North America must be a high priority for the new Biden Administration. President Biden understands well the issues, having devoted considerable time to the region as Vice President. The Biden team should re-organize structures to take full advantage of the opportunities from North American cooperation as well as to resolve problems. 

Relations with the United States’ two neighbors are quintessentially “intermestic” – they embody challenges and opportunities that are simultaneously domestic and international.  Whether one considers trade, investment, jobs, competitiveness, homeland security, the environment, migration, illegal drugs, pandemics, terrorism or many other issues, Mexico and Canada are vital for the United States. President Joe Biden, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, should take full advantage of Biden’s arrival to rebuild confidence and establish cooperative work agendas on key economic and security issues. 

This policy brief is part of our series "Re-Building a Complex Partnership: The Outlook for U.S.-Mexico Relations under the Biden Administration." The policy briefs will be released individually and published as a volume in early 2021.