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From NAFTA to NASCO to Customs in Kansas City
By Linda Bentley

WASHINGTON, D.C. A plan is underway by the Bush Administration to globalize North America through the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (www.spp.gov).

Although this particular agenda has been moving forward since 2005, its beginnings date back to 1995 with NAFTA.
While the three countries have formed commissions to forge ahead with what they have stated is a permanent process, a pilot project is also underway in the background to set up business processes, systems architecture and data flow to comply with the World Customs Organizations (WCO) Framework of Standards to further facilitate North American trade and transport.

Also establishing a foothold is North Americas SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc. (NASCO), which entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The North American International Trade Corridor Partnership (NAITCP) last year to amalgamate the two nonprofit organizations into one called NASCO.

While NASCO has been successful in achieving Canadian and U.S. membership, NAITCP has been successful in solidifying U.S. and Mexican participation.

The MOU sets up timetables and ground rules as to how the merger will proceed.

NASCO represents the corporate entities and local governments that promote the North American Union ideology, and is dedicated to furthering economic development along the evolving transportation and trade corridor between Lazaro Cardenas in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, through the heart of America to an inland port in Kansas City, Mo., where a 1,300-mile railroad seamlessly connects Mexican seaports to the central United States, and where American taxpayers are funding a $3 million Mexican customs building.

Robert C. Bonner, Commissioner, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Homeland Security, called the pilot proposal bold and imaginative and said it could transform Kansas City into a major new trade link, which he said worked well with new border security initiatives to pre-approve cargo.

As of last November, the United States and Mexico had worked out an agreement, although certain aspects of that agreement were still being ironed out by customs officials, including security issues and whether Mexican customs officials have legal standing to work in the United States.

At a luncheon last year, hosted by the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and Kansas City SmartPort, Bonner said the Mexican governments cooperation in security initiatives have been instrumental in making the Mexican-U.S. border more secure.

The border at Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where drug lords and violent gangs reign free, suggests otherwise.

Since 1995, the Mexican government has been aggressively moving toward decentralization and privatization of infrastructure and its seaport operations to promote business-friendly partnerships and expand international trade.

In 2002, Mexico hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, after which it started the Trans-Pacific Multimodal Security System (TPMSS) to create greater transportation infrastructure capacity, more cooperative customs processes and greater security, which in the end will facilitate economic growth along the Lazaro Cardenas Kansas City Corridor.

Last April, Kansas City Southern Railroad purchased a controlling interest in Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana, which will operate under common leadership, paving the way for a ships-to-rail inland transportation system for shippers who wish to bypass the West Coasts ports.

Kansas City also signed a cooperative agreement with representatives from both the state of Michoacan and the city of Lazaro Cardenas last year to increase cargo volume between the two cities.

Instead of paying Mexican customs up to $100,000 per container passing through Mexico, new rules allow shippers to move as many containers as they like for a single $55,000 bond, which will make shipping through Mexican ports up to 15 percent less costly than through Long Beach or Los Angeles.

According to its Web site (www.KCSmartPort.com), Kansas City SmartPort, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the Kansas City region from an historic trade hub to a cutting-edge, high tech inland port, with a goal to make it cheaper, faster and safer for importers and exporters to move their goods.

Kansas City SmartPort is tag-lined Americas Inland Port Solution and is supported by dozens of area companies, communities and trade-related organizations in the Kansas City area.

Its Web site claims the Lazaro Cardenas Kansas City Transportation Corridor offers opportunities for international shippers and greater prosperity for North America. The promo goes on to say: For those who live in Kansas City, the idea of receiving containers nonstop from the Far East by way of Mexico may sound unlikely, but later this month that seemingly far-fetched notion will become a reality, and states, Thanks to an innovative series of international agreements, infrastructure improvements and new technologies, this corridor is a reality. NASCOs planned 10-lane highway and connecting railways will facilitate the movement of air, rail and ground cargo, principally from Asia and South America, through Mexico and into the United States via KellyUSA, an inland port located in San Antonio, Texas on through to Kansas City and Winnipeg, Canada.

So, as public relations firms attempt to put a positive spin on this New World Order and the Bush Administrations globalization agenda, which is moving forward at a breakneck pace, there hasnt been a peep out of the mainstream media.

And those in D.C. who are aware of these plans also remain mum, with the exception of Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who recently demanded the Bush administration fully disclose all activities and provide the names of all those involved in the implementation of this trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada, which appears to be on the path of creating a North American Union, with neither authorization nor oversight by Congress, or the American people for that matter.

But it explains why all efforts to control Americas borders have been nothing more than smoke and mirrors and political posturing, while American taxpayers are unknowingly funding this globalization drive with federal transportation dollars.

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