World Business (A Special Report): Building Blocs --- The Quiet Colossus: Canada Finds Its Trade Pact With the U.S. Isn't a Panacea, but Mexico Wants a Similar Accord --- Canada
IS BUSINESS OVERLOOKING the obvious?</br></br>When new trade and investment opportunities are mentioned, Europe is the world on everybody's lips, the talisman for financiers and investors in the U.S. and elsewhere. And with reason. The economic integration of the European Community nations in 1992 and the opening of potentially rich new markets in the East Bloc countries promise big profits for those who position themselves early and well.</br></br>But while businessmen and money men alike rivet their attention on the Old World, a new economic colossus is slowly and quietly taking shape in the new one. Call it Canamerico.</br></br>With only modest attention being paid, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are gradually moving toward creation of a single huge trade entity. Canada and the U.S. have already signed a trade agreement that will wipe out tariff barriers and other impediments; Mexico, which has cast aside its former protectionism, now wants a similar pact. It will probably get it.</br></br>If Canamerico indeed comes into being, it would be a powerhouse by almost any measure, exceedingly rich in natural resources (particularly coal and natural gas), technology, agricultural production, capital, and available labor. But Canamerico is not reality yet, and the road to trade unification is proving a hard one, full of potholes -- as both Canada and Mexico are finding out.