Studies over a longer period of time find literacy rising and child labor rates dropping by nearly a third. This historic transformation has touched the whole Western Hemisphere. The effects of economic reform at home, and integration within the Hemisphere, are reflected in the lives of families and working people. Since the early 1980s, virtually every country in Latin America has cut illiteracy and infant mortality, in some cases by half. These effects are evident in the policies and governments of nations.
Governments devote more of their resources to health and education.
Every one of the 34 nations now participating in the FTAA has joined on the basis of a free choice made by an elected, democratic government. And they are clear in greater long-term economic security. More recently, it helped farmers and manufacturing workers in all three members avoid the worst of the consequences of the Asian financial crisis. South American trade arrangements, notably Mercosur, did the same, helping to stabilize the economic recovery now underway in Brazil and Argentina. The lessons are very clear.