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Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
Location map:
Member countries:  Canada  Mexico  United States

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) is a region-level dialogue with the stated purpose of providing greater cooperation on security and economic issues.^[1] The Partnership was founded in Waco, Texas on March 23, 2005 by Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada, Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, and George W. Bush, President of the United States.^[1] It is the second of such regional-level agreements involving the United States of America following the 1997 Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean (PPS).

Contents 1 Organization 2 Goals 3 Announced funding 4 North American Competitiveness Council 5 Trilateral summit meetings 6 Criticism 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Organization

The initial SPP Working Groups are the Manufacture Goods and 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, and Immigration. (Immigration is not currently listed as a working group on the SPP website.) ^[2]

These working groups are tasked with implementing the SPP as initiated by the North American Heads of State and of Government on March 23, 2005. They consult with stakeholders; set specific, measurable, and achievable goals and implementation dates; and issue semi-annual progress reports. A 24-month agenda is established to serve as a timeline milestone to have the initial framework fully developed.

[edit] Goals

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.

It is intended to assist, rather than replace, existing bilateral and trilateral institutions like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and claims to work towards the three North American countries working 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.

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 foster cooperation among the same entities.

[edit] Announced funding

On 26 February 2008, Canada's Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, announced his government's 2008 Budget, which includes "$29 million over two years to meet priorities under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America."^[3]

[edit] North American Competitiveness Council

The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) is an official tri-national working group of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). It was created at the second summit of the SPP in Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico, in March 2006. Composed of 30 corporate representatives from some of North America's largest companies, the North American Competitiveness Council has been mandated to set priorities for the SPP and to act as a stable driver of the integration process through changes in government in all three countries.

[edit] Trilateral summit meetings

To date, the following summits have occurred:

• March 23, 2005 - Baylor University, Waco, Texas, United States^[1]

A video of the Waco SPP Trilateral Summit News Conference is available online. ^[4]

• March 31, 2006 - Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Meeting between Mexican President Fox, Canadian Prime Minister Harper and U.S. President Bush. A U.S. White House press release regarding the Cancun SPP Trilateral Summit is available online. ^[5]

• February 23, 2007 - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

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 been obtained and posted online. ^[6]

• August 20 - August 21, 2007 - Montebello, Quebec, Canada

The leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico had a major trilateral summit meeting, in relation to the SPP, at the Château Montebello, in Montebello, Quebec.^[7] This conference was described as a public relations event with the purpose of promoting the SPP among investors and to reassure the public about the consequences of the plan. ^[8] A protest during the event led to controversy, when labour leaders identified three masked, rock-wielding individuals as disguised police officers and accused them of disguising themselves as demonstrators in order to incite violence.^[9] Footage of the clash was shown on Youtube and attracted significant media attention; the Quebec Provincial Police subsequently admitted that the individuals in question had been police officers in disguise, but denied any attempts to incite violence. ^[10]

• April 21 - April 22, 2008 - New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

In his 2008 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush announced that a summit on the SPP would be held from April 21 - April 22, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana. According to the White House, the summit focused on improving the SPP initiatives and on discussing "hemispheric and global issues of importance to North America".^[11]

[edit] Criticism

In 2006, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs argued that the SPP is part of a plan to merge the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a North American Union similar to the European Union,^[12] which has been referred to in other news reports as "mythical" and a "conspiracy theory".^[1] Dobbs claimed at the time that US President Bush, who left office on January 20, 2009, was to have bypassed Congress and ultimately create a Union based on a Texas highway corridor.^{[citation needed]} One variation of this theory was that President Bush would declare a state of emergency to avoid leaving office, which, in fact, never came about; on January 20, 2009, his successor, Barack Obama, who has openly voiced misgivings about NAFTA, the predecessor to SPP, let alone SPP itself, took office as US President.

The Council of Canadians claims that the SPP extends the controversial "no fly list" of the USA, makes Canadian water a communal resource, and forces Canada and Mexico to adopt the USA's security policies - one of which would allow foreign military forces to neglect sovereignty in the case of a "civil emergency". In addition, it also touches on the issue of Albertan tar sands expansion to five times its current size.^[13]

On May 10, 2007, Conservative MP Leon Benoit, chair of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, prevented University of Alberta professor Gordon Laxer from testifying that SPP would leave Canadians "to freeze in the dark" because "Canada itself – unlike most industrialized nations – has no national plan or reserves to protect its own supplies" by saying Laxer's testimony was not relevant, defying a majority vote to overrule his motion, shutting down the Committee meeting, and leaving with the other three out of four Conservative members; the meeting later continued presided by the Liberal vice-chair.^[14] After these disruptions, the National Post reported on a Conservative party manual to, among other things, usurp Parliamentary committees and cause chaos in unfavourable committees.^[15][16] The New Democratic Party has also criticized SPP for being undemocratic, not open to Parliament, and opaque.^[17] New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton described the process as not simply unconstitutional, but "non-constitutional", held completely outside the usual mechanisms of oversight.^[18]

Some thirty US-based organizations also sent an open letter to Congress on April 21, 2008 criticizing the secrecy and lack of any sort of democratic oversight:

"What differentiates the SPP from other security and trade agreements is that it is not subject to Congressional oversight or approval. The SPP establishes a corporate/government bureaucracy for implementation that excludes civil society participation. ... Facing a worrisome pact pushed forward in secrecy, it is time for Congress to halt this undemocratic approach and establish a process based on openness, accountability, and the participation of civil society.^[19]

[edit] See also

• Canada – US Civil Assistance Plan signed on February 14, 2008
• North American Free Trade Agreement
• Independent Task Force on North America
• North American currency union (the currency of which is often called the "Amero")
• North American Competitiveness Council
• North American Aerospace Defense Command
• North American Union
• Robert Pastor

Related infrastructure projects:

• North American SuperCorridor Coalition - Connecting Mexico City, Central United States, and Several Canadian Provinces
• Trans-Texas Corridor - Superhighway connecting Northern Mexico with Texas.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America – Information by the United States government
• Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America – Information by the Canadian government
• (Spanish) Alianza para la Seguridad y la Prosperidad en América del Norte – Information by the Mexican government
• US Government Agency SPP Documents obtained by Judicial Watch via FOIA
• From NAFTA to the SPP from Dollars & Sense magazine
• Building a North American Community – report detailing how to improve upon the SPP

v • d • e Trilateral relations of Canada, Mexico, and United States Enacted Treaties North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation  · North American Free Trade Agreement Projects and working groups Independent Task Force on North America  · Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Theorized projects North American currency union  · Trans-Texas Corridor (NAFTA superhighway)  · North American Union Canada-Mexico relations  · Canada-United States relations  · Mexico–United States relations