The Economic Growth program launched the North America Competitiveness Initiative this year, an exciting effort to promote the economic...
The Economic Growth program launched the North America Competitiveness Initiative this year, an exciting effort to promote the economic competitiveness of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Two major components of this initiative are the North America Working Group and the North America Competitiveness Scorecard.
The North America Working Group
In September, the Bush Institute convened the first session of the North America Working Group to analyze areas where the U.S., Canada, and Mexico can improve economic integration and develop policy proposals that will address these areas. Comprised of academics, business leaders, government officials, and thought leaders from each country, the Working Group identified three areas we can address to strengthen North America: energy, border infrastructure, and human capital. The Working Group will continue to develop policy proposals in 2016 and plans to release a set of specific policy proposals in the spring.
The North America Competitiveness Scorecard
In November, the Working Group convened again in conjunction with the second major component of the North America Competitiveness Initiative—the North America Competitiveness Scorecard. The Scorecard shows the economic competitiveness of the North American region relative to the rest of the world. In particular, the Scorecard found that, as a group, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. outperform the world’s other major regions, including the EU, Mercosur, and APEC.
North America earns a B+ on the Scorecard—weighted by GDP, North America gets an A. Only three economies outperform North America—Singapore (A+), Hong Kong (A+), and Germany (A).
Far from popular rhetoric, the U.S. and North America are not uncompetitive with the rest of the world. In fact, China scores only a D and Russia a D+. The Bush Institute partnered with the Dallas Morning News to launch the Scorecard in November 2015.
Below is a clip of President Bush’s remarks at the Scorecard unveiling.
