By striking free-trade agreements with Colombia and Peru, "Canada is taking a leadership role in the logical and inevitable move toward freer trade," writes Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin.

"Canada should accept the reality that Mexico is likely to become a much more significant player in North America," writes journalist David Crane. In Embassy, he highlights the reasons why Washington pays an increasing amount of attention to its southern neighbor as well as growing Mexican-Canadian trade ties.

COA’s Director of Energy Policy Nicole Spencer says building a hemispheric energy partnership would be “smart politics” for the Obama administration. Cooperation on energy and climate change issues now could pave the way for enhanced regional relations.

AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini writes in El Diario/LaPrensa that during Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva’s White House visit he advocated for the continued flow of free trade to confront the global economic crisis, a stance removed from Lula’s political beginnings as a trade union leader. (en español)

"The United States must recognize the truism that our nation’s own security and economic strength is intrinsically tied to a stable and prosperous Mexico," writes the former ambassador to Mexico. Fully funding the Merida Initiative is a critical priority.

“We’re all in this together, and if we act in a coordinated and thoughtful manner, we’ll be able to get out of it together” writes COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth for Poder magazine. At this time of financial crisis, he suggests revitalizing the trade agenda to boost economies across the Americas.

Writing in the Financial Times, President and CEO of Citibank and AS/COA Chairman William R. Rhodes urges countries to reject protectionism and lend support to multilateral institutions in the face of "the most serious economic and financial crisis in [his] more than 50 years of banking."