In the decade following the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, economic and political relations between Canada and Mexico have expanded significantly. Today, Canada and Mexico are each other's third largest trading partners and, outside of the United States, Mexico is the second largest tourist and business destination for Canadians.

In the face of increasing competition from Asia, Canada and Mexico need to strengthen their economic competitiveness by leveraging their comparative advantages more effectively. In a multi-polar world, Canada and Mexico have an opportunity to utilize their North-South partnership to provide leadership on the pressing issues of our time, such as climate change, transnational crime, and global crisis management. In Canada Among Nations, 2011-2012 a leading group of Canadian, Mexican, and American academics, policy makers, politicians, journalists, and energy and climate change experts offer substantive recommendations for Ottawa and Mexico City to realise the full potential of their strategic relationship.

Canada Among Nations is the premier source for contemporary insight into pressing Canadian foreign policy issues. This volume continues that tradition by providing students, policy makers, and business people with a timely compendium of expert opinion on Canada-Mexico relations.

Alex Bugailiskis is a senior official at the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and former ambassador to Cuba.

Alex Bugailiskis' profile page

Andrés Rozental has a lifetime appointment as Eminent Ambassador of Mexico and is a Senior Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Andrés Rozental's profile page

"This year's Canada Among Nations provides a collection of excellent reasons why the Canada-Mexico relationship is so important for both countries and for North American global competitiveness. For too long has our mutual preoccupation with the United States allowed our nations to overlook the potential for closer ties between us. The Mexican, Canadian and American authors in this compendium are persuasive proponents of why both governments urgently need to continue building on our 'unfinished agenda.'" Jorge Castañeda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico