Shortly after becoming president, George W. Bush embarked on a campaign to expand the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) to encompass 34 nations in the Western Hemisphere, spanning from Canada in the north to Argentina and Chile in the south. The new trade bloc--the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)--would include over 800 million consumers and a total economy of some $13 trillion. Bush repeatedly stated that the free trade area would strengthen democracy, promote economic integration and bring peace and prosperity to Latin America, all of which the President, speaking at the Third Summit of the Americas in April 2001 in Quebec City, described as vital to U.S. national interests.
Though grand plans of uniting the Americas have been around for some time (Simon Bolivar was the first to come up with the idea), negotiations always faltered on fears that stronger, more economically diverse nations would take control and subvert the sovereignty and national identity of smaller countries. This concern, the old core-periphery argument, was a standard part of all talks on integration issues and was generally invoked against the United States whenever Washington touched on the subject (as the elder President Bush did in 1990). Those countries in favor of free trade with the United States, like Chile, preferred tailored bilateral accords anyway and therefore had no pressing desire to advance regional pan-American integration.
