New Initiative Seeks to Expand Benefits of Free Trade in Western Hemisphere

(World Trade Interactive)

The U.S. and the 11 Western Hemisphere countries with which it has negotiated bilateral or regional free trade agreements launched a new Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas initiative September 24. The PPA appears to be an effort to maintain support for free trade policies in the region by recognizing that the benefits of those policies need to be more broadly shared by the region’s workers, farmers and consumers.

Meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the leaders of the U.S., Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru said they focused their discussions on the region’s ability to achieve and sustain broad-based economic growth and development. They “acknowledged that macro-economic stability and trade liberalization are important tools in the fight against poverty” and therefore expressed support for initiatives like the Doha Round, the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific and efforts to promote economic integration in the hemisphere, including the Summit of the Americas process, the Latin America Pacific Arc Initiative, the Central American Economic Integration process and the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership. Read more. Additional information about the Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas initiative here.