American Economic Area

  

American Economic Area
Administration	Financial and Economic Cooperation Council
Member states	25 CAS states  Alaska  Antigua and Barbuda  Astoria  Bahamas  Barbados  Belize  Brazil  Brazoria  Central America  Dominica  Greenland  Grenada  Guyana  Jamaica  Manitoba  Paraguay  Patagonia  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  São Leopoldo  Kingdom of Sierra  Superior  Suriname  United Provinces 3 (non-CAS) AFTA states  Antilles  Placentia  Trinidad and Tobago
Establishment
• AEA Agreement signed	20 October 1978
• Entry into force	1 January 1979
Area
• Total	11,770,068 km2 (4,544,449 sq mi)
Population
• 2022 estimate	648,200,000

The American Economic Area (AEA) was established by the American Economic Agreement that enabled the American Free Trade Association (AFTA) states to participate in the American Single Market alongside the Conference of American States (CAS) member countries. The Economic Area links all AFTA member states to the American Single Market, an internal market that has a common set of laws and legislation, while differing from some of its normal requirements for participation. Just as with the Single Market, the goal of the AEA is to facilitate free movement of goods, services, capital, and people among its participating nations. Its current members are the 25 member states of the CAS along with Antilles, Placentia, and Trinidad and Tobago, the current signatories of AFTA.

The American Economic Agreement is different in several key ways from the Mutual Trade Treaty that established the single market. Most notably, it does not require its signatories to participate in the American Customs Union, the American Monetary Union, the Common Foreign and Defense Policy, or the Common Agricultural and Common Fisheries Policy. This means that the AFTA members, while being part of the American Economic Area and thereby participating in the single market, can still sign free trade agreements with third countries, are not required to impose external tariffs, can pursue a foreign policy not in alignment with the CAS, do not have to engage in military cooperation with it, and do not have to abide by CAS laws relating to agriculture and fisheries. But they have to abide by all other CAS legislation concerning the single market, outside of those listed policies. The Finance and Economic Cooperation Council of the American Customs Authority is tasked with ensuring that all AEA member states are in alignment with the relevant laws. The Economic Area members that are not part of the CAS can also participate in the Council to shape decision making.

When the AEA first came into force in 1979, along with the regulations of the American Single Market, its original membership included Alaska, Greenland, the Antilles, the West Indies, and Placentia. Over the next three decades more than twenty countries became part of the AEA, first as members of the American Free Trade Association before many of them became members of the Conference of American States. Brazil was the most recent country to leave AFTA and became a member of the CAS in 2016. As of 2023, the AEA includes three countries that are not members of the CAS and are only part of AFTA – the Antilles, Placentia, and Trinidad and Tobago, the last one being the most recent to join in 2017.

See also

Attribution notices

• This page uses material from the Wikipedia page European Economic Area, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).