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Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Committee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society Released by the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs U.S. Department of State, November 9, 2000

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations aim to create the largest free trade area in world, encompassing all 34 democracies in the Western Hemisphere -- all countries except Cuba -- and a population of approximately 800 million people. The FTAA was conceived at the Miami Summit of the Americas in December 1994 and formally initiated at the April 1998 Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile. The FTAA negotiations are scheduled to conclude no later than 2005 and, when concluded, will create a free trade zone stretching from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to Patagonia, Argentina. The negotiations are divided into nine negotiating groups -- market access, agriculture, investment, services, government procurement, intellectual property rights, subsidies/antidumping/countervailing duties, competition policy, and dispute settlement -- and 3 committees -- electronic commerce, smaller economies, and civil society participation. This site focuses on the civil society committee. At their March 1998 meeting in San Jose, the hemisphere's trade ministers jointly recognized and welcomed the interests and concerns expressed by a broad spectrum of interested non-governmental parties -- particularly labor, business, environmental, and academic groups in the hemisphere -- regarding the FTAA. They encouraged these and other groups, such as those representing consumers, to provide their views on trade matters related to the FTAA. To facilitate this process, the ministers agreed to establish the Committee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society -- Government Committee on Civil Society (GCCS). The establishment of this committee represents the first time that an international trade negotiation process has included a formal mechanism for non-governmental parties, including business, labor, environmental, academic, and consumer groups, to provide their views to trade ministers. At the first meeting of the GCCS in October 1998, the committee approved an Open Invitation soliciting input from civil society on the FTAA. The Open Invitation to Civil Society was placed on the FTAA website, and all FTAA countries agreed to use their national mechanisms to disseminate the invitation further. In the U.S. the invitation was disseminated through a variety of means, including press releases, letters to advisory committees, and public meetings. A total of 70 submissions were received in response to the Invitation. At its next meeting in Miami on June 17-18, 1999 the GCCS will prepare a report on the submissions for consideration by the hemisphere's trade ministers at the November 3-4, 1999 Ministerial in Toronto. Executive Summaries of each of the submissions are included on this site by FTAA document number. Please consult the list of submissions, also included on this site, to determine the source of each of the documents. 1999_2000: List of Executive Summaries Submitted to FTAA [end of document] Current Issues | Economic and Business Affairs | Department of State