James, I don't think we should mention free trade and NAFTA in the same sentence. NAFTA is what we used to call a customs union - a term that may have gone out of fashion. Perhaps we shouldn't mention free trade without the prefix 'unilateral'. Free trade is not a result of political arrangements - as are customs union. Rather it is the deliberate decision of a country to abandon restrictions on imports. It's not even an economic policy. Trade has been normal throughout the history of Man. On the other hand, protection - the deliberate restriction of imports - is indeed an economic policy, or at least a political policy though nowadays the distinction is often unclear. How the simple exchange of goods has become of the years a matter of global negotiations might be an interesting part of the history of economics. Harry Pollard