The Biden administration says 11 eleven countries in the Western Hemisphere have initially signed up into the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, in what officials called a “historic” initiative to drive economic growth and cooperation in the region.
“We view it as a historic new initiative to drive economic growth in the hemisphere, and tackle the core issues that will define the coming decades and galvanize greater economic cooperation in our hemisphere,” a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.
The group of countries joining the partnership — Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay — represent about 90% of the Western Hemisphere’s GDP and nearly two-thirds of its population. The United States has free trade agreements with nine of those countries.
