Wikipedia entry on SPP

From FreeWiki

Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, founded March 23, 2005 by the 3 executive leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States, was launched in response to fears that 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' buisnesses and citizens. Map of the SPP Map of the SPP Contents [hide]

   * 1 Stated goals and purpose
         o 1.1 The initial SPP Working Groups are as follows:
         o 1.2 The stated goals of the SPP are:
         o 1.3 SPP Trilateral Summit Meetings held to date are as follows:
         o 1.4 Upcoming SPP Trilateral Summit Meetings
   * 2 Criticism
   * 3 See also
   * 4 External links
   * 5 External links: criticism

[edit] Stated goals and purpose

Through the SPP, the sitting heads of state of the United States, and Mexico, along with the Prime Minister of Canada (a federal constitutional monarchy) 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 internal 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:

   * Manufacture 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
   * Immigration

These working groups are tasked with implementing the SPP as initiated by the North American Heads of State on March 23rd, 2005. will consult with stakeholders; set specific, measurable, and achievable goals and implementation dates; and 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 belief that prosperity is dependent on security, and claims that the three nations are bound by a shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions. It is intended to assist, rather than replace, existing bilateral and trilateral institutions like NAFTA and claims to work towards the three North American countries work cooperatively in the face of common risks and economic competition from low cost comulti-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. There is huge oposition to this sort of highway development from many members of communies it would potentailly displace as well as from many native groups and enviromentalists that often opose high way developments for the terrible damage caused to the enviroment and the extensive ammount of resources used.

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 claiming to fostering cooperation amongst the same entities. 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. Many people have been angered at the lack of transpaency and the hidden nature of these deals that effect so many people both inside and outside of the buisness community.

On June 15, 2006, SPP's North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), which consists exclusively of corporate CEOs from the three countries, met. 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 [1].

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

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 meant it was ignored by a vast majority of the public. It did, however, attract protesters who were concerned about excessive secrecy surrounding the event. Redacted meeting minutes of the meeting have now been obtained. [3]

[edit] Upcoming SPP Trilateral Summit Meetings

The State leaders of USA, Canada and Mexico are set to have a major trilateral summit meeting, in relation to the SPP, at the Château Montebello, in Montebello, Quebec, Canada, on August the 22nd, 2007. This conference is purported to be a public relations event with the purpose of promoting the SPP among investors and to "reassure" the public about the consequences of the plan[4].

[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 because SPP is meant to support discussions through existing channels that include elected people. Contrary to popular websites stating that the SPP announced in March 2005 is a formal agreement to merge North American countries with a common currency, the SPP is a non-legally binding process to discuss issues that could affect the security of the three sovereign North American countries when facing challenges from overseas or common threats, such as influenza that crosses borders irrespective of their status, and that could negatively affect health and trade in goods and services. Opponents believe that once the connections and integration negotiations are completed, the proponents will bring to congress an "already baked cake" for them to expedite legislation codifying the agreements.

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 hegemony 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 met with government reps from all three countries to discuss their proposals in September 2006.

On May 10, 2007, during the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, Conservative MP Leon Benoit, chair of the committee, came under scrutiny when he shut down the committee after the opposition overruled his decision to prevent a witness from testifying on the SPP's influence upon Canada.

[edit] See also

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

Related infrastructure projects:

   * North American SuperCorridor Coalition - Connecting Mexico City, Central United States, and Several Canadian Provinces
   * Trans-Texas Corridor - Connecting Mexico City and Northern Mexico and Texas
   * Puebla-Panama Plan - Connecting Panama City and Central America and Mexico City
   * Initiative for the Integration of South American Infrastructure - Connecting some parts of South America and Panama City

[edit] External links

   * Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America: SPP Home
   * Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, Canada
   * Alianza para la Seguridad y la Prosperidad en América del Norte
   * Goode: no union on continent
   * US Government Agency SPP Documents
   * Global Research
   * Update on Hearings at Trade Committee re SPP from NDP MP Peter Julian

[edit] External links: criticism

   * Action against the SPP
   * A Peek Behind Closed Doors
   * North American Union
   * The Plan To Disappear Canada
   * 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)
   * Website for informations on mobilisations against SPP summit in august 2007, Montebello, Québec"
   * From Green Party of Canada Website - Why We Need to Take a Closer Look at Continental Integration
   * Dr. Janet Eaton on SPP

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_and_Prosperity_Partnership_of_North_America"

Categories: NPOV disputes | 2005 in Canada | 2007 in Canada | 2005 in Mexico | Foreign relations of Mexico | Foreign relations of Canada | Health in Canada | Health in the United States | Health in Mexico | Environment of Canada | Environment of the United States | Environment of Mexico | Economy of Canada | Economy of the United States | Economy of Mexico | United States-North American relations | Economic geography | Terrorism | International organizations