Free Trade, or Countervailing Power for the Americas

In the Southern Hemisphere--much neglected by the United States at the moment--economic hopes and fears are concentrating on the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),which is scheduled to be set up in 2005. This article examines free-trade doctrine in view of actual economic and social conditions among the Latin and Caribbean countries in relation to the big, powerful U.S. economy, and it suggests an alternative approach: to build "countervailing power" in the Americas for dealing with the United States in trade, finance, migration, the environment, and other vital issues.