According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook Database, October 2009, NAFTA (United States., Canada, Mexico) regained the distinction of being the largest trading bloc in the world for 2009 by nominal and PPP GDP, and is projected to stay that way until at least 2014.
NAFTA: $16.451 trillion USD by nominal GDP and $17.279 trillion USD by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
EU: $16.190 trillion USD by nominal GDP and $14.851 trillion USD by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
This, despite the EU having a larger estimated population in July 2009 of 491,582,852 with the NAFTA-member countries at a population of 451,911,120.
[...] the U.S. sharing the longest undefended land border in the world, and being parties to NAFTA, the largest trade union in the world as of 2010, and most Canadians being exempt from US-VISIT fingerprinting and photographing procedures, unlike [...]