Thank you to everyone who joined WITA as we discussed the importance of North American strategic economic and trade alignment, including the role USMCA can play in promoting American competitiveness, strengthening North America as a region, and combatting Chinese trade and industrial practices.

On Friday, June 13, WITA hosted a discussion panel addressing all these questions.

Featured Speakers:

Daniel Covarrubias, Ph.D., Director, Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development, A.R. Sanchez Jr. School of Business, Texas A&M International University

Glenn Hamer, President & CEO at Texas Association of Business

Meredith Lilly, Professor & Simon Reisman Chair in International Economic Policy, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University

Joshua Meltzer, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development; Lead, USMCA Initiative, Brookings Institution

Cesar Remis, Managing Director, Trade Envoy; former Head of Mexico’s USMCA Implementation Office

Moredator: Eric Farnsworth, former Head of the Washington Office of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society

Speaker Biographies 

Daniel Covarrubias is the Director of the Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development at the A.R. Sanchez, Jr. School of Business at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU). The essential purpose of the Texas Center is to provide support to private and public entities with research, knowledge, information, and assistance in border and binational socio-economic development efforts. The Center hosts the TAMIU Logistechs Living Lab, a research facility focused on improving the efficiency and competitiveness of cross-border trade and transportation through the use of exponential technologies. This living lab encourages participants to explore the potential of public-private partnerships to spur innovation and technological development in the logistics, supply chain, and international trade sectors.

Before his time at the Texas Center, he served as the Director of the Centro de Innovación Socieconómica y Tecnológica (Centro IST). At the Centro IST, he worked closely with businesses, ranging from SMEs to Fortune 500 companies, assisting these firms in identifying areas of opportunity to further their competitiveness and develop and grow new business models related to innovation and technological development within products, processes, and organizational structures.

Daniel sits on the Standing Committee on International Trade and Transportation of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Transportation Research Board (TRB), the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s (COAC) Working Group on Cross-Border Recognition, and the U.S.-Mexico Foundation C26+ Smart Borders Working Group. His research is centered on Cross-Border Regional Development, Clusters, Regional Innovation Systems, and Logistechs. Logistechs represent the impact that exponential technologies have on logistics and can be identified as those technologies that support the transport of goods, improve their handling, and expedite their customs clearance. Continuing to develop this concept will help companies identify and invest in the use of technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, warehouse robots, machine learning, predictive analytics, as well as autonomous vehicles, to name a few.

He is a leading voice on Logistechs, innovation, cross-border trade and transportation, and international trade, frequently contributing as an expert in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Texas Standard, and PBS.

Daniel completed his Ph.D. in Business Competitiveness and Economic Development from Deusto Business School in Spain and holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from TAMIU, a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and a Bachelors in Business Administration from Monterrey Tec.

Eric Farnsworth led the Washington office of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, with a passion for promoting the importance of the Western Hemisphere for U.S. economic, security, and strategic interests. A recognized expert, he maintains an important policy leadership and advocacy role across a broad range of issues, including U.S. relations, economic development, trade, and energy; Asia-Latin American relations and global governance; and security and democracy. He frequently consulted with senior U.S. government and foreign officials and private sector leaders and is a widely sought conference speaker and media commentator, and publishes regularly in leading newspapers and journals.

Prior to the Council, Mr. Farnsworth served in government with the U.S. Department of State, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and Clinton White House. He also worked with U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). His private sector experiences include ManattJones Global Strategies and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Corporation. He has been decorated by the Governments of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Spain, and is an elected Academic Correspondent of Uruguay.

Glenn Hammer is a torchbearer for the business community, Glenn Hamer has a proven track record of success in the public policy arena. During the 87th & 88th Texas Legislative sessions, Glenn led the TAB team to achieve numerous policy wins, including new economic incentives, community college finance reform, the establishment of business courts, regulatory consistency, and historic property tax relief. On his second day on the job, he testified before the legislature and made meaningful contributions to the passage of top legislative priorities for the business community, including broadband expansion, “Keep Texas Trucking,” pandemic liability protections, and preventing astronomical increases in Unemployment Insurance.

Under Glenn’s leadership, TAB launched an international relations division focused on furthering the Texas-Mexico relationship, as well as a litigation arm – the Texas Freedom Litigation Center. Glenn has made it his mission to meet with more chambers of commerce than anyone on the planet. He connects businesses, small and large, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to protect Texas’ pro-business climate.

Glenn came to TAB after 14 years as CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry, where he played a central role in major tax, education, legal, and healthcare victories. He was at the forefront of the business community’s advocacy for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Glenn is a highly regarded international issues expert and has joined governors, mayors, and the U.S. Chamber on trade missions to China, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Recognizing the global race for talent to keep our economy strong, Glenn is also a respected champion of immigration reform.

Glenn is proud to serve on the board of Texas BASIS, as Secretary for the American Society of Mexico, and as Treasurer of the National Immigration Forum. He is also a member of the U.S. District Export Council for Central Texas. Glenn has served as the past Chair of the U.S. Chamber’s Committee of 100 (CCC100) and is currently on its Board of Directors.

Meredith Lilly is a full Professor and Simon Reisman Chair in International Economic Policy at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Her research focuses on North American trade relations, Canada’s trade diversification strategy, economic sanctions, and the use of research evidence in policy making. Prior to her appointment at Carleton, she served as Foreign Affairs and International Trade Advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She was previously appointed at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, and has worked in policy roles in several Canadian government departments. She engages regularly with foreign governments and diplomats, and is a frequent media commentator on North American trade issues.

She is a member of CD Howe Institute’s International Economic Policy Council, a non-resident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, an Advisory Board member for the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, and serves as the Academic Partner for Canada’s delegation to the North American Forum.

Joshua Meltzer is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. His research focuses on international economic relations and the intersection of technology and trade policy. Along with Cameron Kerry, he co-leads the Forum on Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence (FCAI)—a multistakeholder dialogue with government officials from the U.S., EU, Canada, the U.K., Singapore, Japan, and Australia, as well as AI experts from industry and academia. He also leads the USMCA initiative, which focuses on how the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can strengthen international cooperation in North America.

Meltzer has testified before the U.S. Congress, the U.S. International Trade Commission, and the European Parliament. He was an expert witness in the Schrems II litigation in Europe on data flows and privacy and a consultant to the World Bank on trade and privacy matters. He is a member of the Australian government’s National Data Advisory Council and the OECD’s “Data Free Flow with Trust” expert community. Meltzer teaches digital trade law at Melbourne University Law School and has taught digital trade law as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Law School and ecommerce and digital trade at the diplomatic academy of the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Before joining Brookings, he was a diplomat at the Australian Embassy in Washington D.C. and prior to that an international trade negotiator in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Meltzer has appeared in numerous media outlets, including the Economist, the New York Times, CNN, Bloomberg, the Asahi Shimbun, and China Daily. He holds an S.J.D. and LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor and law and commerce degrees from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Cesar Remis is the Managing Director of Public and Government Affairs at Trade Envoy, LLC. Remis has over 25 years of international experience in the public and private sectors. He advises companies, governments, and international organizations on public and government affairs, regulatory issues, policy communications, market access, and trade policy and integration in the United States, Canada, and LATAM.

He has held various responsibilities in Mexico’s trade negotiation team and in the Mexican foreign service, including the position of Chief Trade Negotiator from 2019 to June 2021, where he led all ongoing trade negotiations and coordinated Mexico’s trade agenda in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He completed negotiations of the modernization of FTAs with the EU (2020), the UK (2020), and Singapore (2021), and of several sectoral annexes in the Pacific Alliance.

He was the Senior Official of Mexico (Mexico’s SOM) in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

(APEC) Forum and in the CPTPP, as well as the National Coordinator of Mexico in the Pacific

Alliance. He chaired the CPTPP Commission at the Senior Official level during Mexico’s Presidency of the Commission. Most recently, he headed Mexico’s Office for the Implementation of the USMCA in the United States.

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