Regionalization, the private sector and governance for sustainable development in Latin America

As a parallel strategy to multilateral negotiations on trade and development issues, the United States is currently pursuing bi-lateral and regional strategies. In Latin America, the goal of the US is a hemispheric Free Trade Area (FTAA), but so far only two agreements with a more limited scope have been signed; the US-Chile Free Trade agreement and the Central America (Central American Free Trade Area (CAFTA)). These do not only aim to free trade, but also to create a regulative framework in the areas of environmental protection, protection of labor rights and investments. This project will investigate the outcomes of the agreements in terms of their ability to regulating business in order to make their activities compatible with a sustainable developmen t. It is hypothesized that this will depend, not only on the wording of agreements, but also on the interaction between governmental representatives and the private sector in the initiation and negotiation of regional agreements. Therefore, this project w ill study the role of the private sector in the negotiation of the US-Chile FTA and CAFTA negotiations respectively. However, this will be analyzed against the background of the already existing regional integration projects (Mercosur of which Chile is an associated member and the Central American Integration System (SICA)). The study aims to answer the following questions: i) to what extent did the private sector influence the choice of regional strategy, and why? ii) how did the private sector influence the outcome of negotiations? (with regards to environmental, labor and investment regulation, and, iii) how do the agreements influence post-liberalization regulation of private businesses?