Rights and Political Integration in Europe and the Americas.

This paper compares integration efforts in Europe - focusing on the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) - and the Americas - focusing on the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the Central American Common Market (CACM), the Andean Union, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), and the Union of South American Nations (Unasur). Europe has achieved a high level of integration, backed by rights guaranteeing the four freedoms: free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. The achievement of these freedoms is a lengthy and ongoing process driven not only by economic rationales but also by the desire to create a common, supranational political community. Such a desire appears weak or nonexistent in regional integration efforts in the Americas. Most notably, the key freedom for individuals central to European integration - free movement of people - has been almost entirely absent in the Americas. The lack of this freedom inhibits further integration along the European model but need not prohibit other varieties of integration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]