If all goes according to plan, the entire North American continent will become a free trade zone devoid of tariffs, quotas, and other trade barriers some time during the 1990s. This plan is the result of recent agreements and discussions involving the United States and Canada on the one hand and the United States and Mexico on the other.

Canada. Canada and the United States are already each other’s largest trading partners. In 1986, for example, the U.S. accounted for 71 percent of Canadian merchandise trade (exports plus imports); Canada accounted for 19 percent of U.S. trade. In 1988, a historic document was signed, the Canada-United States Free-Trade Agreement.

In many respects, this event seems a natural consequence of long-standing friendship, common economic interests, and geographic proximity. Nevertheless, it took more than a century to reach agreement. In the mid 1800s, after Great Britain repealed the Corn Laws, Canada proposed bilateral free trade with the United States, and a limited treaty covering natural products only was signed. However, it was abrogated during the Civil War by the United States because of close Canadian-British ties and British support for the Confederacy. After more than a century of fluctuating sentiments on the issue, the 1988 agreement finally eliminates all bilateral tariffs (in stages to be completed by 1998) and all quantitative trade restrictions. The agreement, it was thought, would particularly boost trade in agricultural products (fruits, vegetables, poultry),mining products (coal and oil), and services (banking, computer, insurance, professional and telecommunications services, plus retail and wholesale trade). Both countries expected net gains between $1 :and 3 billion per year.

Mexico is the third largest U.S. trading partner, accounting for 5 percent of U.S. exports plus imports (Canada and Japan account for 19 percent each); the U.S. accounts for two-thirds of Mexico's foreign trade.

In 1987, the United States-Mexico Framework Understanding put in place the first procedures ever for consultations regarding trade and, investment relations between these two countries. The mechanism was set up to resolve disputes and to negotiate the removal of trade barriers as supplement to GATT. In early 1991, genuine free trade discussions were set in motion and soon joined by Canada. The goal was the creation of a hemispheric free trade zone reaching from the Yukon to the Yucatan and encompassing a market of over 360 million people.

Analysts foresaw major gains associated with increased specialization and trade. They also predicted major adjustment costs in the United States where low-skill jobs would be lost to thousands of low-wage assembly plants now clustered along the U.S.- Mexican border, while high-skill jobs ranging from architecture to engineering and telecommunications would get a noticeable export boost. Another likely consequence is that the future rise in real wages south of the border would slow the flow of illegal aliens into the United States.

49. The main idea of this passage is that _________.
A. the new North American free trade zone will likely have many benefits for the countries involved
B. the United States has made great contributions to the establishment of free trade zones
C. a North American free trade zone will give the United States significant advantages in its trade with Japan
D. free trade zones will prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States

50. The details given in the underlined sentences in Paragraph 2 _________,
A. emphasize the important role the United States played in the world trade
B. provide evidence supporting a tentative conclusion
C. illustrate how a free trade zone has worked in the past
D. add believability to the statement that Canada and the United States are important trading partners

51. The author's likely purpose in this passage is to __________.
A. convince                B. evaluate 
C. argue for something     D. criticize

52. As used in line 5 Paragraph 3, the word abrogated means _______
A. abolished            B. abridged 
C. ignited suddenly     D. ended formally