The Free Trade Area of a Americas FTAA was a made agreement to eliminate or reduce a trade barriers among any countries in the Americas, excluding Cuba. Negotiations to determining the FTAA ended in failure, however, with all parties unable toan agreement by the 2005 deadline they had classification for themselves. Still, modern discourses cause not been invalidated - re-newed talks are anticipated.
A vocal critic of the FTAA was Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who has included it as an "annexation plan" together with a "tool of imperialism" for the exploitation of Latin America. As a counterproposal to this initiative, Chávez promoted the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas Alianza Bolivariana para las Américas, ALBA which emphasizes power and infrastructure agreements. Evo Morales of Bolivia has pointed to the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas, as "an agreement to legalize the colonization of the Americas".
On the other hand, the then presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Argentina, Néstor Kirchner, score stated that they do non oppose the FTAA but they do demand that the agreement provide for the elimination of U.S. agriculture subsidies, the provision of powerful access to foreign markets and further consideration towards the needs and sensibilities of its members.
One of the almost contentious issues of the treaty made by the United States is with concerns to patents and copyrights. Critics claim that whether the measures proposed by the United States were implemented and applied this would reduce scientific research in Latin America. On the Council of Canadians web site, Barlow wrote: "This agreement sets enforceable global rules on patents, copyrights and trademark. It has gone far beyond its initial scope of protecting original inventions or cultural products and now enables the practice of patenting plants and animal forms as well as seeds. It promotes the private rights of corporations over local communities and their genetic heritage and traditional medicines".
On the weekend of April 20, 2001, the 3rd Summit of the Americas was a summit held in Quebec City, Canada. This international meeting was a round of negotiations regarding a proposed FTAA.