ABSTRACT
N o r t h America may be on the verge of becoming something more than a geographical expression. The United States, Canada, and Mexico are moving toward continental free trade to avoid isolation i n a w o r l d that is increasingly organized into regional trading networks, and to exploit the advantages that come from stable access to large markets. I n some respects, continental free trade might be viewed as w i n d o w dressing, a formal regularization of de facto economic integration that has been welding the three economies together since the 1950s. However, that perspective obscures the fact that comprehensive continental free trade represents a substantial policy shift for each of the three partners. For the United States, the N o r t h American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signifies a historic departure from a long-standing commitment to the multilateralism that governed American international economic th inking throughout most of the postwar period. For Canadians and Mexicans, whose policies throughout this century were designed to resist continental economic integration, the decisions to embrace comprehensive N o r t h American free trade amount to even more momentous policy shifts. Like other small states that rely heavily on trade w i t h a single market, both Canadian and Mexican governments sought to diversify export opportunities i n order to dilute dependence on a single trading partner. For both countries, a comprehensive continental trade agreement closes that chapter; i t means that the search for a " t h i r d w a y " has been abandoned.
