Stardate 20010906.0736 (On Screen): NAFTA was, in my opinion, one of the finest diplomatic achievements of the twentieth century. Of course, any change that drastic will inevitably cause disruption and there will always be victims, and in the short run there was and will be objections to it. But I think in the long run it will be viewed by everyone in North America as a good thing. I see NAFTA as the second step in a long process. (The first step was the establishment of the US itself as a free-trade zone by the US Constitution, which was a major reason why the US became an economic powerhouse.) What I envision eventually happening is the establishment of a single free-trade zone in all of the western hemisphere in perhaps fifty years, with a single currency. Now the Bush administration is making the next step in that process by trying to negotiate free trade with four economically powerful South American nations who already have a free trading block with each other. A merger of the NAFTA countries with Mercosur in a free trade pact would be fantastic.
(discuss)
