ABSTRACT
The North American Free Trade Agreement represents an historic policy shift, one that raises a variety of theoretical and practical questions many of which are familiar to students of the Western European experience. The economic case for free trade is powerful and economic interests undoubtedly are vital to the dynamics of continental integration. The most comprehensive account of the place occupied by values in the dynamics of regional integration springs from, and builds upon, the early work of Karl Deutsch. Trade in goods and services also increased sharply in the decade immediately prior to the signing of the Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement. The idea that Canadians, or Mexicans, would seriously entertain the idea of “doing away with” the borders between their own country and the United States is a radical one, not least of all because it flies in the face of longstanding policy efforts aimed at resisting the economic, political and socio–cultural influences of the United States.
