A Brookings Institution Press and the Organization of American States publicationThis is the Spanish language version of Toward Free Trade in America. In the past 15 years the nations of the Western Hemisphere have staged a remarkable revolutionamp151in the way they trade with their neighbors. First after decades of restrictive import policies several countries began to liberalize their trade and investment regimes. Then beginning a decade ago numerous bilateral and subregional trade agreements were achieved to serve as vital complements to domestic reforms and to foster trade flows among member countries. At the Second Summit of the Americas in 1998 negotiations among 34 democracies were launched to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas FTAA.This report takes stock of the remarkable progress to date in the development of free trade in the Western Hemisphere. It examines trade flows between countries in the same regional groupings and between members of different subregional arrangements. The report describes the main characteristics of the trade arrangements signed between countries of the Hemisphere and explores the development of trade rules in these arrangements. Finally the report details recent advances in the construction of the FTAA.