Independent Task Force on North America
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The Independent Task Force on North America is a project organized by the Council on Foreign Relations (U.S.), the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. It was chaired by former Canadian politician John Manley and advocates a greater economic and social integration among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
It was launched in October 2004 and published two documents: Trinational Call for a North American Economic and Security Community by 2010 (March 2005) and its final report Building a North American Community[1] (May 2005).
The final report proposed increased international cooperation between the nations of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, similar in some respects to that of the European Community that preceded the European Union. As this report states, "The Task Force's central recommendation is establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter."
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[edit] Background
In the mid-nineteenth century, John Redpath and Louis-Joseph Papineau led a movement to merge Canada with the United States. However, the movement failed because it was massively opposed by the local constituents and by the British Empire. It had been encouraged by the Parti rouge of Rodolphe Laflamme. See also Montreal Annexation Manifesto.
At the time of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, in which the US annexed California and New Mexico among other current states, there were supporters of the idea of annexing the whole of Mexico. This idea was finally rejected because of the higher population density in the non-annexed areas- a factor that would hinder assimilation.
In recent times, the three largest North American nation-states have increased their economic ties, further accelerating the process with the signing of 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
In response to the demands of increasing globalization and shared concerns from abroad, such as the increasing clout of other economic spheres such as the European Union and China, the leaders of the three nations agreed in 2005 to work more cooperatively on shared North American concerns. To this end, they agreed to establish the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).[2]
[edit] Reception
In reference to this summit that established SPP, this task force's final report stated, "We welcome this important development and offer this report to add urgency and specific recommendations to strengthen their efforts."[citation needed] These specific recommendations include developing a North American customs union, common market, investment fund, energy strategy, set of regulatory standards, security perimeter, border pass, and advisory council, among other common goals.[citation needed]Robert Pastor, one of this task force's vice-chairmen, has advocated such a monetary union and has suggested that North America's common currency might be called the "amero", which would be similar in concept to the EU's euro.[3]
On October 30, 2006, while speaking at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute (CDFAI) 2006 Annual Conference in Ottawa, former American Ambassador to Canada (2001-2005) and former Republican Governor of Massachusetts Paul Cellucci indicated that, after further economic integration, a union would exist in everything but name:
| “ | Now I don’t believe that we will ever have a, in name anyways, a common union like the Europeans have, I don’t believe we’ll have a common currency here in North America, but I believe that, incrementally, we will continue to integrate our economies because I believe it is in each of our national interests to do so. And along the way, I think we’ll do a couple of things and I think that, well more than a couple of things, but.. I think we’ll.. 10 years from now, or maybe 15 years from now we’re gonna look back and we’re gonna have a union in everything but name…[4] |