ABSTRACT
A truly historic opportunity to create an economically integrated Western Hemisphere is in the process of being lost once again. The Western Hemisphere (WH) came closer than ever before to the realization of this two-century-old dream during its eight years of negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) between July 1995 and January 2004, but over the past two years the opportunity and the momentum have been slipping through the fingers of the participating governments.
