(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - People in the United States are polarized when they think about international commerce, according to a poll by Opinion Research Corporation released by CNN. 46 per cent of respondents think foreign trade is an opportunity to export more products into the global market, while 45 per cent think it represents a threat to their country’s economy due to increased foreign imports.

In 1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) brought Mexico into the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the U.S. that had been in place since 1989. A proposal to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)—encompassing 34 countries in North, Central and South America—has been debated for the past decade.

In May 2004, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua agreed to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the U.S. The Dominican Republic followed suit in August. The deal has been implemented in all countries except for Costa Rica, where people ratified it via referendum this month.

In January, the Democratic Party took control of both houses of Congress. The Democrats, who have traditionally held a more skeptical stand towards free trade than the Republican Party, have ordered a review of several bilateral commerce agreements that were negotiated by the U.S. over the past few years.

On Oct. 6, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee approved a free trade deal with Peru, but the final ratification by the entire legislature is still pending. Agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea have not yet been officially sanctioned by the U.S. Congress.

On Oct. 23, the administration of U.S. president George W. Bush urged lawmakers to approve trade deals in Latin America, warning that the anti-American sentiment promoted by the current Venezuelan president could increase. State undersecretary Nicholas Burns said that failing to ratify the pending agreements "will embolden someone like Hugo Chávez to think that he can make hay out of that crisis, and it will be a crisis if the free trade agreement does not pass."

Polling Data

What do you think foreign trade means for America? Do you see foreign trade more as an opportunity for economic growth through increased U.S. exports or a threat to the economy from foreign imports?

Source: Opinion Research Corporation / CNN
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,212 American adults, conducted from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14, 2007. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

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