The FTAA, currently being negotiated by 34 countries of the Americas, is intended to be quite possibly the most far-reaching trade agreement in history. The FTAA stands for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a name given to the process of expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to all the other countries of the Western Hemisphere except Cuba. With a population of 800 million and a combined GDP of $11 trillion (US), the FTAA would be the largest free trade zone in the world. If signed, the FTAA will be the most far-reaching free trade agreement in the world, with a force of magnitude that will reach into every area of life for the citizens of the Americas. However, the proposed FTAA would also give corporations new "rights" to challenge and compete for every publicly funded service now provided by governments - from health care and education to social security, culture and environmental protection. If adopted, it could remove the ability of every government to create or maintain laws and regulations protecting the health, safety and well-being of their citizens and the environment they share. Worse, the FTAA would become the model for future world trade agreements, eventually rendering health, environmental and other laws around the world secondary to those of international trade. For these reasons and more to be discussed in this essay, Canada should not embrace the FTAA since the benefits of free trade clearly do not outweigh the costs. .
The goal of the FTAA is to impose the failed NAFTA model of increased privatization and deregulation hemisphere-wide. Imposition of these rules would empower corporations to deter governments from setting standards for public health and safety, to safeguard their workers, and to ensure corporations do not pollute the communities in which they operate. They would also handcuff governments' public interest policymaking and enhance corporate control at the expense of citizens throughout the Americas.
