Free And Fair Trade Is Good For Business

摘要

Western Hemisphere leaders last month signed an agreement to open their markets by December 2005, forming the Free Trade Area of the Americas that will integrate the economies of 34 countries over two continents (see "Dwarfing NAFTA," Page 45). Avid supporters present the FTAA as nothing less than a means for strengthening democracy, as it increases the number of jobs throughout the region and improves member nations' economic productivity. U.S. President George W. Bush has gone so far as to elevate the effort to a moral imperative.