Making the Grade

Have you ever wondered how your country or trade group stacks up against the rest of the world?

With its Scorecard tool, the George W. Bush Institute synthesizes respected third party sources to benchmark the performance of countries and trade groups on key categories, including business climate, openness to trade, investment environment, macroeconomic environment, legal system and property rights, health and education, innovation, and good governance.

In 2016, North America receives a B+, outperforming other trade groups such as the EU, which gets a B, and Mercosur, which only achieved a D-. This year, the Bush Institute Scorecard added a section on integration, which measures how trade and investment expanded after NAFTA, and how that affected growth in GDP, employment, and the competitiveness of the North American manufacturing.

Here’s a fun fact you can uncover using the tool: In 1990, Mexico bought about 7 percent of total U.S. exports of goods. By 2015, Mexico remains one of our best customers but now buys nearly 16 percent of U.S. exports.