In December, 1990, U.S. President George Bush Sr. travelled through South America to sell the continent ona bold new dream: "a free-trade system that links all of the Americas." Addressing the Argentinecongress, he said that the plan, later to be named the Free-Trade Area of the Americas would be "ourhemisphere's new declaration of interdependence . . . the brilliant new dawn of a splendid new world."