North American economic integration is characterized by deep structural integration. Many North American firms and industries have created complex cross-border production systems that build on regionalization specialization. The cumulative result of cross-border trade and investment is for most practical purposes an integrated economy. This degree of collaboration and complementarity between countries is unprecedented, a new system with levels of integration that often surpass that of the European Union. Building this North American economic system was very much a bottom-up process, driven largely by firms and markets. The flexibility of this process, with little government control, encouraged rapid economic growth and job creation.But we now confront limits to bottom-up growth. Further integration is blocked in some areas, while in others, patterns of interests and government policies create inefficiencies. We can no longer assume that spillover from economic integration will be automatic or efficient. Import tariffs were reduced and eliminated on many commodities, but other barriers continue to impede trade.In critical areas, and not only 9-11 border issues, but transportation infrastructure, energy, migration, trade-dispute resolution, regulatory harmonization and education--new public policy decisions are now required. What is needed, moreover, are not discrete national policies but rather some sort of North American solutions that appropriately reflect North American problems. The paper will look both at alternatives for such policies and at various means of arriving at policy decisions within the North American community. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]