For the full background to this all-out assault on U.S. and Canadian liberty and sovereignty, see the astonishing and prophetic interview at http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/quinn-p.htm
Remember also, as you read the story below, that an agreed part of this current 'unity' process is the enforcement of a personal identity card requirement for every American and Canadian citizen.
A REGIONAL ALLIANCE
Mexico City
For all its bureaucratic faults, the European Union represents an important advance in the relations among nations, transforming once bitter and war-prone rivals into a model of cooperation, prosperity and community. The United States, on the other hand, blessed with two stable and peaceful neighbors, has no need for such a tight regional alliance.
Or does it?
The meeting last week among the three North American leaders - President George W. Bush, President Vicente Fox of Mexico and Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada - at Bush's Texas ranch may have represented the beginning of serious discussion of that question. In their joint statement, the participants said their goal was a "security and prosperity partnership" for the continent. This shows a recognition that an absence of military conflict is not a good enough reason to avoid tighter regional alliances, particularly in a globalizing world where competition comes not only from other nations, but increasingly from other blocs of countries.
After 50 years, the EU, once simply a trade area, has turned into a real political community, fostering peace and advancing the development of all its members. In contrast, by the time North Americans got serious about even limited continental cooperation, at the end of the cold war, it was enough to think solely in economic terms. Thus the North American Free Trade Agreement seemed sufficient to bring about prosperity and draw the continent closer together.
But 11 years after it came into effect, Nafta is clearly an insufficient response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the strengthening of the euro, the rise of China and many other major challenges. We need to shut off the automatic pilot under which the countries of North America have been flying for the last decade.
We must move beyond just managing trade and into constructing a new relationship that has four principal goals: enhancing security cooperation; further strengthening economic ties; closing Mexico's development gap; and, certain to be the most controversial, building an institutional architecture to bring a North American community closer to reality.
First, security: The rise of global terrorism shows the need for a safety perimeter around the continent. The Mexican and the U.S. governments are deeply troubled by intelligence reports that Al Qaeda might be laying plans for an attack across the southern U.S. border. But simply putting more guards in the Arizona desert won't keep America safe. In place of the inefficient borders between the countries today, we need a policy on a strong external continental border.
Each country would of course keep sovereignty over the edges of its own territory, but each would have to meet border security requirements agreed upon by all three parties to ensure there are no weak links. This wall around the continent would, in turn, allow us to make internal North American crossings more flexible; the European model, with its uniform visa requirements, is worth following.
As for the economic cooperation, even after Nafta, there are obvious points of contention - that trucks loaded in Mexico cannot be driven in the United States, that Canada cannot export soft lumber to the United States, and that Mexico will not accept fructose from the United States. Not only must we resolve these disagreements, we must find also a way to compete and win against both China and Europe.
A good starting point would be a shared customs union, with the three countries setting tariff policies in conjunction and protecting one another from improper trade practices by the rest of the world. In addition, the cumbersome "rules of origin" laws that affect products manufactured in North America with parts made elsewhere should be thrown out the window.
All three partners would gain by closing Mexico's development gap. Clearly Mexico itself must undertake reforms in terms of its energy, fiscal and labor policies, but it needs help. The poorer nations of Europe benefited for years from compensation funds - money given by the rich countries to be spent on roads, electricity grids, modernized farms and factories - that enabled countries like Ireland, Spain and Greece to join the 20th century. Now those former poor relations are important exporters and markets for their European neighbors, and their most enterprising workers are no longer desperate to emigrate. North America could profit from this model.
Finally, the key to all these goals is permanent three-party institutions. Meetings like the one last week should be made annual, and the nations' defense, justice and intelligence chiefs should also meet every year to develop a common plan to fight terrorism, drug trafficking and immigrant smuggling. In time, the idea would be to create a permanent commission with cabinet-level representatives from each country; it would be charged not only with firming up nuts-and-bolts agreements on trade and security, but also with working toward an eventual goal of a true North American union.
Undoubtedly, this level of cooperation would be a hard sell to Americans, who would assume they have the most to lose. But simply maintaining the status quo will not preserve U.S. dominance in a changing world. The Bush administration needs a bold approach for defending the country's economic future.
Maybe, just maybe, the men gathered at the Bush ranch could some day be seen as the founding fathers of the North American Community.
'How Canada Lost Its Rights And Liberties - And Few Cared!'
'How Britain Legislated Away 2,000 Years Of Rights And Freedom'
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