The 1994 Summit of the Americas, the first such gathering of hemispheric leaders in over a generation, defined a new substantive agenda and architecture for United States-Latin American relations. The summit committed participating countries to negotiate a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005 and to defending the region's democratic institutions.This book, whose author actively participated in planning the summit, traces the White House's decision to convene the summit, analyzes the administration's foreign affairs decision making, and details the other countries' diplomatic strategies for contributing to the summit agenda. Feinberg critically assesses post-summit implementation and makes specific recommendations for the second summit, planned for 1998, and for maintaining the momentum for liberalization in the Americas.

Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 'Lessons from NAFTA' aims to provide guidance to Latin American and Caribbean countries considering free trade agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that the treaty raised external trade and foreign investment inflows and had a modest effect on Mexico's average income per person. It is likely that the treaty also helped achieve a modest reduction in poverty and an improvement in job quality. This book will be of interest to scholars and policymakers interested in international trade and development.

This book examines the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), an ambitious venture in regional market integration which builds on the principles of the North American Free Trade Agreement. It assesses the long-term corporate and public policy measures to cope with the increased monetary, fiscal and structural interdependence that will be required if the benefits of the FTAA are to be realized. The contributors suggest that with enlightened US leadership and the cooperation of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, the FTAA could eventually match the EU in the world economy and as a multilateral leader. Initiatives to promote a culture of relational cooperation in a system of liberalized global commerce are stressed. In Latin America, there is an urgent need for such cooperation in order to enhance the region s lackluster growth rate and reduce the occurrences and severity of financial crises. The United States, Canada and Mexico will also benefit from the development of dynamic structural links with their regional neighbours. The authors highlight the importance for US policy initiatives to be complemented by constructive and harmonious corporate collaborations. This spirit of alliance capitalism will help ensure the FTAA promotes social justice as well as economic efficiency. This fully integrated volume, written by leading specialists in the field, will become an indispensable source for analysis of the prospects and role of the FTAA in the global economy. It will be warmly welcomed by informed readers such as international business experts, bankers, corporate executives, economists dealing with fiscal and monetary integration, and those interested in Latin American business.

Agricultural trade is a major factor determining food security in Caribbean countries. In these small open economies, exports are essential, whilst imports provide a large part of the food supply. This book examines various dimensions of trade policy and related issues and suggests policies to address trade and food security and rural development linkages. It is as a guide and reference documents for agricultural trade policy analysts, trade negotiators, policy-makers and planners in both the public and private sectors.

"Cline also finds that trade liberalization has tended to raise skilled wages rather than reduce unskilled wages. Moreover, its impact has probably been no larger than falling transport and communication costs. Most importantly for policy, model simulations for the future show more limited trade impact than in the past and little unequalizing impact of further trade liberalization. Book jacket."--Jacket.