The mirage that won’t go away
END agreed, means not. That, in short, is the tale of pan-American free trade. Meeting in December 1994, in Miami, 34—all but Fidel Castro—of the hemisphere's leaders agreed to negotiate a free-trade area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005. Yet formal negotiations are still to begin. The hemisphere's trade ministers will hold their third meeting next week, this time in Belo Horizonte in Brazil. Can they advance?
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The mirage that won’t go away”
Discover more
“Tariffers” v “traders”: the new contest for Donald Trump’s ear
Eye-witnesses to the drama of the first Trump presidency brace for the sequel
The world is losing the fight against international gangs
Globalisation and technological progress are leading to a boom in organised crime
Half a loaf, at best, from the climate talks
This year’s negotiations made very modest progress
Is your master’s degree useless?
New data show a shockingly high proportion of courses are a waste of money
The perils of appeasing a warlike Russia
Finland’s cold-war past offers urgent lessons for Ukraine’s future
The danger zone between two presidents
The world’s bad actors will relish any power vacuum