The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process was launched during the Miami Summit of Heads of State in December 1994. It was the centerpiece of a broader hemispheric initiative of political and socio-economic cooperation among 34 countries of the Americas with the objective to negotiate a...

This paper analyses the challenges and preliminary achievements of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process from the Miami Summit of the Americas in December 1994 to the Cartagena Trade Ministerial in March 1996. A short description of the process itself - the Summit Action Plan, the...