Independent Task Force on North America

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The Independent Task Force on North America was a project organized by the United States Council on Foreign Relations, 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 between 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 Union.

Some Internet sources claim that this report, despite its own language rejecting a political union, would create a North American Union, which would link the three North American countries into a political union in the model of the European Union. Some envision this new North American Union as having its own currency known as the amero, which would replace the Mexican peso, U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar.

Map of the North American Economic and Security Community

1 History
2 Current debate
3 Geography
4 Status
5 Previous attempts
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

In recent times, the three North American nation-states have been increasing their economic ties, accelerating the process with the 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] Current debate

Robert Pastor, a vice chairman of the CFR task force that produced the report Building a North American Union, has suggested that a common currency might be called the "amero", which would be similar in concept to the euro, the common currency of the EU ^[3]. Another possible name could be the North American Dollar (NAD).

The third major country, Mexico, uses the peso, which is also a dollar-like currency (although it is currently trading at an exchange rate significantly lower relative to the dollar currencies of both Canada and the USA). (At one time, one silver dollar equaled exactly one peso, which was in turn based on the Spanish dollar.)

[edit] Geography

The North American Union would currently (as of 2007) have a total population of around 440,000,000 citizens. For comparison, the European Union currently (as of 2007) has an estimated population of 493,000,000.

The NAU population would be divided among the three constituent nations as follows:

North American Population By Country
Country	Population
USA	300,050,259
Mexico	107,449,525
Canada	33,098,932

[edit] Status

To date, the three governments have taken no official action on the proposal, either to endorse or reject it. Some opponents have alleged that international discussions around economic and security matters fit within the context of the proposal and are designed to pave the way for a formal set of negotiations on the union.

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) & 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]

[edit] Previous attempts

In the late 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 the by local constituents and by the British Empire. It had been encouraged by the left-leaning Red Party of Rodolphe Laflamme, who was a leading intellectual and freemason of his day.