In December 1994, just before Mexico's financial collapse, Bill Clinton convened the "Summit of the Americas" in Miami. It was attended by the leaders of all thirty-four Western hemisphere nations--except Castro, who was not invited--and it ended with a call to establish a "Free Trade Area of the Americas" by the year 2005. As a down payment, Mr. Clinton said NAFTA would soon be expanded to include Chile--repeating an offer made by George Bush in 1992, who in 1990 had introduced the idea of a Western hemisphere free trade area, "stretching from the port of Anchorage to Tierra del Fuego."
Chile was receptive to the NAFTA invitation for both economic and political reasons. Membership would have meant not only guaranteed access to markets for its wine and fruit exports, but symbolic U.S. approval for its post-Pinochet democracy as well. The United States also had good reasons to welcome Chile: Its economic reforms, including wholesale privatizations, nearly-total tariff reductions, and receptivity to foreign investment have made it a model for the rest of Latin America. Thus, despite its small population and market, Chile would have been an easy NAFTA partner for the United States, so much so that had it been brought into the deal along with Mexico, the whole NAFTA idea might have smelled a lot better than it does now.
