Today the Chamber-affiliated Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA) is hosting its annual Miami Meeting, with representatives of the hemispheric business community flying in to discuss next steps for our pro-jobs, pro-growth business agenda for the Americas.

These include approving new trade agreements, promoting the rule of law, protecting intellectual property, and advancing trade facilitation to make the flow of commerce faster and cheaper. That spells jobs — for Americans and for our neighbors.

The dimensions of U.S. trade and investment across the Americas are often overlooked. Despite Asia's economic boom over the past decade, the nations of the Western Hemisphere are by far the largest market for U.S. exports — and they are our fastest growing market, by a large margin.

Our Western Hemisphere neighbors purchased 42% of all U.S. exports in 2008, while Asia and Europe each purchased 25%. In the past decade, total U.S. trade with our Western Hemisphere neighbors grew by a blistering 250% — or twice as much as U.S. trade with Asia or Europe!

Not only are our hemispheric neighbors critical for American business — American business is critical for them. U.S. companies have invested more than $250 billion in Latin America and the Caribbean, a sum more than five times as large as U.S. investments in China. This includes nearly $100 billion that U.S. firms have invested in Mexico and $40 billion in Brazil. And that doesn't include the $220 billion U.S. firms have invested in Canada, or the nearly identical sum coming the other way.

Across Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. companies employ nearly 2.5 million people. But we estimate that business with our hemispheric neighbors boosts U.S. companies that employ ten times as many American workers. How did this come about? First, our free trade agreements have proven to be a critical competitive advantage for American companies.

NAFTA helped triple our trade with Canada and Mexico to nearly $1 trillion. Among the beneficiaries are the more than 100,000 small and medium-sized companies that export to Canada and Mexico.

The FTA with Chile allowed U.S. firms to quadruple their exports to that country in just five years. Thanks to the still new CAFTA-DR agreement, U.S. trade with Central America and the Dominican Republic has increased by over 50%, to about $50 billion.

We are certain that, once approved, the trade accords with Colombia and Panama will also bring significant benefits to citizens on both sides of the Caribbean. The business community's commitment to their approval is strong and undiminished.

Generating employment is just one way American businesses are doing good across the hemisphere. First and foremost, they are doing good by doing business — with integrity and a commitment to excellence.

But we also see the commitment of American business in the remarkable outpouring of support for Haiti in its hour of need. According to the U.S. Chamber's Business Civic Leadership Center, 299 U.S. companies have contributed more than $122 million for disaster relief, including cash and in-kind contributions. 49 companies have donated $1 million or more.

America needs to strength its commercial ties all around the world — but clearly, doing business right here in our own neighborhood is a great place to start.