The 1990s witnessed widening divergence among the responses of Latin American countries to trends in the international economy. Changes in the language of regional affairs, which increasingly differentiates between a North America that includes Mexico and a South America dominated by Brazil, indicate the profound impact Mexico’s NAFTA membership may have on intra-American relations. In recent years, Mexico has signed free trade agreements with Costa Rica and Chile, and the European Union. Transregional free trade with Europe as well as other regions would provide some amount of balance in Mexico’s trade profile, which is overwhelmingly dependent on the US market. A conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C. on September 24, 2001 convened experts from across the Americas to discuss the implications of these various alternatives, and offer their perspectives on the nature and implications of this increasing divergence in strategic policies.
The results of this project were published in The Strategic Dynamics of Latin American Trade (2004), available for purchase at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.