At the “Two Americas” summit initiated by Mercosur in Brazil last August, “red alerts were activated” and Brazilian politicians made it clear that “North America ends in Panama.” Indeed, Fox`s proposals so far do not go beyond intensifying the relationship that underpins the neoliberal paradigm of deepening trade and investment relations under the NAFTA model, accompanied by proposals to intensify the fight against drugs through cooperation and statements to promote democracy and human rights. Brazilian President Cardoso`s vision contrasts with US hegemony, as discussed later in this document. Civil society organizations in Mexico and Central America have already expressed concern and presented proposals for a comprehensive agreement that puts social development before trade relations and strengthens political, cultural and social ties. For example, issues of mobility and migration of people have been left aside – only businessmen will have more opportunities to travel within countries to promote their interests. Therefore, there is another struggle here to make civil society proposals taken seriously by governments. 13. (back) For more information on the specific rules applicable to regional trade agreements between WTO members, see Regional trade agreements: rules on the WTO website www.wto.org. Trade in goods between Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela is completely deregulated, which means that goods originating in one of these countries can enter the territory of the other countries duty-free. As a result, these four countries have a free trade area, which Peru uses as part of a liberalization program. The efforts of the Andean Islands continue to focus on integrating and implementing measures to prevent and correct practices that distort competition(50) On 7 December 2005, the United States and Peru announced that they had successfully concluded a bilateral free trade agreement. On January 6, 2006, President Bush informed Congress of the United States` intention to sign a free trade agreement with Peru. Colombia and Ecuador are continuing trade talks with the United States this year.
Talks with Colombia are scheduled for 25-31. January 2006, while talks with Ecuador are expected to resume in February 2006. Negotiators from Colombia and Ecuador expressed hope to conclude the talks at their upcoming meetings. If the two countries reach an agreement with the United States, it is unclear whether they would join forces with Peru to form a free trade agreement between the United States and the Andes, or whether the free trade agreement between the United States and Peru would be considered a separate agreement. The FTAA would have been much smaller than other regional trade agreements such as NAFTA. It would have been overshadowed by the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the United States and the European Union. It would also have been smaller than the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the Trump administration abandoned. The number of regional trade agreements in America has increased since the 1990s. Major trade agreements include NAFTA, DCFTA-DR, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) in South America, the Andean Community (CAN), the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), the Central American Common Market (CACM) and the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). With a total of 12 trade agreements involving more than 40 countries, Mexico is one of the countries with the highest number of agreements. .