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FTAA: NAFTA's big brother: what will it mean for metals? The proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas can be thought of as a huge expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Experts are grappling with how it may help-or hamper-U.S. competitors.

Article Excerpt
The Free Trade Area of the Americas, an economic cooperation agreement now in the works, would create the world's largest free market, with a combined gross domestic product of nearly $13 trillion and 800 million consumers from Barrow, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego on the southern tip of Argentina.

When negotiations conclude a year from now, the FTAA should expand the United States' access to markets throughout the Western hemisphere, including 34 countries, except Cuba.

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, U.S. exports of goods to Latin America grew 137 percent between 1990 and 2000, even though U.S. tariffs average 2 to 3 percent while tariffs and other trade barriers in Latin America are typically much higher.

Some of the goals of FTAA, now in its third draft, include fostering economic growth, reducing poverty, and speeding development through trade liberalization.

USTR asserts that in addition to increasing opportunities for U.S. workers and companies, the FTAA will benefit U.S. consumers. The office estimates that an average family of four would see an income gain--through greater purchasing power and higher income--of more than $800 per year from goods and services liberalization in the FTAA.

The FTAA ministers, upon concluding their meeting Nov. 21, 2003, in Miami, said, "The FTAA can co-exist with bilateral and sub-regional agreements, to the extent that the rights and obligations under these agreements are not covered by or go beyond the rights and obligations of the FTAA. The FTAA will be consistent with the rules and disciplines of the World Trade Organization."

The ministers' Trade Negotiations Committee is working to develop a common and balanced set of rights and obligations applicable to all countries under FTAA.

The negotiations on the common set of rights and obligations will include provisions in each of the following negotiating areas: market access; agriculture; services; investment; government procurement; intellectual property; competition policy; subsidies, antidumping and countervailing duties; and dispute settlement, the ministers said.

Negotiations on market access are to be concluded Sept. 30 of this year.

LESSONS FROM NAFTA

According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, who spoke at a business...

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