Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Business & Economics Automobile Industry

Auto Pact

Creating a Borderless North American Auto Industry, 1960-1971

by (author) Dimitry Anastakis

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
Dec 2005
Category
Automobile Industry, North America
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802039033
    Publish Date
    Dec 2005
    List Price
    $69.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802038210
    Publish Date
    Nov 2005
    List Price
    $53.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442690516
    Publish Date
    Nov 2005
    List Price
    $43.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

Description

The 1965 Canada-United States Automotive Trade agreement fundamentally reshaped relations between the automotive business and the state in both countries and represented a significant step toward the creation of an integrated North American economy. Breaking from previous conceptions of the agreement as solely a product of intergovernmental negotiation, Dimitry Anastakis's Auto Pact argues that the 'big three' auto companies played a pivotal role - and benefited immensely - in the creation and implementation of this new automotive regime. With the border effectively erased by the agreement, the pact transformed these giant enterprises into truly global corporations.

Drawing from newly released archival sources, Anastakis demonstrates that, for Canada's automotive policy makers, continentalism was a form of economic nationalism. Although the deal represented the end of any notion of an indigenous Canadian automotive industry, significant economic gains were achieved for Canadians under the agreement. Anastakis provides a fresh and alternative view of the auto pact that places it firmly within contemporary debates about the nature of free trade as well as North American - and, indeed, global - integration. Far from being a mere artefact of history, the deal was a forebearer to what is now known as 'globalization.'

About the author

Dimitry Anastakis teaches history at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. A scholar of postwar Canada, his primary research examines Canada's role in the North American auto industry. He is the author of Auto Pact: Creating a Borderless North American Auto Industry, 1960-1971 (University of Toronto Press, 2005) and edited The Sixties: Passion, Politics and Style (McGill-Queens University Press, 2008. His work has appeared in various academic journals and magazines such as The Walrus.

Dimitry Anastakis' profile page

Awards

  • Winner, J.J. Talman Award - Ontario Historical Society