This new study presents a detailed examination of the initial NAFTA experience and evaluates its long-term implications beyond those of ending trade and tariff barriers. NAFTA initiated a procedure for addressing transborder economic problems in a more adequate and predictable fashion, potentially encouraging policy convergence between three disparate political cultures. Rather than addressing economic, social, and environmental policy issues separately, trade policy increasingly serves as a vehicle for negotiating policy convergence. Consequently, trade officials are being forced to deal with an expanded array of domestic policy issues. Beyond the economic aspects of NAFTA, this book examines the less studied cultural implications of this
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