The North American imperative

As the existence of regionally oriented collaborations of Canadian and U. S. sub-national governments, such as the Pacific Northwest Region and the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers4 exemplifies, different economic and security payoffs are available in specific sectors and geographic areas. [...] And as the benefits of a liberal order have induced more countries to join it, the rising number of voices and diversity of interests at the table is making multilateral negotiations unwieldy, and diluting the public-good payoffs for any single member. [...] Globalization and Deeper Economic Integration Declining transport and communication costs, lower traditional trade barriers, and the growing variety of goods and services that people produce and consume, are increasing the scale and scope of the benefits of exchange in intermediate goods and services, labour, capital and technology. [...] At the same time, administrative economies of scope make the border a convenient line of defense in the face of such threats as disease and unsafe food — a more important consideration in the United States, which has to deal with two borders and neighbours at different stages of development and standard- setting. [...] Not the least of these is the fact that normal growth in the Canadian and U. S. economies and in the trade between them continually presses against the limits of existing road and rail lines — both truck and rail crossings were some 50 percent more numerous in 2002 than in 1994.