The Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA) is an attempt to expand the failed North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) to every country in Central America, South America
and the Caribbean, except Cuba. Negotiations began right after the
completion of NAFTA in 1994 and were supposed to have been completed
by January 1, 2005.
But an exciting thing happened: the
FTAA was not signed on January 1st. Led by strong social movements
across the hemisphere, countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia,
and Brazil have said NO to a model that has increased poverty across
the globe, and are instead searching for a better model of regional
integration.
Add your support to the thousands of
people who are organizing to show that NAFTA should not be expanded
but should be replaced with an international system of cooperation
that fosters social equality, human rights, cultural diversity,
environmental sustainability, and community well being. We've stopped
the FTAA - for now. And now we MUST STOP CAFTA!!
Groups around the hemisphere have
also been working together on an alternative agreement that will offer
a workable vision of what a fair trade agreement would look like (see
www.asc-hsa.org).
