NEW YORK -- The coming years should see greater economic and law enforcement cooperation among the United States and its neighbors to the north and south, according to a report presented Tuesday at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The council's Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, which includes former government leaders from Canada, the United States and Mexico, is recommending the establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community with a common external tariff and a common security perimeter.
"It's important for all three governments to commit themselves to security within that zone," said task force member John Manley, Canada's former finance minister. "We think that there should be a North American border pass, a card that we can use to enter each of the three countries without going through the normal procedures for questioning either at airports or at the borders, with a biometric identification."
Task force members said there has been economic growth in the 11 years since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement but more must be done to bring Mexico - in particular southern Mexico - up to the level of its neighbors.
"If you look at the trilateral vision, you see Canada and the U.S. expanding, the northern half of Mexico expanding and converging and the center and the south of Mexico being left behind," said Pedro Aspe, Mexico's former finance minister. "NAFTA, by increasing the capacity and the incomes of the northern part of Mexico, has increased the disparity. And that we have to recognize."
The task force report said the United States and Canada should establish a North American Investment Fund to encourage private capital flow into Mexico.
Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld said Mexican poverty contributes to illegal immigration to the United States and Canada but the answer is not to clamp down on immigration - it is to boost Mexico's economy.
-"If we have major geographic areas within our continent that have a tremendous lack of economic opportunity, we found that that is going to produce instability - economic, political and social," Weld said. "The way to address that issue is not to build a fence like the Berlin wall. It's to solve the problem."
He said there should be a North American preference that would make it easier for employers to recruit across borders within the continent.
The Council on Foreign Relations, founded in 1921, is a nonpartisan center for scholars dedicated to helping members and policymakers better understand the world and governmental policy choices, according to its Web site. The council has headquarters in New York and an office in Washington, D.C.
New York - A leading foreign policy research group based in New York says Canada, Mexico and the United States must work together to make North America competitive with rising European Union and Asian nations.
The privately-funded Council on Foreign Relations task force says the future of North America would be stronger, safer and more competitive if the three nations were to institutionalize their partnerships. But the task force says it is not setting out to create a North American version of the European Union. "There is no interest in North America to replicate the European experience. We don't want to create large, supranational institutions that are as intrusive as that of Europe. On the other hand, we did feel that some lean institutions are essential," said Robert Pastor, the director for North American Studies at American University in Washington, who served as the task force's vice-chairman.
Chief among those proposed institutions is an annual North American Summit, similar to the meeting held by the three governments in Texas last March. The task force also calls for a North American Council, advocating the region's best interests. "Hopefully the three leaders would turn to this North American council and say 'Look, we're getting wonderful advice on what our governments should do but we're not getting very good advice on what we should do about North America as a whole. Why don't you prepare a plan for us on education on agriculture, on the environment, that we could consider that even as we consider the advice of our governments,'" Mr. Pastor said.
On the trade front, the task force is urging the governments to create a commission to develop a common approach to trade remedies, and a tribunal to settle trade and investment disputes.
Mr. Pastor says in the 11 years since the start of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the United States, Mexico and Canada have done a superb job of integrating. "Indeed, If you measure integration as intra-regional trade as a percentage of world trade, North America after one decade is as integrated as Europe is after five decades," he said.
The task force proposes more labor and trade mobility within North America. John Manley, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada who has negotiated border agreements with the United States, says this can be achieved by thinking of the three nations as belonging to the same zone of security. "The key one is to think in terms of a security perimeter surrounding a zone of security. We make the point that it is important for all three governments to commit themselves to security within that zone and thereby alleviating the need to build barriers at our mutual borders," he said.
The task force also proposes a North American border pass for easier movement between the nations, and a "North American preference" that would allow North American citizens to work anywhere in the region with far fewer restrictions that other immigrants. This would require reversal of the current U.S. policy calling for restrictions on travel in and out of the United States.
The task force also calls for the creation of an investment fund aimed at narrowing the development gap between Mexico and its northern neighbors.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States, Canada and Mexico should establish a common security perimeter to guard against terrorism in North America, a tri-national independent task force said in a report released on Tuesday.
The countries should police their borders together to help border trade, allow easier movement of citizens and to keep out potential security threats, the task force said at New York's Council on Foreign Relations.
"If our two borders, the one between Canada and the United States and the U.S. and Mexico, became a frontline for security the impact that would have on normal relations and economic relations would be profound," said co-chairman John Manley, a former Canadian deputy prime minister and minister of finance.
The task force was sponsored by private groups in each of the three countries including the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, and there was no indication that governments would act on the proposals.
The report, titled "Building a North American Community," also called for free movement within the continent for citizens through a North American Border Pass with biometric identifiers and other measures to increase economic and military cooperation between the countries.
William Weld, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, and Pedro Aspe, former finance minister of Mexico, were the other co-chairmen of the task force, comprised of over 20 experts from government, business and academia.
Manley contrasted the scrutiny of goods flowing between Canada and the United States with a lax attitude to imports arriving at shipping ports.
"As I told my one-time U.S. counterpart (U.S. Homeland Security chief) Tom Ridge once, 'You inspect a grain car entering the U.S. from Saskatchewan closer than you do container traffic coming into the United States from the Middle East.' And I think that's still the case."
Other recommendations included improving labor mobility, developing an energy strategy with greater emphasis on reducing harmful emissions and establishing an investment fund to build infrastructure to connect Mexico's poorer regions in the South to the market of the North.
New York - A leading foreign policy research group based in New York says Canada, Mexico and the United States must work together to make North America competitive with rising European Union and Asian nations.
The privately-funded Council on Foreign Relations task force says the future of North America would be stronger, safer and more competitive if the three nations were to institutionalize their partnerships. But the task force says it is not setting out to create a North American version of the European Union. "There is no interest in North America to replicate the European experience. We don't want to create large, supranational institutions that are as intrusive as that of Europe. On the other hand, we did feel that some lean institutions are essential," said Robert Pastor, the director for North American Studies at American University in Washington, who served as the task force's vice-chairman.
Chief among those proposed institutions is an annual North American Summit, similar to the meeting held by the three governments in Texas last March. The task force also calls for a North American Council, advocating the region's best interests. "Hopefully the three leaders would turn to this North American council and say 'Look, we're getting wonderful advice on what our governments should do but we're not getting very good advice on what we should do about North America as a whole. Why don't you prepare a plan for us on education on agriculture, on the environment, that we could consider that even as we consider the advice of our governments,'" Mr. Pastor said.
On the trade front, the task force is urging the governments to create a commission to develop a common approach to trade remedies, and a tribunal to settle trade and investment disputes.
Mr. Pastor says in the 11 years since the start of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the United States, Mexico and Canada have done a superb job of integrating. "Indeed, If you measure integration as intra-regional trade as a percentage of world trade, North America after one decade is as integrated as Europe is after five decades," he said.
The task force proposes more labor and trade mobility within North America. John Manley, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada who has negotiated border agreements with the United States, says this can be achieved by thinking of the three nations as belonging to the same zone of security. "The key one is to think in terms of a security perimeter surrounding a zone of security. We make the point that it is important for all three governments to commit themselves to security within that zone and thereby alleviating the need to build barriers at our mutual borders," he said.
The task force also proposes a North American border pass for easier movement between the nations, and a "North American preference" that would allow North American citizens to work anywhere in the region with far fewer restrictions that other immigrants. This would require reversal of the current U.S. policy calling for restrictions on travel in and out of the United States.
The task force also calls for the creation of an investment fund aimed at narrowing the development gap between Mexico and its northern neighbors.
This article uses material from VOA.
New York -- A trinational task force has unveiled a series of recommendations to help Canada, Mexico and the United States strengthen North American competitiveness, expand trade and ensure border security.
Members of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, which was coordinated by the Council on Foreign Relations, discussed a detailed set of proposals that build on the recommendations adopted by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and U.S. President Bush at their trilateral summit in Texas during March. The task force's recommendations are intended to provide specific advice on how the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), which was adopted at that summit, can be pursued and strengthened.
"The global challenges faced by North America cannot be met solely through unilateral or bilateral efforts of existing patterns of cooperation," the task force said in a written report released May 17. "They require deepened cooperation based on the principle, affirmed in the March 2005 Joint Statement by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, that 'our security and prosperity are mutually dependent and complementary.'"
"Establishment by 2010 of a security and economic community for North America is an ambitious but achievable goal that is consistent with this principle and, more important, buttresses the goals and values of citizens of North America, who share a desire for safe and secure societies, economic opportunity and prosperity, and strong democratic institutions," the report said.
Task force co-chairman John Manley, former Canadian deputy prime minister, said May 17 that "we are asking the leaders of the United States, Mexico, and Canada to be bold and adopt a vision of the future that is bigger than and beyond the immediate problems of the present."
The recommendations address a range of issues confronting North American policymakers: greater economic competition from outside North America, uneven development within North America, the growing demand for energy, and security threats to the borders. The task force developed what it calls a road map to transform North America into a trading area that allows for the seamless movement of goods, increased labor mobility and energy security.
"The finding that we made as a task force was that the security of North America is essentially indivisible," Manley said. "It is a responsibility of every government to provide for the safety and security and protection of its citizens, and … on this continent, … is impossible for any one of our governments to do without the cooperation of the others."
"We came to realize that if our two borders ... became a front line for security, the impact that would have on normal relations and economic relations would be important," he said.
The key recommendation, Manley said, was for the three nations to move toward establishing a common security perimeter by 2010. "It is important for all three governments to commit themselves to security within that zone, thereby alleviating the need to build some barriers at our mutual borders," he added. "It implies greater cooperation between our security and intelligence agencies, [and] assistance in keeping track of security risks. It implies that we understand the nature of the goods and people that are coming into the continent."
The task force also recommended the development of a "North American Border Pass" to expedite passage through customs, immigration and airport security throughout the continent; additional border facilities to allow for continued growth in trade across the borders; a move to full labor mobility between Canada and the United States; expanding temporary worker programs and creating a "North American preference" for immigration; reviewing the sectors that were excluded in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); adoption of a common external tariff; development of a North American energy strategy; and increased military cooperation.
Pedro C. Aspe, former finance minister of Mexico, said that NAFTA has been "a total success" in achieving its goal of increasing trade and investment among the three nations. But the economies face new threats, new developments and new challenges. "Hence, we need a new vision," he said.
"If we don't change our structure, we will loose our competitiveness" to China, India and the expanded European Union, Aspe warned.
One challenge is to address the development gap between central and south Mexico and the rest of the continent, which is caused primarily by poor infrastructure and lack of good education and training, he said.
NAFTA has transformed Mexico, but has also deepened and made much more visible the divisions between north and south, Aspe explained. The northern part of Mexico, where the population has a higher level of education and which is better connected to U.S. and Canadian markets, has grown significantly faster than the center and south.
The wage gap has led many Mexicans, mostly from the south, to migrate in search of higher incomes and better opportunities and has made Mexico the leading source of illegal immigrants, Aspe noted. The best way to ease the problem is to provide better economic opportunities in Mexico, he argued.
The task force recommended the creation of a North American investment fund to build infrastructure and improve education in south and central Mexico.
But the task force also recommended that Mexico reorient its economic policies to encourage more investment and distribute the benefits of economic growth more equitably; that Mexico fully develop its energy resources to make greater use of international technology and capital; and that the capacity of the North American Development Bank be enhanced.
The task force was made up of policymakers, scholars and business leaders from all three countries. The 31-member group held meetings in Toronto, New York, and the Mexican city of Monterrey during the course of its deliberations. It was organized in cooperation with the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.
The full text of the report is available on the Web site of the Council on Foreign Relations.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
NEW YORK -- Minority communities cannot allow themselves to be pitted against one another in a battle for the economic crumbs of the North American economy, civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson said yesterday.
Mr. Jackson initially reacted angrily to Mexican President Vicente Fox's statement during the weekend that Mexican immigrants are performing jobs that "not even blacks want to do in the United States."
But after talking to Mr. Fox by telephone, he said yesterday that he accepts the President's apology and wants to work with the Mexican immigrant community to pursue economic development and fair wages on both sides of the border.
"Polarization of our communities through stereotyping will only hurt our mutual interests," he said.
Mr. Fox's incautious remark has added fuel to the heated debate over illegal immigration in the United States, a debate that cuts across party lines.
Mr. Jackson said both native workers and immigrants are losing out in a free-trade environment in which business can drive down labour costs.
"Mexican immigrants must not be pawns, nor African-Americans scapegoats, as we so often languish at the bottom of the economic scale," he said. "Big business and greed manipulate the whole world for cheap labour."
Backed by the business lobby, U.S. President George W. Bush is pushing a plan that would allow companies to expand the use of guest workers, and allow illegal immigrants to get work permits if they are performing a job that cannot be filled by a U.S. worker.
Some conservative Republicans, however, reject the idea that illegal workers should be granted "amnesty" and want a security fence built along the southern U.S. border where so-called Minutemen vigilantes have recently taken up patrol.
The Democrats are similarly divided between liberals who espouse lenient treatment for illegal immigrants and union representatives who fear that the flood of Latinos into the United States, particularly Mexicans, is driving down the price of labour and taking jobs from U.S. workers.
While Mr. Jackson condemned the North American free-trade agreement as exploitive of workers, a group of Canadian, U.S. and Mexican business leaders called for further North American integration, including eventually an open border for labour movement.
The Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, co-chaired by former Canadian cabinet minister John Manley, issued its final report in New York yesterday, and waded into the debate over immigration policy.
The panel, which issued an interim report before the March meeting of Mr. Bush, Mr. Fox and Prime Minister Paul Martin, urged the three governments to move eventually to complete labour mobility in North America. It acknowledged, however, that a Canada-U.S. labour deal would have to serve as a first step until wage differentials between the United States and Mexico narrowed.
Former Mexican finance minister Pedro Aspe said the three countries should commit to a major investment fund to finance infrastructure and development projects in southern Mexico, an area that he said is home to the vast majority of illegal migrants to the United States.
Mr. Aspe, who would not comment on Mr. Fox's remarks, said economic development in southern Mexico, which lags far behind the more industrialized north, would go some way in stemming the flow of illegal immigrants.
In 20 years, North America could look a lot different if the United States has its way, a researcher with a Mexican grassroots community action group says.
Miguel Pickard was in Thunder Bay to talk about the U.S. push for 'deep integration,' which would essentially create a European Union-type entity out of Mexico, Canada and the U.S.
'There are various facets of this new space that the United States is pushing in an effort to shore up its security, and of course that has to do with military concerns, migration concerns," Pickard said. "The United States would like Canada and Mexico to have equal policies on these matters.'
In addition to the security of borders extended far to the north and south, the U.S. is also interested in natural resources held by Canada and Mexico, Pickard told a luncheon meeting of Thunder Bay clergy at Free Methodist Church on Sprague Street.
A North American union would also come with a single currency, he said, and a stronger military and economy that will be a 'counterweight' to both the European Union and a similar Asian union that's in the process of forming, Pickard said.
But even this is just a first step.
'The United States is very interested in creating a block of the Americas eventually,' Pickard said.
He said not everyone is necessarily aware of the U.S. push.
'They're aware of some of these issues, but it's spotty or they haven't drawn the lines, if you will,' Pickard said. 'I think it's useful information.'
'Particularly, I think what I'm trying to bring is our (Mexico's) perception on these issues, and hope that connects in some way with how people are seeing these things from a Canadian perspective.'
Pickard was to speak on the issue, as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the problems that's causing in Mexico, in a separate address.
NAFTA, Pickard said, is resulting in very few jobs available in Mexico as workers and industry have to compete with cheaper products coming out of the U.S.
It's resulting in mass illegal migration to the U.S. and Canada from Mexico, he said.
Pickard is a researcher with the Center for Economic and Political Research for Community Action (CIEPAC), based in Chiapas, Mexico.
CIEPAC is a non-government group that undertakes research and analysis to support civil, social, faith-based and grassroots groups as they plan activities and make decisions.
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