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April 4, 2008 With three weeks to go until the Security and Prosperity Partnership leaders summit in New Orleans, the usual suspects have launched a barrage of policy papers to try and sway the public agenda towards even deeper economic and security integration than has been proposed to date. Meanwhile, International Trade Minister David Emerson has gathered the provinces to develop a consensus on Canada’s NAFTA position should the United States force a renegotiation after the November presidential election. Earlier this week, the Harper government signaled its concern that the next president of the United States will want to renegotiate NAFTA. As reported by the Montreal Gazette, the Ottawa Citizen and other Canwest papers, “Canada will likely face a bid by the United States to reopen the North America Free Trade Accord and has begun working furiously behind the scenes to counter that prospect, says International Trade Minister David Emerson.” The federal government is so concerned, continued the article, “that Monday it asked provincial cabinet ministers across the country to begin lobbying their American contacts to convince them of the importance of NAFTA.” C.D. Howe Institute Report: The “cardinals” of free trade speaketh Former Canadian trade representatives Michael Hart, now the Simon Reisman chair of trade policy at Carleton University's School of International Affairs, and Bill Dymond, currently Senior Executive Fellow at Carleton's Centre for Trade Policy and Law, have just put out a report calling on Canada to drop the SPP for a brand new free trade agreement with the United States that would create a single regulatory region across the two countries. The “cardinals” of free trade, as they were called prior to a keynote address by Tom d’Aquino last week, plugged their new report in the Financial Post: Canada needs to move decisively to pursue a bilateral initiative with the United States, to design and implement a border regime that eliminates much of the detritus of past customs administration for bilateral trade. We should implement a joint regulatory agenda that seeks, over time, to move toward much higher levels of convergence through a combination of mutual recognition, joint rule-making, and similar programs. And we should establish the joint institutions and decision-making procedures that will achieve these goals. A modernized Canada-U.S. treaty that reflected the reality of the dynamics of value-chain-based trade and production patterns would help point the way toward a renewed and revitalized trade policy. As to political concerns about sovereignty, as in democratic control over economic and security policies, Hart and Dymond were arrogant and dismissive: “The only cost that would arise is political, i.e., in Canadians’ exaggerated pre-occupation with ephemeral concepts of sovereignty and nationhood.” The C.D. Howe Institute was an early proponent and instigator of the deep integration agenda. Their January 2004 paper, titled The Prospects for Deeper North American Economic Integration, argued: “NAFTA left several barriers to North American economic integration intact, while the events of September 11, 2001, have raised the possibility of new difficulties for cross-border trade and investment. The NAFTA partners should address these problems through interrelated bilateral and trilateral initiatives that cover trade, energy, migration and the environment.” The Fraser Institute Report: Relaunch the SPP Another recent report by the Fraser Institute advocates keeping the SPP while granting corporations more influence. "The Security and Prosperity Partnership, launched in 2005, is so misunderstood by the public and so discredited by opposition groups it should be re-launched and rebranded," wrote columnist Barbara Yaffe in the Vancouver Sun, describing the view of Fraser report author Alexander Moens. "The reason for (this need to rebrand the SPP) lies with effective lobbying by key groups, like the left-leaning Council of Canadians which has pointed to the closed-door nature of the SPP negotiations as a basis for suspicion,” Yaffe continues. “The 'deep integration,' the council asserts in its campaign titled "Integrate This!", will redirect domestic interests to U.S. priorities. The group also worries that the Americans would try to gain further access to Canada's natural resources." For more information about that report, see our previous post here. More reports On top of the Fraser and C.D. Howe papers, the Brookings Institute recently published a report, financed by the Canadian government, on the Great Lakes economic region. It’s essentially advocating an Atlantica-type customs union for the Canadian provinces and U.S. states bordering the Great Lakes. Earlier this year, the U.S. and Canadian Chambers of Commerce put out a joint report on recommendations for improving the situation at the Canada-U.S. border. “The SPP workplan set a framework for further trilateral action on border measures and direct business input was provided by the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC),” claims the report. “The North American Leaders’ Summit in Montebello, Quebec in August 2007 called for ‘further cooperation in law enforcement, screening, and facilitation of legitimate trade and travelers across our borders.’ “This report responds to this call for action with specific and practical solutions for the Canada-U.S. border,” it continues. “We have collected industry’s top recommendations for cost reductions, many of which have been expressed in other documents.” Yes, in countless previous documents and, no doubt, in countless more so that North America is inundated with only one, corporate vision of integration that doesn’t fly with the rest of the population. The upcoming People’s Summit, which is being organized by grassroots groups in New Orleans to coincide with the next SPP summit, will be a chance for international civil society groups to propose a different vision for North America. We will continue to provide updates on the People’s Summit at IntegrateThis.ca. In the meantime, to read Maude Barlow’s published op-ed, “Renegotiate NAFTA? Sounds like a good idea,” please click here.
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