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DEVELOPMENT:
Think Tank Urges
Closer Ties Among NAFTA Trifecta
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, (IPS) - To
consolidate North American
integration, the region's
leaders must reverse the growing
development gap between Canada
and the United States on the one
hand, and Mexico on the other,
according to a ”Chairmen's
Statement” by an influential
task force released here Monday.
The Statement, which was issued
by the New York-based Council on
Foreign Relations (CFR), also
calls for the establishment of a
North American Advisory Council
(NAAC) that will prepare and
monitor moves to further
integrate the region over the
next five years, including the
holding of annual summit
meetings between leaders of the
three nations.
”To build on the advances of the
past decade and to craft an
agenda for the future, we
propose the creation by 2010 of
a community to enhance security,
prosperity, and opportunity for
all North Americans,” the
Statement, which was signed by
the three task force co-chairs,
declared.
”The boundaries of the community
would be defined by a common
external tariff and an outer
security perimeter. Within this
area, the movement of people and
products would be legal,
orderly, and safe,” it asserted.
The task force's three
co-chairmen -- former Canadian
Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Finance John P.
Manley, former Mexican Finance
Minister Pedro Aspe, and former
Massachusetts Gov. William Weld
-- signed the statement as heads
of the Independent Task Force on
the Future of North America of
the CFR in association with the
Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos
Internacionales and the Canadian
Council of Chief Executives.
The 12-page Statement was
released in advance of the next
tri-national summit to take
place Mar. 23 in Texas where
U.S. President George W. Bush,
Canadian Prime Minister Paul
Martin, and Mexican President
Vicente Fox are expected to
review recent progress made
under the 1993 North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and
consider next steps.
Lauded by free trade advocates,
NAFTA's numerous critics say it
has launched a
race-to-the-bottom in wages,
undermined democratic control of
domestic policy-making and
threatened health and
environmental standards.
But despite the explosive growth
in trade and investment among
the three NAFTA countries over
the past 12 years, North
American affairs have generally
been gotten surprising little
attention from the Bush
administration which has been
far more focused since the Sep.
11, 2001, attacks on New York
and the Pentagon on the ”war on
terror”, the Middle East, and
relations with Europe.
Mexico's Fox has been
particularly disappointed by
Bush's lack of interest. Fox had
been hoping for a major
breakthrough on immigration that
would have made it easier for
Mexicans to enter the U.S. and
to remain there to work when the
9/11 attacks took place, but
since then immigration reform
has been put on the back burner,
while the political climate
inside the U.S. has generally
become more hostile to
immigration.
Indeed, Bush's failure to
deliver substantial immigration
reform is often cited as one of
the major causes for the steady
decline in the public standing
of Fox and his PAN party. Many
analysts here now believe that
the 2006 presidential elections
will be won by the PRD, Mexico's
most left-wing mainstream party
and one that has been most
sceptical about the benefits of
NAFTA and North American
integration.
Ties between the U.S. and Canada
have also become somewhat more
strained, largely due to
overwhelming opposition by
Washington's northern neighbours
to its 2003 invasion of Iraq and
the Bush administration's
antagonism toward the UN and
multilateralism in general.
Indeed, Canadian public opinion
has become so disenchanted with
Washington that Martin, who was
seen as more pro-U.S. than his
predecessor, Jean Chretien, was
forced earlier this month to
withdraw from Bush
administration's plans to build
a missile defence shield for
both countries.
None of these developments
alters the fact that the
economies of all three nations
have become increasingly
integrated. U.S. trade with its
North American neighbours is
much greater than its trade with
the European Union (EU), Japan
and China combined, while Canada
and Mexico are now the two
largest exporters of oil to the
United States.
All three nations are now
”liberal democracies, committed
to protecting individual rights,
upholding the rule of law,
ensuring equality of opportunity
for our citizens, and achieving
a reasonable balance between the
market and the state.”
Further integration thus
promises ”enormous benefits” to
citizens of the three countries,
according to the report, which
warns, however, that ”these
benefits are neither inevitable
nor irreversible.”
The three countries face three
common challenges, including
security threats from terrorists
and criminal activity; threats
to the region's trade
competitiveness as a result of
global competition from China to
India and expanded EU
membership; and the widening of
the ”development gap” between
the two northern members and
Mexico.
”Low wages and lack of economic
opportunity in parts of Mexico
stimulate undocumented
immigration and contribute to
human suffering, which sometimes
translates into criminality and
violence”, according to the
report.
”AS A MATTER OF THEIR OWN
NATIONAL INTERESTS (emphasis in
original), all three countries
should do more to encourage
broad-based economic development
in Mexico.”
In addition to the importance of
Mexico implementing publicly
supported policies that will
attract investment, the U.S. and
Canada should establish a North
American Investment Fund to
create infrastructure that links
the poorer parts of the Mexico
to the markets in the north and
support education and technical
training for Mexican states and
municipalities, the report
urges.
Other steps to promote further
integration include adopting a
common external tariff on a
sector-by-sector basis at the
lowest rate consistent with
international trade obligations,
according to the report, which
stresses that ”unwieldy rules of
origin” and regulatory
differences among the three
countries are raising the costs
of trade rather than reducing
them.
On the immigration front, the
chairs called for creation of a
border pass with biometric
indicators that would expedite
passage through customs and
immigration throughout the
region and the adoption of a
unified Border Action Plan to
boost regional security.
Such a plan would mean
harmonising visa and asylum
regulations, joint inspection of
container traffic entering North
American ports; syncronised
screening and tracking of
people, goods, and vessels, the
establishment of a trinational
threat intelligence centre and
joint training for
law-enforcement officials, and
closer military cooperation.
The Statement also calls for the
development of a North American
energy and natural resource
security strategy to protect
energy infrastructure, fully
exploit regional reserves, and
reduce emissions and the
expansion of educational
exchange programmes among the
three countries. |
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