free trade between the two countries.4 Almost immediately, the Canadian government indicated that any free trade agreement between Mexico and the United States would affect Canada and would affect the Canada United States Free Trade Agreement, and, thus, Canada should be a party in any free trade discussions between Mexico and the United States.5
In international environment of the early 1990s, a fact often overlooked was that the United States was the most successful example of regional economic and political integration. The changing international environment in the last
years of the twentieth century, however, had rendered the American integration as too narrow in geographic scope, as other
2"All, Well Nearly All, Eyes On Union," The Economist, 28 April 1990, 51. 3R. Cardinali, "Trade With Canada Under the FTA," Business, February 1989, 49 52.
4L. Fenley, "A Vision of Interdependence," Business Mexico, March 1990, 70 71.
5C. Allard, "Mexico For Sale: Gringos Welcome." Canadian Business, November 1990, 72 76.regional integration schemes threatened to both dwarf and isolate the United States.6 The oldest and most successful of these other regional integrations was the EC.
Lastly, while it had not yet materialized, the potential for a free trade area in Asia led by Japan was being discussed informally.7 An Asian free trade area could potentially dwarf even an expanded EC.8 The development of an Asian free trade area led by Japan could, some 50 to 60 years after it was first proposed, make the Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere strategy of Imperial Japan a reality. The potential for an Asian free trade created added impetus for North American free trade negotiations.
The phenomenal growth and success of the EC had caused other countries to consider applying for membership in that organization. In some instances, the primary motivation of such countries was market access, while others feared t...