Nation-states in continental markets: The political geography of free trade

Until recently, free trade has been an underexamined topic in the field of political geography. This article argues that neoclassical conceptions of political geography separate economic from political processes and therefore ignore the geopolitical consequences of economic policies. Discourse theory is used to show how the pretensions of value-neutrality 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 economic nationalism in England in the 19th century and economic continentalism in 20th-century North America. Free trade enhanced national sovereignty in the 19th century and reduces sovereignty in the late 20th century. A case study of the consequences of Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement on Canada is used to buttress this argument.