Continental Accord: North American Economic Integration

James R. Midwinter was senior assistant secretary to the Cabinet and
inspector general of the Foreign Service before his appointment as
Canadian ambassador to Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

This study is one of a series on the economic future of North America
being undertaken by Vancouver’s Fraser Institute. Globerman, an
adjunct scholar of the Institute and a professor of economics at Simon
Fraser University, has co-ordinated contributions by a number of
distinguished U.S., Canadian, and Mexican economists on the positive
impact of further North American economic integration, particularly at
this time of the possible participation of Mexico in a free-trade
arrangement with the United States and Canada. Leonard Waverman (of the
University of Toronto) and Richard Lipsey (of Simon Fraser University)
contributed chapters on “A Canadian Vision of North American Economic
Integration” and “The Case for Trilateralism,” respectively.

The authors all subscribe to the conventional belief that, over time,
economic integration benefits each participating nation, and that fears
of loss of political sovereignty and cultural identity are unfounded.
They draw heavily on recent European experience to support their
argument, concluding that Canada could lose only if it stayed aloof from
the current U.S.-Mexican negotiations.

The authors make a strong case for their collective point of view, one
with which it is difficult to take issue. It is, however, important to
underline that this study is in some respects more of a tract by the
already converted than an objective analysis. Not everyone will find it
convincing.