| Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America |
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| Member countries: Canada Mexico United States |
The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was a region-level dialogue with the stated purpose of providing greater cooperation on security and economic issues.[1] The Partnership was founded in Waco, Texas on March 23, 2005 by Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada, Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, and George W. Bush, President of the United States.[1] It was the second of such regional-level agreements involving the United States of America following the 1997 Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean (PPS). Since August 2009 it is no longer an active initiative of any of the original dialogue partners.
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The initial SPP Working Groups were the Manufacture Goods and Sectoral and Regional Competitiveness Working Group, E-Commerce & ICT Working Group, Energy Working Group, Transportation Working Group, Food & Agriculture Working Group, Environment Working Group, Financial Services Working Group, Business Facilitation Working Group, Movement of Goods Working Group, Health, and Immigration.[2]
These working groups were tasked with implementing the SPP as initiated by the North American Heads of Government and 30 CEOs of the largest corporations from each respective country on March 23, 2005. They were to consult with stakeholders; set specific, measurable, and achievable goals and implementation dates; and issue semi-annual progress reports. A 24-month agenda was established to serve as a time line milestone to have the initial framework fully developed.
The stated goals of the SPP were cooperation and information sharing, improving productivity, reducing the costs of trade, enhancing the joint stewardship of the environment, facilitating agricultural trade while creating a safer and more reliable food supply, and protecting people from disease.
It was intended to assist, rather than replace, existing bilateral and trilateral institutions like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and to work towards the three North American countries working cooperatively in the face of common risks and economic competition from low cost, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade Corridor to improving both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America.
North American Facilitation of Transportation, Trade, Reduced Congestion & Security (NAFTRACS) was a three phase pilot project designed to focus on business processes and information as freight is transported from buyers to sellers. The project was intended to create a partnership between businesses and local, state, and federal governments, while claiming to foster cooperation among the same entities.
On 26 February 2008, Canada's Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, announced his government's 2008 Budget, which includes "$29 million over two years to meet priorities under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America."[3]
The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) was an official tri-national working group of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). It was created at the second summit of the SPP in Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico, in March 2006. Composed of 30 corporate representatives from some of North America's largest companies, the North American Competitiveness Council has been mandated to set priorities for the SPP and to act as a stable driver of the integration process through changes in government in all three countries.
To date, the following summits have occurred:
In 2006, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs argued that the SPP was part of a plan to merge the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a North American Union similar to the European Union,[12]. Dobbs claimed at the time that US President Bush, who left office on January 20, 2009, was to have bypassed Congress and ultimately create a Union based on a Texas highway corridor.[13] One variation of this theory was that President Bush would declare a state of emergency to avoid leaving office, which, in fact, never came about; on January 20, 2009, his successor, Barack Obama, who had openly voiced misgivings about NAFTA, the predecessor to SPP, let alone SPP itself, took office as US President, but his anti-NAFTA views soon disappeared from his public persona.
The Council of Canadians claimed that the SPP extended the controversial "no fly list" of the USA, made Canadian water a communal resource, and forced Canada and Mexico to adopt the USA's security policies - one of which would allow foreign military forces to neglect sovereignty in the case of a "civil emergency". In addition, it also touched on the issue of Albertan tar sands expansion to five times its current size.[14]
On May 10, 2007, Conservative MP Leon Benoit, chair of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, prevented University of Alberta professor Gordon Laxer from testifying that SPP would leave Canadians "to freeze in the dark" because "Canada itself – unlike most industrialized nations – has no national plan or reserves to protect its own supplies" by saying Laxer's testimony was not relevant, defying a majority vote to overrule his motion, shutting down the Committee meeting, and leaving with the other three out of four Conservative members; the meeting later continued presided by the Liberal vice-chair.[15] After these disruptions, the National Post reported on a Conservative party manual to, among other things, usurp Parliamentary committees and cause chaos in unfavourable committees.[16][17] The New Democratic Party also criticized SPP for being undemocratic, not open to Parliament, and opaque.[18] New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton described the process as not simply unconstitutional, but "non-constitutional", held completely outside the usual mechanisms of oversight.[19]
Some thirty US-based organizations also sent an open letter to Congress on April 21, 2008 criticizing the secrecy and lack of any sort of democratic oversight:
"What differentiates the SPP from other security and trade agreements is that it is not subject to Congressional oversight or approval. The SPP establishes a corporate/government bureaucracy for implementation that excludes civil society participation. ... Facing a worrisome pact pushed forward in secrecy, it is time for Congress to halt this undemocratic approach and establish a process based on openness, accountability, and the participation of civil society.[20]
In August 2009, the SPP website was updated to say: "The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) is no longer an active initiative. There will not be any updates to this site."[21] Subsequent to this the website link does not connect and the cache website links do not work.
Currently, the website calls itself an archive for SPP documents and announces: "Going forward, we want to build on the accomplishments achieved by the SPP and further improve our cooperation."[22]
The NDP has called this a "victory" which is "the result of the active and sustained efforts across the country, and across North America, of Canadian, Mexican and American activists from the labour movement, civil society, progressive legislators and all those concerned and committed to build a better quality of life in our Canada and throughout North America."[23]
On February 4, 2011, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and US President Barack Obama announced a new security and prosperity initiative. In it they planned to "to pursue a perimeter approach to security"[24] "in ways that support economic competitiveness, job creation, and prosperity"[24].
On March 13, 2011, the Canadian government announced it was beginning a five week consultation process "with all levels of government and with communities, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, as well as with our citizens"[25] on the implementation of the shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness."[25]
Related infrastructure projects:
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