National Competitiveness

Please join ITIF for an important policy conference on what U.S. policymakers must do to prevent America from suffering a catastrophic defeat in its techno-economic-trade war with China. At stake are vital production capabilities in the advanced, traded-sector industries that provide the foundation for economic strength and national security in the 21st century.

While the Draft Guidelines generally and correctly focus on condemning only behavior that results in anticompetitive effects, in several specific respects they could be fine-tuned to provide for greater administrability and better limit false positives so as to ensure that innovation and competition flourish in Canada.

Letting Chinese EV and battery firms build in America wouldn’t revive manufacturing. It would reduce U.S. market share, hollow out domestic capabilities, and create new strategic dependencies.

U.S. higher education plays a central role in science and engineering R&D, yet investment in these fields has declined over the past decade. This erosion threatens the future of U.S. technological leadership and its ability to compete with China.

Davos made clear that many “allies” would rather denounce the United States and chase access to Chinese markets than bear the burdens required to sustain the Western alliance and democratic system.

A recent paper finds that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in which a public company acquires a private company have more positive innovation outcomes than do public-public acquisitions.

Treating cars like canola is not strategy. Using industrial platforms as bargaining chips for commodity access risks locking Canada into a permanently resource-heavy economic structure, one in which manufacturing capacity cannot be easily rebuilt and its absence reshapes the economy for decades.

Trade is not an end in itself; it is a tool the U.S. should use to build allied power and constrain the CCP. We must move beyond trade agreements toward comprehensive strategic partnerships.

Competitiveness in the global space economy should be a priority for the United States, but ineffective regulations weigh down the American commercial space industry. While last year’s executive order was a good start, additional regulatory reforms are necessary to address key roadblocks to U.S. space capabilities.

South Korea’s record $700 billion in exports in 2025 is an achievement. But relying on a narrow set of export champions while limiting imports and domestic productivity will not deliver durable prosperity. Korea must pivot toward economy-wide productivity growth.