Western Hemisphere Free Trade: Probability or Pipe Dream?

U.S. trade policy has four sometimes incompatible strands: multilateralism; preferential bilateralism; preferential regionalism; and unilateral imposition of import restrictions outside the framework of the multilateral structure. President Bush's proposal for free trade in the Western Hemisphere represents one of these elements, but it comes as the other strands are also being pursued in multilateral and North American trade negotiations. President Bush's free trade initiative was warmly received in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is because the region now looks outward toward exports more than at any time since the Great Depression. The feasibility of hemispheric free trade will depend on the extent to which the United States is prepared to discard unilateralism in its protective measures, how far other countries in the region are prepared to open their markets, and how committed they are to cooperating in formulating product and environmental standards and in protecting intellectual property.