April 23, 2024, 11:00-12:00 CST
Tiffany Melvin, J.D., is President of North American Strategy for Competitiveness, Inc. (NASCO) NASCO is a tri-national coalition of governments, businesses and educational institutions driven by a common interest in collaboration along key freight and commercial trade networks. Founded in 1994, NASCO encourages North America’s competitiveness in the global marketplace. NASCO is dedicated to informing and advancing the critical role that the supply chain, logistics, trade, and a skilled workforce play in the economic growth and competitiveness of North America. Tiffany has led NASCO for 27 of its 30 years – first as the Executive Director of NASCO, and then as its President. Tiffany is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, holding a BBA in International Business, with minors in Marketing and Spanish. She received her Juris Doctor degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio in 1995 and is a certified mediator and arbitrator.
Speaker presentation
Bottlenecks and Bridges: North American Infrastructure for the next 30 Years
The deep economic relationship among Canada, Mexico, and the United States relies in large part on the region’s physical and digital infrastructure. Those connections and systems, however, have failed to keep up with growing trade in goods and services and new re- and nearshoring policy priorities. Left unaddressed, these gaps limit the region’s competitiveness and undermine security. In this session, two leading experts on North American trade will assess the state of the region’s infrastructure three decades after NAFTA came into force, as well as offering visions for what is needed to maintain the region’s edge during the next 30 years. Carlo Dade will examine how the region’s approach to infrastructure, characterized by a short-term focus, has led to many of the problems we see today. The region’s deeply integrated supply chains and production networks cannot be improved without better data, systems intelligence, and management capacity—facets of cooperation where other regions are a step ahead. Dade will propose an innovative solution for joint planning and funding of regional infrastructure—crucial if North America is to regain a competitive edge. Tiffany Melvin will discuss how North America’s bottlenecks are not just those involving physical connections; they are also political and regulatory. The emergence of digital infrastructure projects along major US transcontinental corridors provides a source of lessons to be learned. Finally, Dade and Melvin will each emphasize how turning North America’s bottlenecks into bridges can be achieved through greater coordination and joint planning.