Free Trade (FTAA, NAFTA)

Alrighty I am currently doing a paper on Brazil and I was curious (because I"m reading about it) what is good/bad about free trade. It sounds to me like the Free Trade Association of Americas (or something like that??) is good. I'm curious if it is or isn't because I really don't understand it all that much. Here's the story that I found parts of it in.