you all uh thanks so much for joining us here today um it's it's really wonderful having
an opportunity to see so many friends from across our hemisphere together uh
virtually uh and uh we also look forward to the opportunities to get together uh in person
um there is uh no reason that the United States is more profoundly or personally connected to
than the Americas we have a hemisphere that's forever linked by Common Language
uh and geography by Incredibly Close bonds of family and community and by a shared focus on
advancing democracy so that we can deliver for our people when President Biden announced the
America's partnership for economic Prosperity at the summit of the Americas in Los Angeles last
June uh he did so recognizing that the countries in our region are stronger and better prepared
to seize opportunities for our people when we work together and I think we all recognize that
our cooperation is more important than than ever as we face in our hemisphere serious challenges
from covid-19 and its Economic Consequences to high food and energy prices exacerbated by
President Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine to enduring problems like a lack of broad-based
Economic Opportunity corruption chronic insecurity citizens in all of our countries across the region
are looking for their governments to address these shared challenges to deliver results so
that they're free to pursue a future that is full of opportunity uh and uh and hopefully prosperity
uh today we are excited to officially launch an ambitious High Standards Initiative that
will help us do just that and let me say here the America's partnership is just that
a partnership our governments have been in constant dialogue to shape the agenda we're
also Consulting closely with civil society with labor environmental groups the private sector
and we're committed to bringing a historically underrepresented groups to the table as well
the America's partnership will accelerate our shared work to strengthen Supply chains and
to make them more resilient to Future shocks so that the goods and products that our populations
rely on are affordable and available and workers rights are respected in the doing
it will deepen our cooperation on the clean energy transition conservation climate resilience helping
us share Technologies and best practices and boost public and private investment all while
creating good paying jobs it will reinvigorate and reform our regional Economic Institutions like
the inter-american development bank and deploy new financing tools to mobilize more investment
and focus on priorities like the climate crisis inclusive opportunity private sector development
the partnership will boost our long-standing trade and Commercial ties and work to bring the benefits
of sustainable inclusive responsible trade to all of our people which Ambassador Tai will speak more
about in just a moment finally it will help update what President Biden calls the basic bargain
what our citizens expect from their governments the America's partnership will explore how
all of us can support public Investments and innovations that make life better and fairer
for our communities creating opportunities for workers to earn a decent wage for children to get
a good education for women to enter or return to the workforce we'll continue to adapt the agenda
based on the needs of our populations changing circumstances in our region in the world and the
voices of the countries here and let me emphasize that the door to this partnership will remain open
open to any country that is willing to uphold our high standards and work toward our shared goals
this dialogue Marshals the strength the Ingenuity the diversity of an incredibly Dynamic region
we're 90 percent of the western hemisphere's GDP nearly two-thirds of its population
and as President Biden has said there is nothing we cannot do together so we're
very much looking forward to hearing from everyone today but not just today in the
months ahead about how we can make real our shared vision of the America's partnership
our people are looking to us to deliver and I'm confident that together we can
honor their trust with that said let me turn it over to Ambassador type Catherine