ABSTRACT
The Canadian-US Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA), now folded into North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), appears to be realizing the benefits for both countries that its proponents forecast. This chapter places current economic relationships in the Hemisphere in better perspective in the wake of the hyperbole that surrounded the NAFTA debate in the United States. It explores the implications for expanded trade and investment of the cultural differences, underscored by the post-NAFTA Mexican crisis, that go so far in explaining the striking contrast between Latin America, on the one hand, and the United States and Canada, on the other. In theory, it should be possible for free trade to occur among countries very different in their levels of development and their political institutions, and in their value systems. Twice since the end of World War II, the United States has announced major initiatives in the Western Hemisphere that reflect Western Europe's experience.
