NATION-STATES IN CONTINENTAL MARKETS - THE POLITICAL-GEOGRAPHY OF FREE-TRADE

Until recently, free trade has been an underexamined topic in the fiel d of political geography. This article argues that neoclassical concep tions of political geography separate economic from political processe s and therefore ignore the geopolitical consequences of economic polic ies. Discourse theory is used to show how the pretensions of value-neu trality and objectivity embedded in neoclassical trade theory obscure the inherently geopolitical consequences for countries engaged in free trade. A review of trade theory from the time of Adam Smith and David Ricardo to the present show that free trade theory does not represent a universal social scientific law with predictable outcomes. Rather, free trade is a specific foreign policy that was used to promote econo mic nationalism in England in the 19th century and economic continenta lism in 20th-century North America. Free trade enhanced national sover eignty in the 19th century and reduces sovereignty in the late 20th ce ntury. A case study of the consequences of Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agre ement on Canada is used to buttress this argument.