Economic integration succeeds fastest when partners share a common culture

Evidence

In Latin America, economic associations —Mercosur, the Andean Pact, the tripartite pact (Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela), the Central American Common Market —take on a new life, reaffirming the point demonstrated most graphically by the European Union that economic integration proceeds faster and further when it is based on cultural commonality. At the same time, the United States and Canada attempt to absorb Mexico into the North American Free Trade Area in a process whose long-term success depends largely on the ability of Mexico to redefine itself culturally from Latin American to North American. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 339

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Champagne Fairs law-merchant material — both about how shared cultural/relational context lowers the cost of trade institutions.
• SEED: A possible essay: NAFTA framed as a cultural-redefinition project (Mexico redefining itself as North American) rather than purely a trade agreement — what cultural conversion costs are embedded in trade deals.