The significant disparities in the size and strength of hemispheric economies make this a problem that must be considered by the smaller economies before undertaking the decisive move into the hemispheric free trade area. While free trade can bring with it significant benefits, it could be disastrous for the smaller economies if integration issues are not properly addressed. In reality, the best definition seems to be a combination of all these factors, and most smaller economies fall in the lower range of all of them. Conversely, a small group of countries dominates the hemisphere in these indicators. The five nations of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina can be found to have substantial economic advantages as compared to smaller states.
Smaller economies tend to be export-based with only one or two primary products.
Again, the five economies mentioned above are more diversified, and thus not as reliant on trade. They are the five nations with the lowest reliance on trade taxes in the Americas. On the other hand, it has been found that smaller economies suffer from substantial export dependence at high costs to the economy. All of this has led to the calculation of a vulnerability index for the countries of the Western Hemisphere. There is an almost perfect correlation between economic vulnerability and the size indicators mentioned above.