[The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the health sector in Latin America].

The Free Trade Area of the Americas-FTAA, which will be implemented in 2005, is the closest expression of economic globalization we will have. In this paper the debate about the neo liberal tendency of globalization is considered: on one side are the defendants of trade, competition and market liberalization; on the other side, those who claim for global social justice, for an alternative globalization, for reaching the ideal of justice in the planet, seriously affected by the free trade agreements, in the absence of a global political power capable of distributing richness. The debate permanently animates this essay on the FTAA which starts with the government proposals and the scope that the interventions of the U.S.A. and the trans-nationals have on the decisions of our countries, besides pointing out to the negative effects that the North American Free Trade Agreement-NAFTA has had on health. Most of the affirmations on the FTAA and its impact on health are derived from its analysis and the new relationships imposed on world trade through organisms as the World Trade Organization-WTO.