Between Free Trade and Social Goals: Regional Integration in the Iberian Peninsula and Mexico. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Vol. 3 No. 9, October 2003

Royo, Sebastián. (2003) Between Free Trade and Social Goals: Regional Integration in the Iberian Peninsula and Mexico. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Vol. 3 No. 9, October 2003.

Abstract

(From the introduction). This paper examines the integration process of Spain and Portugal in the European Union (EU) and of Mexico in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It reviews the relationship between regional integration, economic growth, and democratic consolidation. Among other concerns, it asks how membership has impacted economic performance and democracy in the three countries. What is the relationship between economic growth and political citizenship? Are these separate entities, or connected in fundamental ways? The issue of membership in the EU and NAFTA raises at least three important issues. First, it is important to keep in mind that the post-war construction of the European Union was first an economic reality (in the 1950s and 1960s) then a political one (in the 1970s and 1980s), and only now perhaps is becoming a cultural one (since the 1990s). NAFTA so far has been essentially an economic treaty. Second, the political dimension of the EU (born in the aftermath of WWII), which is based on the principle of solidarity, has been instrumental in the development of policies that have been critical in the process of economic and social convergence. This dimension is largely absent in NAFTA. Third, the EU includes free movement of people among member countries, as well as the notion of European citizenship (established in the Maastricht Treaty), as two of its cores. The inclusion of substantive immigration provisions in NAFTA (or at the bare minimum in a bilateral agreement with the United States) is still one of the key ambitions of Mexican governments.