What is the Free Trade Area of the Americas?
The FTAA would expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has already had disastrous effects in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, to all of the countries in the Western Hemispere except Cuba. Like NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and other ‘free trade’ agreements, the FTAA seeks to free corporations from government regulations which they say restrict the ‘free market’. This means that if our elected representatives, from the federal government down to local city councils and boards of education, make laws that a foreign-owned company feels infringes on their ‘right’ to make money, the company can sue for monetary damages and force us to change our laws. This includes social institutions such as public education, health care, and social security, as well as environmental laws!
