The Absurd Report

Deep integration between Canada and the United States is not a theory or a fear � it is a reality. For several years now, a plethora of task forces, working groups, commissions, coordinating committees and cross-border consultations have been operating to harmonize Canada-U.S. programs and procedures. This has led to an incremental and systematic harmonization of Canadian and American regulations and standards governing health, food safety, and all aspects of the environment.

This harmonization process has been central to the demands of the big-business community in Canada. They contend that the only way to secure trade across the border and continued access to the U.S. market is to merge trade and border policies, including all regulatory, environmental and inspection systems. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), an organization that lobbies the government on behalf of Canada�s largest corporations, argues that because the economies of the two countries are now so integrated, our domestic laws are essentially redundant.

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Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Report to Leaders
June 2005

On March 23, 2005, you announced the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. At that time, you instructed Ministers to create an architecture which would further enhance the security of North America while at the same time promote the economic well-being of our citizens and position North America to face and meet future challenges. This effort builds on the excellent, long-standing relations among our three countries. The response to your request is attached.

In carrying out your instructions, we established working groups under both agendas of the Partnership – Security and Prosperity. We held roundtables with stakeholders, meetings with business groups and briefing sessions with legislatures, as well as with other relevant political jurisdictions. The result is a detailed series of actions and recommendations designed to increase the competitiveness of North America and the security of our people. While the Security and Prosperity agendas were developed by separate teams, we recognize that our economic well-being and our security are not two separate and distinct issues. In that spirit, we have worked together to ensure that the appropriate linkages are made between security and prosperity initiatives.

Upon your review and approval, we will once again meet with stakeholders and work with them to implement the workplans that we have developed. We will also encourage them to continue to provide us with new ideas and proposals which will help shape our forward agenda and our vision for North America.

To make North America secure for the future, we need integrated, coordinated and seamless measures in place at, within, and beyond our borders to provide our people and our infrastructure with the highest possible common level of protection from terrorists and other criminal elements, as well as from the common threats of nature.

To make North America prosperous for the future, we need to improve the efficiency of the movement of people, goods and services crossing our borders. We must remove barriers to trade, investment, research and education. We must protect our environment and promote the health and safety of our people.

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The driving force behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America?
Building a North American Community:
Report of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America

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Task Force Members

JOHN P. MANLEY is senior counsel at McCarthy T�trault LLP. He has held several senior portfolios in the Canadian government throughout his 15 years of public service including Industry, Foreign Affairs, and Finance as well as being Deputy Prime Minister. Following 9/11, he was named Chairman of the Public Security and Anti-terrorism Cabinet Committee and, in that capacity, negotiated the Smart Border Agreement with U.S. Secretary for HomelandSecurityTomRidge .

PEDRO ASPE is CEO of Protego, a leading investment banking advisory firm in Mexico. Mr. Aspe was most recently the Secretary of the Treasury of Mexico (1988�94). He has been a professor of economics at ITAM and has held a number of positions with the Mexican government.

WILLIAM F. WELD is a principal at Leeds Weld & Co., a private equity investment firm in New York. Previously Mr. Weld was elected to two terms as Governor of Massachusetts (1991�97), served as Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice in Washington , DC(1986�88), and as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusettsduring the Reagan administration (1981�86).

THOMAS P. D’AQUINOIS is, Chief Executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), composed of 150 chief executives of major enterprises in Canada. A lawyer, entrepreneur, and business strategist, he has served as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Canada , and adjunct professor of law lecturing on the law of international trade. He is the Chairman of the CCCE�s North American Security and Prosperity Initiative launched in 2003.

ANDRES ROZENTAL is President of the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales. Mr. Rozental was a career diplomat for more than 30 years, having served his country as Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1995�97), Deputy Foreign Minister (1988�94), Ambassador to Sweden(1983�88), and Permanent Representative of Mexicoto the United Nations in Geneva(1982�83). During 2001, he was Ambassador-at-large and Special Envoy for President Vicente Fox.

ROBERT A. PASTOR is the Director of the Center for North American Studies, Vice President of International Affairs and Professor at AmericanUniversity . From 1977 to 1981 he was Director of Latin American Affairs on the National Security Council. He has a Ph.D. in government from HarvardUniversityand is the author or editor of 16 books, including Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old Worldfor the New.

CHAPPELL H. LAWSON is a Project Director of this Task Force, as well as an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT, where he holds the Class of 1954 Career Development Chair. Before joining the MIT faculty he served as Director for Inter-American Affairs on the National Security Council.

Source: Council On Foreign Relations

Part I was on line yesterday