Trade negotiators, academic experts and senior government officials participate in a discussion of the new book Integrating the Americas: FTAA and Beyond, written by over 46 authors and researchers in joint project by the Inter-American Development Bank and Harvard University.
The event began with opening remarks by IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias. It was closed by Larry Summers, president of Harvard University, and President Iglesias.
Among the speakers were Alberto Trejos, minister of Trade, Costa Rica; José Luis Machinea, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean; Celso Lafer, former minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil; and Ross Wilson, a senior U.S. negotiator for the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The book was sponsored by the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), a unit of the IDB’s Integration and Regional Programs Department; the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS); and the Center for International Development at Harvard University.
The book’s 23 chapters were edited by Antoni Estevadeordal of the IDB, Dani Rodrik and Andrés Velasco of Harvard and Alan M. Taylor of the University of Carlifornia at Davis.
The volume covers a wide range of topics, including the historical and global context of an emerging FTAA, its macroeconomic implications, major negotiating and political economy issues, the potential economic impact of the FTAA on trade, investment, productivity, wages and income distribution, as well as some controversial issues such as labor, environment, social protection, adjustment and democratic governance.
Rodrik and Taylor presented the book after an introduction by Harvard Prof. John Coatsworth, director of the DRCLAS, and Juan José Taccone, director of INTAL.
Nohra Rey de Marulanda, manager of the IDB Department of Integration and Regional Programs (INT), moderated the closing panel discussion on “FTAA and Beyond” with Iglesias and Summers. Robert Devlin, deputy manager of the INT, moderated a policy panel on the “Prospects for Integrating the Americas” with Trejos, Machinea, Lafer and Wilson.
People interested in buying the book should contact Harvard University Press at www.hup.harvard.edu or call 1-800-448-2242 or fax 1-800-962-4983.