcionarios argentinos para garantizar la seguridad, dos mil norteamericanos al servicio de la integridad del presidente de Estados Unidos y decenas de miles de manifestantes que se concentrarán para expresar su apoyo al presidente venezolano Hugo Chávez y su repudio al norteamericano George W. Bush
China’s New World trade coveted, feared
27-Sep-2005 Miami Herald
China pursues stronger economic ties with Latin American and the Caribbean. But will the new relationship spur development or be a step backward?