A few years ago the United States of America was energetically bullying the countries of the Americas into a hemispheric free trade agreement. In the 1980s they signed a fairly successful bilateral agreement with Canada. In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement linked Mexico, the United States and Canada in an optimistic commercial zone whose after-effects are still being widely and heatedly discussed. Free trade, an important dimension of globalisation, was the major topic of conversation throughout the hemisphere. Both free trade and globalisation have lost their lustre.
Hemispheric free trade was supposed to provide a major impetus to the continued economic superordinacy of the United States of America as well as the countries of Western Europe. In the last 10 years, however, the major economic growth engines have been in China and India. With large populations and a penchant for adapting new technology, both countries have positioned themselves to dominate world trade for a very long time. Free trade is simply ideal for them.
