By MARGARET FELDSTEIN

en years ago, Latin America wasn't registering on the radar screen of Canada's top diplomats. Indeed, it wasn't until 1990 that the second richest country in the Americas even chose to become a member of the Organization of American States. And if Canadians seemed diffident about the hemisphere, the reverse was also true: Latin America in general thought Canadians were simply cold-weather Yankees.

How times have changed. In the past five years, Canada has signed free-trade deals with Mexico and Chile and eight foreign-investment-protection agreements with Latin American countries. In March, Canada signed a pact on free trade and investment with five Central American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. High-profile actions like Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy's 1997 visit to Cuba have shown Latin America that Canada will maintain an independent stance on delicate issues regardless of adverse American reaction (or in discreet co-operation with the U.S. on even more delicate issues, such as policing Haiti). Most important, Canadian exports to Latin America jumped nearly 13% during the first half of 1997 (the latest year for which figures were available), and experts predict even greater gains for 1998.

The most visible sign of Canada's commitment to the hemisphere has been Prime Minister Jean Chretien's flying trade circus, Team Canada. In January the jaunt packed more than 500 businessmen and provincial premiers into two jumbo jets, which hopped from Mexico to Brazil, Argentina and Chile, signing 91 deals worth more than $163 million on one day alone. Quebecor Printing will soon own 50% of Peru's largest publishing company; Nova Gas International will build a 530-km-long gas pipeline across the Andes; and Barrick Gold is opening a $567 million gold mine north of Lima. "It's not much of an exotic country to us anymore," says Chilean trade consultant Eugenio Tironi.

At a meeting of economy ministers in San Jose, Costa Rica, Canada was chosen to chair negotiations for the first 18 months of talks toward the hemispheric Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and it was through Canadian lobbying efforts that small countries like Nicaragua and Barbados gained chairmanships of FTAA working groups. "The Canadians aren't just promoting trade down here," says a high-ranking Mexican official. "They're also promoting more democracy."

The honeymoon phase of the relationship with Latin America is not without skeptics, however. Mexican feathers were ruffled last October when Canadian Ambassador to Mexico Marc Perron ventured that he thought he knew everything about corruption until he came to Mexico. (Perron was subsequently transferred.) Some policymakers note that Canada may be only temporarily out from under the U.S.'s shadow. "Canada right now has the vanguard role [in trade negotiations] because of fast-track problems in the U.S.," says Jean Daudelin, project director at the Ottawa-based Canadian Foundation for the Americas. "Once the real negotiation starts, Canada won't have much weight there." Knowledgeable Canadians doubt that. "There's a shared understanding that it's not always the easiest relationship to manage, having such a large and dynamic and powerful neighbor," says Peter Donolo, Chretien's press spokesman. Whatever comes next, Canada is enjoying the spotlight--and the Latin sun.

--Reported by Sheldon Alberts /Ottawa and Tim Padgett /San Jose