U.S. AGRICULTURE AND THE FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a free trade area under negotiation among the United States and 33 countries in the Western Hemisphere, will progressively liberalize trade and investment in the region. It is scheduled to become effective by the end of 2005. The FTAA will lead to a 6-percent increase in annual U.S. agricultural exports to the Hemisphere and a 3-percent increase in annual U.S. agricultural imports from the Hemisphere. The FTAA will increase annual U.S. agricultural exports and imports worldwide by about $1 billion each. The expansion of U.S. agricultural trade due to the FTAA will result from both the direct effect of trade liberalization and the indirect effect of accelerated economic growth in increasing agricultural demand in the Western Hemisphere. The FTAA complements the multilateral negotiations in the Doha Development Agenda, which have a broader agenda for agricultural reform