Economic integration in the Pacific region — which includes the United States, Canada and Mexico — is rapidly occurring, primarily as a result of intra-regional capital flows. Private-sector business opportunities between the west and east coasts and the northern and southern rims of the Pacific region are stimulating ever-larger flows of goods, services, capital, technology, and people among these economies.

Seven trends in the world economy are likely to strengthen these regional business relationships. They are: (1) the evolution of US-Soviet relations from conflict to co-operation, (2) the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, (3) the reversal of the "locomotive" role of the United States, (4) the ascendancy of Japan as the world's banker, (5) the econornic integration of Europe, (6) the economic integration of North America, and (7) the declining relevance of the GATT. However, a regional trend, the growing friction between Japan and the United ...