Development and perspective of Free Trade Area of America (FTAA)

• Main Authors: Shih-Yen Chang, 張詩言
• Other Authors: Kuo-Shih Ho
• Format: Others
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/29723435733101063737

碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 西班牙語文學系研究所 === 96 === In the early 90’s of the 20th century, with the disorganization of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the world’s situation has some new changes. The competitions between countries focus not only on politics and diplomat, but also on economy. The globalization, regional economic integration and the free trade agreement become the new world trend towards the 21st century. In the meantime, under the impact of the establishment of the European Union and the endorsement of the North American Free Trade Agreement, many countries and regions were attracted the current of the regional economic integration, and the Free Trade Area of the America (FTAA) is one of these examples. The First Summit of the Americas took place in Miami, U.S.A, in 1994. 34 leaders of countries of the Western Hemisphere (except Cuba) agreed to complete the negotiations in 2005 and create Free Trade Area of the Americas. Once the FTAA has been established, it will be the largest free trade area of the world, with a population of over 830 million and a combined GDP of $ 12 trillion (US). Besides, the FTAA is a project lead by the United States, based on the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative which proposed by the former President George Bush in 1990. The goals of the FTAA are as follows: on the one hand, to ensure the democratization of the Latin America’s politics and the liberalization of their economies; on the other hand, to consolidate the U.S. dominating position in world economy by strengthening its economic relations with Latin America’s countries. However, not only the economic condition and development level between the U.S. and Latin America are outstandingly, but also their standpoints in political and diplomatic relationships are different, so that they encountered lots of difficulties in the trade negotiations. The participating countries of America have not reached a common consensus yet until the Fourth Summit of the Americas in 2005, which took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina. This thesis mainly to clarify the reason of the establishment of the FTAA, the difficulties encountered in the negotiations between the U.S. and Latin America and some possibilities about their future development. The research focuses on the following dimensions: 1) What is the reason that causes the U.S. to create the FTAA? 2) Is it possible that the divergence between the U.S. and the Latin America results in the unaccomplished FTAA? 3) Does the IV Summit of the Americas have any influence on the establishment of the FTAA? Apart from the introduction and the conclusion, the central context consists of 3 chapters: 1) The development of the FTAA. 2) The attitude of U.S. towards the FTAA. 3) The attitude of Latin America towards the FTAA. Eventually, on the basis of the analyzing results, this thesis summarizes the main points to respond the above research questions.