What are some international trade organizations of greater relevance in
the Western Hemisphere?

The FTAA is the Free Trade Area of the Americas. It is a series of negotiations for open trade among thirty-four countries of the Americas. The Declarations of Principles of the Miami Summit, in December 1994, included a Plan of Action in four concrete areas, one of which is trade. Within the trade area, a commitment was reached to negotiate a “free trade area of the Americas” for 2005, which would stretch from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (English, French, Portuguese and Spanish).

LAIA (ALADI) is the Latin American Integration Association, an organization for the economic integration of Latin America that replaced the LAFTA (ALALC), Latin American Free Trade Association (English, Portuguese and Spanish).

MERCOSUR is a free trade agreement signed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to establish an integration agreement that may accelerate and promote trade among the signatory countries (Portuguese and Spanish).

The NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement, which started in January 1994. The governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States, willing to reaffirm trade and cooperation links among their countries, signed this free trade agreement whose primary objectives are to promote conditions for fair competition; increase investment opportunities; provide adequate protection to intellectual property rights, eliminate barriers to trade among the three countries; stimulating economic development; and giving each signatory country equal access to the others’ markets, among others (English, French and Spanish).

WTO is the World Trade Organization. Located in Geneva (Switzerland), it is the major international organization dealing with the rules of trade among nations. Currently, it has 144 members (English, French and Spanish).