Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America

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The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, founded March 23, 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico and the United States, was born in response to what some see as the evident necessity for the North American continent to take new steps to address the threat of terrorism and to enhance the security, competitiveness and quality of life of their countries' citizens.

Contents 1 Stated goals and purpose 1.1 The initial SPP Working Groups are as follows: 1.2 The stated goals of the SPP are: 1.3 SPP Trilateral Summit Meetings held to date are as follows: 2 Criticism 3 See also 4 External links 5 External links: criticism

[edit] Stated goals and purpose

Through the SPP, the heads of state of the United States, Canada, and Mexico seek to:

• Establish a cooperative approach to advance in common security and prosperity.
• Promote economic growth, competitiveness, and quality of life.
• Develop a common security strategy to further secure North America, focusing on:

• Securing North America from external threats.
• Preventing and responding to threats within North America.
• Streamlining the secure and efficient movement of legitimate and low-risk traffic across shared borders.

[edit] The initial SPP Working Groups are as follows:

• Manufactured Goods & Sectoral and Regional Competitiveness Working Group
• E-Commerce & ICT Working Group
• Energy Working Group
• Transportation Working Group
• Food & Agriculture Working Group
• Environment Working Group
• Financial Services Working Group
• Business Facilitation Working Group
• Movement of Goods Working Group
• Health

These working groups are tasked with implementing the SPP vision as initiated by the North American Heads of State on March 23rd, 2005. The working groups will consult with stakeholders; set specific, measurable, and achievable goals and implementation dates; and identify concrete steps the governments can take to achieve these goals. An initial report is due to Heads of Government on June 23 with semi-annual progress reports thereafter. A 24-month agenda is established to serve as a timeline milestone to have the initial framework fully developed.

[edit] The stated goals of the SPP are:

• Cooperation and information sharing
• Improving productivity.
• Reducing the costs of trade.
• Enhancing the joint stewardship of the environment, facilitating agricultural trade while creating a safer and more reliable food supply, and protecting people from disease.

The SPP is based on the principle that prosperity is dependent on security, and recognizes that the three nations are bound by a shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions. It is intended to complement, rather than replace, existing bilateral and trilateral institutions like NAFTA and is a small step toward ensuring that the three North American work cooperatively in the face of common risks and economic competition from low cost countries. Representatives from the three governments regularly consult on their agenda and discuss recommendations from non-governmental organizations and the private sector, including through such documents as the one published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) "Creating a North American Community" whose views represent the private sector. Such views remain non-binding for governments. The CFR Chairmen's Statement was issued ahead of the Waco Trilateral SPP Summit held in Waco Texas on March 23rd, 2005, and was thus brought to the attention of government representatives. Other non-governmental and non-binding recommendations to governments include the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) "Building a North American Community"Task Force Report #53, issued May 2005. These reports express the CFR's opinions as to how the North American Community should be realized, but do not represent the governments' position. The reality of North America is characterized by government partners that remain far apart on their policy positions. Other private sector reports that have been confused as SPP official documents include the Fraser Institute report on a North American currency which the Institute called the Amero [1]. Cable News Network CNN journalists have occasionally confused such private sector reports with government positions, announcing the Amero as the future currency for North America. Such reports invite questions on the responsibility for accuracy in media reporting and the role of the media in democracy.

Complete reports from the SPP including details on all initiatives are available at www.spp.gov [2].

The idea that NAFTA countries could have a more integrated transportation system has been discussed by States in the central U.S. for years although it is not included in SPP initiatives. A number of media have reported this initiative as contrary to the position of strong labor groups that include the Teamsters.

“NAFTA Superhighway" International Mid-Continent Trade Corridor

“Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn. Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman's Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation's most modern highway straight into the heart of America.”

Ref: Jerome R. Corsi, Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway (Rense, 2006) [3]

NASCO "North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc."

The Corridor includes: the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario; the American states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas; and the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Colima, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Estado de Mexico, and Mexico City.

Promoting this effort is the North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., (NASCO), a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America.

NASCO has received $2.5 million in earmarks from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan the NAFTA Super Highway as a 10-lane limited-access road (five lanes in each direction) plus passenger and freight rail lines running alongside pipelines laid for oil and natural gas. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is overseeing the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) as the first leg of the NAFTA Super Highway.

North American Facilitation of Transportation, Trade, Reduced Congestion & Security (NAFTRACS) is a three phase pilot project designed to focus on business processes and information as freight is transported from buyers to sellers. The project is intended to create a partnership between businesses and local, state, and federal governments, while fostering cooperation amongst the same entities. The pilot project will use actual freight shipments moving through the I-35/29/80/94 trade corridor. This project will engage voluntary industry participants who will allow actual freight shipments to be tracked and monitored for location and condition of freight. Various federal and state DOT participants will have access to the appropriate and necessary information as necessitated by the pilot project concept of operations rules and methodology. Business processes, systems architecture and data flow will comply with World Customs Organization’s (WCO) “Framework of Standards” to further facilitate North American trade and transport. [4]

See further: Memorandum of Understanding – Amalgamation of NAITCP and NASCO [5]}

BACKGROUND: SELLING OUT AMERICA: North American SuperCorridor Coalition and more... by Vicky Davis Friday, Jul. 21, 2006 [6]

North American Competitiveness Council

Thanks to the investigative work of Dr. Jerry Corsi, we have learned that SPP's more than 20 working groups are already quietly operating in the NAFTA office in the U.S. Department of Commerce, which refuses to reveal the groups' members because, in the words of SPP spokesperson Geri Word, the Bush Administration does not want them "distracted by calls from the public." Corsi discovered in June 2006 that SPP issued a "Report to Leaders" on June 27, 2005 that shows SPP's extensive interaction with government and business groups in the three countries.

On June 15, 2006, SPP's North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), which consists exclusively of corporate CEOs from the three countries, met to "institutionalize the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the NACC, so that the work will continue through changes in administrations." The role of the NACC is limited to providing recommendations to governments through reports that are made public by a number of groups including the Council of the Americas [7].

Ref: Pursuing the 'North American' Agenda (EagleForum, VOL. 40, NO. 2 SEP2006) [8]

See further: Kansas City SmartPort

"CANAMEX Trade Corridor (jpg)"

"NAIPN - North American Inland Ports Network" (a sub-committee of NASCO)

[edit] SPP Trilateral Summit Meetings held to date are as follows:

• Baylor University, Waco Texas, March 23rd, 2005.

• Here is video of the Waco SPP Trilateral Summit News Conference held after the leaders met.

• Cancun Mexico, March 31st, 2006. Meeting between U.S. President Bush, Mexico President Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Harper.

• Here is U.S. Whitehouse press release regarding the Cancun SPP Trilateral Summit.

• As announced by a Media Advisory released on the 16th of February by the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the latest Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) Ministerial Meetings was held in Ottawa, Canada in the Lester B. Pearson Building on the 23rd of February 2007. The meeting went almost unpublicized by local and national media outlet, and its narrow timeframe of announcement made it ignored a vast majority of the public, although it still attracted a small group of protesters.

[edit] Criticism

The SPP has received some criticism from commentators within the United States, such as CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, Phyllis Schlafly, and Human Events Magazine, on the grounds that they believe it will lead to an erosion of U.S. sovereignty. In particular, they have expressed concern over position papers of the Council on Foreign Relations, which they perceive as advocating policies which would lead to integrated continental court systems and currency.

It should be noted that this issue has not been addressed by the United States Congress or the Supreme Court.

In Canada, criticism of the SPP has come from left-wing organizations such as the Council of Canadians and Common Frontiers. Like U.S. conservatives, these groups are concerned with the complete absence of public involvement in trinational discussions whose goal, they say, is the "deep integration" of Canada with the United States. But the Canadian criticism has more to do with the emphasis on deregulation and harmonization of standards implicit in the SPP. The Council of Canadians has argued that this push towards economic union "will lead to the privatization of [Canada's] health care, the loss of control of our resources, further compromises in trade deals like what we have seen with the United States-Canada softwood lumber dispute."

Canadian criticism has also been directed at the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), a committee made up of 10 CEOs each from Mexico, the United States and Canada, which has been asked to reduce the over 300 recommendations in the SPP down to about 30 achievable goals. NACC members include CEOs from Wal-Mart, Chevron, Lockheed Martin, FedEx, General Electric and Ford, among others. Of the ten Canadian CEOs on the NACC, nine are members of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the driving force behind the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Canadian representative on the trinational Task Force on the Future of North America, whose recommendations led to the creation of the SPP.

The NACC will meet with government reps from all three countries to discuss their proposals in September 2006.

[edit] See also

• North American Free Trade Agreement
• Independent Task Force on North America
• American currency union (sometimes called the "Amero")
• Mexifornia
• North American Competitiveness Council
• Robert Pastor

[edit] External links

• Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America: SPP Home
• Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
• Alianza para la Seguridad y la Prosperidad en América del Norte
• Goode: no union on continent
• US Government Agency SPP Documents
• Global Research

[edit] External links: criticism

• North American Union
• Stop the Security and Prosperity Partnership
• Building a North American Community, the Selling of America
• Phyllis Schlafly Article
• An Anti SPP/NAU Discussion Forum
• North American Union to Replace USA?
• The Plan to Replace the Dollar With the 'Amero'
• President Quietly Creating 'NAFTA Plus'
• North American Union Already Starting to Replace USA
• Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway
• Taxpayer dollars support U.S.-Mexico merger plot
• Welcome to "North America"
• Deep impact: Corporate chief executives plan “deep integration” with the USA (Part 1) (Part 2)