The Benefits of Free Trade

Abstract

Free trade, although national and international in scope, is nevertheless a topic of particular importance to the economy of the Southwest. As the Federal Reserve District sharing the border ith Mexico and Latin America and located near the center of the proposed North American Free Trade Area, we hope to provide a forum for discussion of North-South trade issues and the implications of trade liberalization in the Western Hemisphere. By the same token, while the topic is legitimately Southwestern, or even Texan, it is entirely appropriate that it be national and international in scope because the time is ripe for Texas, and this region, to look outward.