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The Andean Group and the Andean Community of Nations

In 1966 Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela—all members of the Latin American Free Trade Association—agreed to form a regional subgroup. The Andean Group began its official existence in June 1969 without Venezuela, which had withdrawn. By 1973 Venezuela had decided to join, but Chile withdrew in 1976. The Andean Group began negotiating free-trade agreements with the Mercado Commún del Sur (also known as the Southern Market, or Mercosur; a trade community comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) in 1996, and in 1997 the group became known as the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Among the Andean Community’s aims are the acceleration of economic integration between member countries, the coordination of regional industrial development, the regulation of foreign investment in member countries, and the standardization of some agricultural and economic policies. Further negotiations with Mercosur resulted in a treaty establishing a free-trade zone from Mexico to Argentina that went into effect on July 1, 2004.

The Caribbean Community

Established in 1973 by 12 Caribbean countries, the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) is the successor to the Caribbean Free Trade Association (Carifta), which was founded in 1968 by five former British colonies (Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago), all of which joined the new organization. The organization attempts to encourage economic integration in the Caribbean region and achieved partial agreement to a common external tariff and protective policy for the community in 1978. It became the Caribbean Community in 2001.

Caribbean economic integration had been curtailed between 1976 and 1978, partly because of import restrictions imposed by Jamaica and Guyana, and partly because of dissatisfaction among the less-developed countries, which claimed that they were not receiving their fair share of trading revenues. By 1980 Jamaica and Guyana had removed their import restrictions, and the Caricom Council had endorsed several measures to improve the status of the less-developed countries within Caricom. These countries, however, remained dissatisfied, and in 1981 the seven former members of the West Indies Associated States (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) formed a subregional economic integration organization, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, though they retained their Caricom membership.

In succeeding years Caricom added new member countries, with the Bahamas joining in 1983 and Suriname joining in 1995. Joining as associate members were the Turks and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands (1991), Anguilla (1998), and the Cayman Islands (2002). Haiti was asked to join Caricom as a provisional member in 1997, and it became a full member in 2002.

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The Association of South East Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) originated in 1961 as the Association of South East Asia (ASA), which had been founded by the Philippines, Thailand, and the Federation of Malaya (now part of Malaysia). In 1967 ASEAN was established by the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand to accelerate economic growth and social development in Southeast Asia. The end of hostilities in Vietnam brought dynamic economic growth to the region in the 1970s, and resulting strengths within the organization enabled ASEAN to adopt a unified response to Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia in 1979. Brunei joined the association in 1984, followed by Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999. ASEAN’s chief projects have centred on economic cooperation and the promotion of trade, both among ASEAN countries and between ASEAN members and the rest of the world. The end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s allowed ASEAN countries to exercise greater political independence in the region, and in the 1990s ASEAN emerged as a leading voice for regional trade and security issues. In 1992 members reduced intraregional tariffs and eased restrictions on foreign investment by creating the ASEAN Free Trade Area. In 2007 its members signed the ASEAN Charter, which went into effect in 2008. The charter committed its members to semiannual meetings and established the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, among other things.

The North American Free Trade Agreement

In 1992 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It took effect in 1994 and created one of the largest free-trade areas in the world.

Inspired by the EEC’s success in reducing trade barriers between its members, NAFTA created the world’s largest free-trade area. It basically extended to Mexico the provisions of a 1988 Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement that called for elimination of all trade barriers over a 15-year period and incorporated agreements on labour and the environment. Other provisions were designed to give U.S. and Canadian companies greater access to Mexican markets in banking, insurance, advertising, telecommunications, and trucking. In 2018 NAFTA was replaced by a new trade accord called the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).