AGRICULTURAL TRADE LIBERALIZATION UNDER NAFTA: REPORTING ON THE REPORT CARD

NAFTA - Report Card on Agriculture

Table 18: Likelihood of NAFTA Being Extended to the Western Hemi-
sphere Within Ten Years: Percent Response for Each Report

Source: Compiled from response data.

Thus, on the question of expanding NAFTA to the Western hemisphere,
workshop participants were in general agreement that the experience with
NAFTA supports such an expansion. However, the results also suggest that
perhaps participants from Canada and Mexico may perceive more potential
benefits from such expansion, while participants from the United States may
sense more potential competition and fewer benefits from expansion to a Free
Trade Area of the Americas.

The final question in the report card on NAFTA asked workshop par-
ticipants their opinion as to the likelihood of NAFTA being extended to the
Western hemisphere within the next ten years. In the first report card, com-
pleted before the workshop, two-thirds of all participants felt it was somewhat
likely that there would be a hemispheric agreement within ten years (Table 18).
On an individual country basis, 76, 60, and 50 percent of participants from
Canada, the United States, and Mexico, respectively, believed the prospect to
be somewhat likely.

For each country, the proportion believing the prospect of a hemispheric-
wide free trade area to be most likely was greater than those believing it to be
not likely. Based on presentations and discussions during the workshop, par-
ticipants appear to have become more certain and optimistic as to the possibil-
ity of a Western hemisphere free trade area within the next ten years. When
asked by the moderator of the “reporting on the report card” session, workshop
participants expressed considerably less optimism for a completed hemispheric-
wide agreement by 2005, and considerably more optimism that an agreement
will be completed by 2020.

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