The Institutional Environment For Agricultural Trade In The Ftaa
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a free trade agreement that is under negotiation among 34 countries of the Western Hemisphere. The agreement, to be implemented in 2005, is expected to remove tariff and non tariff barriers to trade and investment among member countries, and to build more open, transparent and integrated markets. Negotiations are being conducted in nine separate groups, including agriculture, market access, investment, services, government procurement, dispute settlement, and intellectual property rights. An important role of the FTAA will be to reconcile the current proliferation of subregional trade pacts (Figure 1). Over 40 pacts are now in force, with at least a dozen more under negotiation (Stout and Ugaz, 1998).