The first detailed historical account of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations, this book covers the genesis of the project in the early 1990s to its demise in late 2003. It examines how the FTAA, an Inter-American policy idea, was incompatible with the predominant ideas and beliefs of Brazilian and American decision makers as to how they could and should conduct their countries' foreign trade policy in the Western Hemisphere.

This title was first published in 2000: This work examines the hemispheric diplomacy after the Summits of the America in Miami (December 1994) and Santiago (April 1998), focusing on the strengthening of the South American position in the FTAA negotiations and the Brazilian proposal for a South American Free Trade Area (SAFTA). The book also looks at the implications of the preceding analysis for regional integration theory and international relations theory. The conclusion looks beyond "open regionalism" and considers three scenarios for US-South American relations after the Santiago Summit. First reassertion of US hegemony and signing of an FTAA agreement on schedule, second, erosion of US hegemony but continuing negotiations between North and South America for a "distant" FTAA, and finally, breakdown of the FTAA negotations and emergence of SAFTA as an alternative to the FTAA.

If completed, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement would encompass an area of 800 million people & about $13 trillion in production of goods & services, making it the most significant regional trade initiative presently being pursued by the U.S. The 34 democratic nations of the Western Hemisphere formally launched negotiations towards a FTAA in 1998, & set a Jan. 2005 deadline for concluding a FTAA agreement. This report analyzes: (1) progress made in FTAA negotiations since April 2003, (2) factors that have been influencing the FTAA's progress, & (3) future prospects for the FTAA. Charts & tables.