When North and South Meet: Civil Society and Trade Agreements in the Americas.

This paper seeks to contribute to the transnational collective action literature by trying to understand the conditions under which North-South collaboration among non-state actors becomes feasible. The main goal of the paper is to present patterns of relationship built among civil society organizations involved in the debates about trade agreements that have been negotiated in the Americas in the last fifteen years. More specifically, it will focus on the obstacles and opportunities of coalition-building between organizations from the North (in this case, the United States) and organizations from the South (Brazil, Mexico and Chile). This paper is based on field research undertaken in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and the United States between May of 2004 and August of 2005. It presents a preliminary analysis of part of the data collected through a social network survey conducted in the four countries, as well as qualitative interviews and participant observation. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]