Posted on 03/23/2005 9:30:05 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
WACO, Texas (AP) - President Bush, smoothing over immigration, trade and defense disputes with Canada and Mexico, announced on Wednesday a new North American pact to broaden cooperation on security and economic issues.
Bush, Mexico President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin issued a statement jointly saying that while all three nations have worked to enhance trade and have taken steps since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to address terrorism "more needs to be done."
"In a rapidly changing world, we must develop new avenues of cooperation that will make our open societies safer and more secure, our businesses more competitive and our economies more resilient," they said in the statement.
"Hola," Bush said earlier, with large smiles and a hearty handshake, as Fox stepped out of his limousine at Baylor University, adorned with the flags of the three nations. A few minutes earlier, the reception Bush offered Martin was only slightly less effusive.
The leaders met for more than an hour at the university and were having lunch at Bush's sprawling ranch in nearby Crawford. It was during less formal conversations that some of the most contentious issues in U.S.-Mexican and U.S.-Canadian relations were expected to surface.
Ottawa, for instance, is irritated that the United States is keeping its border closed to Canadian beef, because of lingering concerns over mad-cow disease, and maintaining punitive tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber. Washington isn't pleased at the Canadian government's surprise snub last month of U.S. plans for a North American missile defense shield.
With Mexico, relations are strained by the Bush administration's anger over a high Mexican tax on soft drinks made with high fructose corn syrup, water owed to U.S. farmers and the suspicion that Mexico could do more on drug trafficking and to address fears that al-Qaida agents are slipping into the United States from the south.
Mexican officials complain about vigilante groups hunting illegal immigrants in Arizona, new U.S. walls being built along the border and the still-stalled status of a guest worker immigration liberalization proposal.
U.S. officials fully expect many - if not all - of these issues to come up, raised casually by the leaders during the 20-minute helicopter ride from the meeting site to Bush's ranch, or over the hour-long lunch there, or during a brief tour the president planned to give his guests of his beloved property.
Also not an official part of the meeting but expected to be discussed was Bush's unrealized wish - backed by Mexico and Canada - to create a hemisphere-wide free trade area.
Instead, the centerpiece of the three-way summit was to be the signing of an accord portrayed by the White House as unparalleled in its scope.
The initiative, called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, is meant to be both complimentary of existing cooperative arrangements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Binational Commission of U.S. and Mexican officials and the Smart Border effort with Canada, and yet also more expansive, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.
On the economic side, the initiative is aimed at both increasing productivity within the three nations and also would make their markets more competitive with the European Union and China. Joint undertakings could include standardizing some regulations on businesses, making it easier for business people to move across borders, increasing cooperation on energy exploration and moving toward a common external tariff for certain North American products sold to other economic blocs.
NAFTA, the 11-year-old landmark pact that eliminated tariffs on most products traded between the three countries, would not be touched.
On the security front, the leaders were expected to vow to continue to work together in battling terrorism.
A U.S.-Canada-Mexico task force has made some bold recommendations, including a North American border pass based on fingerprints or eye scans to speed border crossings. The Task Force on the Future of North America also advocated an "outer security perimeter" around the three countries, to be achieved by harmonizing visa and asylum regulations, integrating "watch" lists, conducting joint law enforcement training, setting up a "marine defense command" to protect North American ports and pursuing closer military cooperation with Mexico.
I think I'm going to be ill....
I think I'm gonna be ill...
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