NAFTA

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect on January 1, 1994. This trilateral agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico created an economic zone free from tariff barriers. During the period of negotiations, the countries of the American Hemisphere left out of the agreement began to create their own trading blocks or to improve existing ones. In December 1994, the Summit of the Americas was held in Miami, Florida. All the nations of the hemisphere were present, and trade was high on the agenda. The dream of a hemisphere trading block was resuscitated, but nothing was immediately agreed upon due to the myriad of existing blocks that would need to be aligned.

For example, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay had, in 1990, formed Mercosur (a Spanish acronym that, in English, translates as the Common Market but is sometimes referred to as the Andean Group). However, the economies...