Free trade: The autumn showdown.

Reports that as the North American free-trade talks move toward agreement, the United States has a once-in-a-century chance to bind Mexico closer to the United States, economically, culturally and politically. How Mexico's President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has led his country to robust economic growth; Both Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and President George Bush have spoken of a free-trade agreement with Mexico; The implications of such an agreement.