OPINION By ÁLVARO SANTOS Part of an ongoing series from the Wilson Center* The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was born from a threat and a promise. The threat was to eliminate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) altogether despite the huge regional market it helped create. The promise was to make that market more beneficial to the United States, and,
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By EARL ANTHONY WAYNE, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico
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OPINION By ANTONIO ORTIZ-MENA Part of an ongoing series from the Wilson Center* It is striking that, more than a quarter century after the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) entry into force, it is still necessary to provide a business case for deeper North American cooperation on economics and beyond, but that is where we are. After the 1989 Canada-U.S.
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By KELIN DILLON On Tuesday, July 5, an editorial by the New York Times’ Natalie Kitroeff and Maria Abi-Habib revealed that the United States has purportedly lost faith in its appointed ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, and reportedly believes that the diplomat has exhibited a repeated pattern of favoring Mexico and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) policies over
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OPINION By GOLDY HYDER Part of an ongoing series from the Wilson Center* Just like the covid-19 virus, the devastating effects of climate change know no borders. Flooding, forest fires and other extreme weather-related natural disasters are now regularly wreaking havoc on communities across North America. The costs of these catastrophes are measured not only in dollars and pesos, but in
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OPINION By IÑIGO FERNÁNDEZ BAPTISTA Part of an ongoing series from the Wilson Center* In 2006 — more than 16 years ago — in the midst of the bird flu, Jeffrey Staples published an article in Harvard Business Review stating that a pandemic could become the single greatest threat to business continuity. That prediction took solid form with the covid-19 pandemic
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OPINION By CARLOS PASCUAL Part of an ongoing series from the Wilson Center* General Motors stated in November 2021, just seven months after announcing plans to invest $1 billion in electric vehicle production in Mexico, that “Mexico won’t be a destination for foreign investment” unless it provides a solid legal basis to “meet our objective of having zero emissions in the
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OPINION By EARL ANTHONY WAYNE and DIEGO MARRQUÍN BITAR Friday, July 1, will mark the second anniversary of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The first two years look promising, but it is not yet clear if the outcomes will be sufficient to retain public and political support when the agreement is reviewed in 2025-26. Given the USMCA’s economic importance for
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OPINION By GUILLERMO E. JASSON Part of an ongoing series from the Wilson Center* As some of China’s competitive advantages erode, North America (NA) has an opportunity to reposition itself as an attractive alternative to the Asian giant to manufacture for local and international companies. This repositioning could attract foreign investment, create jobs and stimulate economic growth in NA, improving the
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OPINION By COLIN ROBERTSON Part of an ongoing series from the Wilson Center* Like globalization and the rules-based multilateral order, the North American idea risks falling victim to larger geopolitical forces. But even in the absence of energetic political leadership, we can still make progress, by building on existing initiatives, to the mutual benefit of all three nations, Canada, the
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