Competitive Liberalization and Global Free Trade: A Vision for the Early 21st Century

A large part of the world has eliminated all barriers to trade or is in the process of doing so. The fifteen members of the European Union have created a single internal market. Australia and New Zealand have completed their free trade area. Several large groupings are en route to a similar outcome: the North American Free Trade Agreement (Canada, Mexico, United States), Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay), and the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and now Vietnam). There are numerous free trade areas among smaller countries.