Americas Summit Fails To Reach Consensus On Trade

The Fourth Summit of the Americas, which took place on 4—5 November in the seaside town of Mar del Plata in Argentina, failed to reach a consensus on free trade and split the attending nations into two blocs. One group comprised the majority of the 34 nations and supported reopening negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA or ALCA in Spanish), championed by the US, which have been paralyzed for the past two years. Five countries refused to sign up to resuming talks on ALCA, among them Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela.