NAFTA and Cross-Border Relations in Niagara, Detroit, and Vancouver

International audienceFirst, does free trade, and particularly economicintegration, lead to a process of functional interdependency and to cross-border linkages inNorth America? Second, do politics and institutions mediate this process? Specifically, howdoes the intergovernmental network linking local, regional, provincial/state, and federal institutionsmediate this process and impact local level initiatives? To investigate these questions, this work focuses on cross-border relations in three metropolitanborder areas: the Canadian-American border regions of Niagara-Niagara, Windsor-Detroit, and Vancouver-Seattle. This study takes a Canadian perspective and thus primarilyfocuses on Canada, Ontario, and British Columbia, and on Niagara, Windsor, and Vancouverand their border regions. The findings presented in this paper suggest that economic integrationmay lead to cross-border institution building when borderland communities also share the samevalue system