During her trip to Canada, U.S Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker attended the fourth North American Competitiveness and Innovation Conference (NACIC) in Toronto. The conference provided a chance for the Secretary to meet with her Canadian and Mexican counterparts to discuss ways to strengthen the North American platform, which will create jobs, economic growth and long-term prosperity for workers, families, and businesses in all three countries. 

In meetings throughout the day, Secretary Pritzker, Canadian Minister of International Trade Ed Fast, and Mexican Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal talked about areas of potential collaboration that will help make North America the most competitive place in the world to do business. 

This is the second time Secretary Pritzker has attended NACIC. Last year, the three countries agreed to work on a constructive agenda to strengthen their trade and economic relationship and pledged to continue helping businesses grow and American workers succeed through enhanced regulatory cooperation, and coordinated efforts to facilitate increased trade through many initiatives, including the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. 

Since last year, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico have achieved progress in several tangible areas by promoting the advantages of investing in North America, continuing to foster an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation; and improving the efficiencies of cross-border trade and travel. 

This year, Secretary Pritzker, Minister Fast and Secretary Guajardo talked about additional areas of cooperation that will help them add to the success that has already been achieved, and build upon the continent’s many competitive advantages. Joint investment promotion – or promoting investment into North America from countries outside the continent – will continue to be a focus. Since 2003, nearly 14,000 projects have been announced in North America by outside parties, representing $724.8 billion in capital investment. 

Additionally, by the end of 2014, Canada, Mexico and the United States will each have hosted business and government leaders from the other countries to share knowledge and best practices about innovation incubators, technology accelerators, and how public-private partnerships can revitalize economic regions. With many business and regions still recovering from the global economic slowdown, these innovative exchanges are important to ensuring that new business creation can lead to future growth.   

Given our interconnectedness and the sheer amount of co-production that takes place throughout North America, it is paramount that borders also operate safely and efficiently through the North American supply chain. All three countries are working to improve efficiencies and lower costs for North American travelers and businesses and are reducing border wait times through trusted trader and trusted traveler programs.  

The three leaders agreed on several new areas for cooperation, including broadening support for entrepreneurs, especially women; analyzing and leveraging the future of economic data to enhance commercial and economic competitiveness; and creating a process to engage on promoting cybersecurity practices throughout the commercial sector that can apply across country boundaries.