NAFTA is often cited as a model for what broader regional trade area that could include most Western Hemisphere nations?

• A. Trans-Pacific Partnership
• B. Mercosur
• C. European Union
• D. Free Trade Area of the Americas

Answer: (D)

NAFTA shows how a regional agreement can aggressively lower barriers, liberalize trade, and create predictable rules across borders, boosting cross-border commerce and investment. The idea of expanding that approach into a hemispheric framework would bring in most Western Hemisphere nations and extend similar liberalization, rules, and dispute mechanisms across North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. That broad vision is the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would build on NAFTA’s model to create a single market across the hemisphere. The other options target different regions or blocs (Asia-Pacific, a South American bloc, and Europe), so they don’t fit the idea of a Western Hemisphere-wide expansion.