A mid-November conference in Montreal surrounding the signing of an alliance between six southeastern U.S. states and seven central and eastern Canadian provinces was aimed at furthering business ties between the regions.

“This is a business-driven forum,” Quebec's premier, Jean Charest, said during a press conference following the signing ceremony, which was held Nov. 16 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Montreal. Although there is a similar alliance with northeastern U.S. states, he said that that relationship is mostly political while this one is to be primarily commercial.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, who was praised by Mr. Charest as the prime mover of the alliance based on the success the Southeast has had in its 30-year alliance with Japan, said that new agreement underscored the business-savvy decision to "enhance relationships with...

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If China allows more international competition for goods and resists protectionism within its borders, the benefits of the country’s breakneck economic growth will be spread more evenly throughout its society, a U.S. special economic envoy to China said in Atlanta Nov. 29.

“In my judgment, the greatest risk to China's long-term economic security is not that China opens too fast, but, rather, that protectionists prevail, and Chinese reforms proceed too slowly,” Ambassador Alan Holmer told a roomful of experts and businesspeople at the Southern Center for International Studies’ Buckhead facility....

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