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Bush Institute Launches a North America Competitiveness Scorecard

While there is a lot of rhetoric surrounding the status of the U.S. economy, it can be difficult to delineate fact from fiction.  In response...

While there is a lot of rhetoric surrounding the status of the U.S. economy, it can be difficult to delineate fact from fiction.  In response to this, the George W. Bush Institute developed the North America Competitiveness Scorecard

The goal here is to measure the strength of our economy and highlight where policy reforms in the Canada, Mexico or the U.S. could make the North American partnership still more competitive.  Through benchmarking our competitiveness against other large trading blocs, we begin the conversation of focusing policy attention on ways to compete more effectively in the global marketplace.

Our findings show that North America is more economically competitive than any other trade group in the world.  The Scorecard results also indicate that in order to continue leading the global economy, there are needed reforms to keep North America competitive, able to innovate, create jobs and grow.  Policies that strengthen this relationship are vital to ensuring that we remain a world-beating economic force.

With this perspective, the North America Initiative is an important opportunity to correct misperceptions and lead the debate in all three countries, but especially in the U.S., in a more positive direction than we have seen. 

The North America Competitiveness Scorecard per the Dallas Morning News:

What it is: An interactive website to be unveiled today at the George W. Bush Institute.  It combines a range of data for 101 nations to determine a composite measurement of economic freedom and competitiveness.

How North America compares: By its measurements, the Bush Institute grades North America ahead of all other world trading blocs at a B-plus.  It’s followed by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation bloc and the European Union, which both got Bs, the Pacific Alliance with a C-plus and the Mercosur nations of South America with a D-minus.

The United States gets an ‘A’: It excels in higher education and training, financial market development, innovation and labor market efficiency, the scorecard says.  Meanwhile, it lags in financial responsibility because of our relative indebtedness.

Canada gets an ‘A’: It does well in the areas of primary education, property rights protections, credit and labor markets and financial stability, but it lags in innovation and technology transfer and “is hampered by cumbersome business regulations.”

Mexico gets a ‘C’: Our southern neighbor rates high on ease of obtaining credit and freedom to trade internationally but needs to improve rule of law and reduce corruption, the Bush Institute says.