America is facing a significant skills shortage with nearly seven million job openings, many of which are middle class jobs, and not enough Americans with the right skills to fill those jobs. A majority of these job openings require training beyond high school but not a college degree, a trend that is expected to continue in the decades ahead.

One of ALI’s key policy pillars is that U.S. global policies should lead to inclusive and sustainable trade at home and abroad. Tariffs are a regressive tax that hit the poorest American consumers the hardest. At the same time, the highest tariffs U.S. are typically on textiles and agriculture products, which tend to be the main exports of the world’s poorest countries. The current penchant for increasing tariffs disproportionally hits disadvantaged groups both at home and abroad.

Robert M. Perito and Ambassador Donald J. Planty recently published a new report on United States rule of law assistance, entitled Frontier Justice” A New Approach to U.S. Rule of Law Assistance. The report is focused on U.S. aid to three categories of states in crisis that are important to U.S. national security interests: (1) the northern-tier states of Central America—Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras—that are experiencing extreme levels of organized criminal violence;

North America faces an alarming skills gap that will negatively affect the economic performance an competitiveness of the United States, Canada and Mexico, as they prepare to embark on the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA). Simultaneously, all the countries are facing rapid  economic and technological transformations. This set of challenges calls for priority investment in the development of the continent's workforces.