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ALBA | TCP

The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA in Spanish) is a project to counteract the US-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas. Born out of initial agreements forged between the governments of Venezuela and Cuba in December 2004, ALBA aims to promote regional integration of Latin America based on values and objectives opposed to imperialism. However, it continues to rely on some basic neoliberal tenets, such as a strong emphasis on exports. Concretely, it involves Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela through cooperation pacts covering a wide range of areas such as energy, health and culture. Nicaragua officially joined in January 2007, followed by Dominica, Saint Vincent and Antigua in February 2007. In June 2009, Ecuador became a full member.

The People’s Trade Agreement (TCP in Spanish) is considered the trade arm of ALBA. It is a direct effort to defeat the bilateral free trade agreements that the US government has been pushing in Latin America. The TCP aims to promote trade in the region along principles of solidarity, cooperation and complementarity. It was launched in May 2006.

Together, ALBA and TCP form a popular axis of today’s push for "alternative" regional integration in Latin America with the direct backing of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Evo Morales.

On 4-5 February 2012, the 11th ALBA-TCP summit was held in Caracas, Venezuela. It was decided at this meeting to create an ALBA-TCP Economic Space (ECOALBA) "as a shared-development, inter-dependent, sovereign and supportive economic zone aimed at consolidating and enlarging a new alternative model of economic relations that will strengthen and diversify the production apparatus and trade exchanges, as well as establishing the bases for the bilateral and multilateral instruments that the Parties may enter into on this matter, with a view to satisfying the physical and spiritual needs of our peoples."

last update: May 2012

Photo: Xavier Granja Cedeño - Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana. CC-BY-SA-2.0

Fóto: Xavier Granja Cedeño - Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana. CC-BY-SA-2.0

Approaches for an alternative strategy to the FTA
ALAI | 19-Dec-2015
The major challenge consists in rescuing the sovereignty of our States, that has been chipped away in recent times by untrammelled US power and its giant corporations and by the subjugation (“by free determination”) of regimes such as those in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
: ALBA , FTAA
ALBA and the FTAA: the Dilemma of Integration or Annexation
CUBARTE | 1-Oct-2015
Latin American integration has caused rivers of ink to flow and provoked endless torrents of rhetoric. However, a significant issue still remains unresolved.
: ALBA , FTAA
Alba establishes mechanisms for legal defense against arbitral claims filed by transnationals
ADITAL | 9-Jul-2015
The Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America (ALBA ) has agreed to create a new regional mechanism to provide a collaborative defence in international arbitration proceedings, notably in respect of claims filed by transnational corporations against Latin American countries.
: ALBA , investor-state disputes | ISDS
The current economic crisis presents an opportunity for Latin American Integration
Agencia Venezolana de Noticias | 6-May-2014
The global financial crisis which persists since 2008 and chiefly impacts the United States and Europe presents an opportunity for Latin America to strengthen its internal markets and develop an integrated economy, says Faustino Cobarrubia, an expert at the Centre for Research on the Global Economy (CIEM), Cuba.
: ALBA , Latin America
ALBA: Anti-imperialist with already nine members
La Arena | 2-Aug-2013
The Bolivarian Alliance of Our America held its 12th presidential meeting in Guayaquil in 2013, the first without Hugo Chavez.
: ALBA
Alba alliance ambitions lay bare Latin trade confusion
| 1-Aug-2013
In the bewildering array of Latin American and Caribbean trade alliances, the left-of-centre Alba group is probably the one that attracts the least attention outside the region.
: ALBA , Bolivia , Cuba , Ecuador , Venezuela