At the end of the 1980s, the Americas became an important laboratory for new trade negotiations. Debates about trade liberalization were not, however, unknown to the region. The idea of free trade between the United States and Canada was over a century old when the two countries signed their free trade agreement in 1989. Similarly, the history of Latin America is punctuated by failed attempts to fulfill what many saw – at least rhetorically – as its “historical calling,” that is, to become united as one country. The first round of attempts at integration in the nineteenth century – some of which included the United States -collapsed under the weight of geographical distances, the power of caudillos (local strongmen), and the differing interests of the subregions.

A second round of attempts to integrate the region began in the 1950s, as part of a development strategy that aimed at industrializing Latin America. Between the 1950s and the mid-1980s, the United States and Latin America pursued antagonistic trade policies. Whereas in the United States the years following the Second World War inaugurated a period of trade liberalization, in Latin America this was the age of protectionism. Both of these strategies were influenced by the Cold War. In the United States, free trade was perceived as an important part of its anticommunist strategies, whereas in Latin America protectionist policies were considered a key tool in reaching autonomous economic development.