Subject: Brookings North American Trade Update
From: Bruce Katz <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Cc: Marikka Green <[email-masked]>, Elizabeth Patterson <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 20:25:00 +0000

Dear John,

It was good to see you at the White House several weeks ago.  As we discussed, my team has been doing a lot of work recently on city to city trade links, as part of the Global Cities Initiative<http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/global-cities> (GCI).  Our new Metro North America report and interactive<http://www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/2013/metro-north-america>, released last month, offers the first-ever analysis of production and trade among cities and metropolitan areas in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. This has implications for how states and regions think about regional economic strategies, especially in industry clusters, innovation, skills, and trade.

Acting on this research, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and México City Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera announced a new partnership<http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Programs/metro/gci%20mexico/GCEP%20CHI%20MEX%20MOU_FINAL.pdf> last month to strengthen and formalize the economic ties between México City and Chicago. This is the new standard for international city-to-city cooperation and it is already making headlines<http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1114-chicago-mexico-20131114,0,2647877.story>. Over the next year, my team will work with both cities to help execute the agreement.

I hope you find this of interest given the upcoming anniversary of NAFTA and the major trade negotiations underway.

All the best,

Bruce