[calcowgirl]

Pastor is a piece of work!

Found among the comments ("Additional and Dissenting Views") of consenting task force members of the
CFR Report: "Building a North American Community"

Page 49

This report articulates a vision and offers specific ideas for deepening North American integration. I endorse it with enthusiasm, but would add two ideas to galvanize the effort and secure its implementation: a customs union and U.S. government reorganization.

The report recommends that the three governments negotiate a common external tariff on a sector-by-sector basis, but some sectors will prevent closure, leaving untouched the cumbersome rules of origin. Paradoxically, but as occurred with NAFTA, a bolder goal is more likely to succeed than a timid one. We should negotiate a customs union within five years. That alone will eliminate rules of origin. This will not be easy, but it will not be harder than NAFTA, and mobilizing support for a customs union will invigorate the entire North American project.

North American integration has subtly created a domestic agenda that is continental in scope. The U.S. government is not organized to address this agenda imaginatively. Facing difficult trade-offs between private and North American interests, we tend to choose the private, parochial option. This explains the frustration of Canada and Mexico. To remedy this chronic problem, President Bush should appoint a special assistant on North American Affairs to chair a Cabinet committee to recommend ways to breathe life into a North American community. A presidential directive should support this by instructing the Cabinet to give preference to North America.

Robert A. Pastor
[a vice chair of the Task Force]

[hedgetrimmer]

To remedy this chronic problem, President Bush should appoint a special assistant on North American Affairs to chair a Cabinet committee to recommend ways to breathe life into a North American community. A presidential directive should support this by instructing the Cabinet to give preference to North America.

Council on Foreign Relations Task Force Member advocates the overthrow of the US government by presidential executive order. Rokke, even you can't deny this.

[nicmarlo]

I endorse it with enthusiasm, but would add two ideas to galvanize the effort and secure its implementation: a customs union and U.S. government reorganization.

As I said, Pastor's ideas cannot be dismissed; he is a key player in the formation and planning of the "agenda" written out in the document "Building a North American Community."