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The paper argues that a multilevel field of contentious collective action has emerged around trade agreement negotiations in the Americas. Building on empirical evidence from field research in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and the United States, it focuses on the challenges of coordinating such a field. More especifically, it presents the cases of cross-sectoral coalitions created in Mexico and in Chile to act as brokers in trade-related mobilizations. Coordination problems are put in the context of power relations among civil society organizations, of broader dilemmas of connecting the local and the global, and in the context of the negotiation of a new generation of trade agreements. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the role of civil society in the future of governance in North America. Opposition to the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico brings to fore the need to recognize civil society. Currently, civil society actors from these three countries demand for the inclusion of equity, sustainable development, and democracy in any schemes that seek to deepen governance in North America. Civil society can be valuable contributors to governance-building in North America.