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News alert: The Free Trade Agreement of the Americas reborn? September 26, 2008 President Bush met with leaders and officials from 11 countries in the Western Hemisphere on Wednesday, September 24th in New York to launch the ‘Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas’ initiative. Canada is joined by the U.S., Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru in this initiative. All have free trade agreements with the U.S., or one pending before Congress. In a Washington Post article, Bush hails the initiative as, “a forum where leaders can work to ensure that the benefits of trade are broadly shared.” (more...) Transfer of Federal Labs The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada On June 6, 2008, the Treasury Board released the long-awaited report of the Independent Panel of Experts studying the transfer of federal government laboratories to academia and/or the private sector. Following up on the government’s intentions outlined in the 2007 federal budget, the panel identified five “early candidates” for transfer. The first two will be Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Canadian Cereal Research and Innovation Laboratory in Winnipeg, and Natural Resources Canada's Geosciences Laboratory in Ottawa. (more...) August 1, 2008 The extent of Harper’s current assault on Canada’s food and drug inspection system is about to dwarf any previous concerns we had with the regulatory harmonization of pesticide residues. The Prime Minister is simultaneously eliminating funding for BSE testing for Canadian producers, offloading federal research facilities to the private sector and academia, and firing government scientists who dare stand up against this widespread deregulation for the sake of corporate profits. (more...) Industry Week magazine contrasts European vs. SPP approach to chemicals regulation July 21, 2008 A new article in Industry Week magazine offers an interesting and brief explanation of Europe’s new chemicals regulation laws (the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) legislation), and how they differ from the North American approach being developed through the Security and Prosperity Partnership. (more...) June 17, 2008 Michael Geist writes in today's Ottawa Citizen that in its pressure on the Canadian government to change our copyright laws, the U.S. administration made threats about “thickening the border” if it didn’t get its way. (more...) Plan to allow airlines to police themselves should not be allowed to fly June 13, 2008 The web news resource PublicValues.ca focuses this week on the issue of airline safety, an area of public policy set to be harmonized across the continent through the Security and Prosperity Partnership. (more...) Canada’s beef industry wants to adopt weaker U.S. feed ban rules June 4, 2008 According to a Canadian Press article this week, Canada’s beef industry is pressuring the Canadian government to adopt weaker U.S. feed ban rules. (more...) Canada ducks for cover on copyright; plans to sign ACTA without parliamentary approval May 28, 2008 Canada is under significant pressure from the U.S. government and the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), among other business groups, to reform its copyright legislation. International documents leaked to the press last week indicate that the Harper government is preparing to sidestep Parliament by signing a NAFTA-like international treaty that would radically change what types of currently legal activity will be cracked down on and by whom. (more...) May 6, 2008 Harper talks a good line on food safety but his actions prove he cares less about your health than corporate priorities. As reported by Greenpeace Canada on Thursday: “A private member’s bill giving consumers the right to know if the food sold in Canada contains genetically engineered (GE) ingredients was defeated in the House of Commons today by a vote of 101 to 156." (more...) May 6, 2008 A key initiative within the Security and Prosperity Partnership calls for the, "Identification and appropriate adoption of best practices in maintaining the safety, efficacy and quality of pharmaceutical products." (more...) Nothing new from the Disaster Summit but dangerous SPP initiatives live on April 29, 2008 The media and business consensus following last week’s Security and Prosperity Partnership summit in New Orleans is that the trilateral meeting didn’t produce anything significant. While this is partly correct – no new initiatives were announced – the ones we’re stuck with are bad enough. And while we learned a few new things about the SPP’s progress since Montebello, very few of the details ended up in the news. (more...) Amnesty International slams SPP secrecy in letter to Bush, Calderon and Harper April 21, 2008 Amnesty International has sent Prime Minister Harper and his U.S. and Mexican counterparts a letter condemning the secrecy behind the SPP and demanding that it be brought to each country's respective legislatures “to facilitate meaningful public debate.” (more...) The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), Round Four April 16, 2008 As the NAFTA leaders and their big business counterparts gather in New Orleans a few days from now for the fourth North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit, it is worth reflecting on its role in North American integration. (more...) March 18, 2008 In an effort to demonstrate that the best defence is a good offence, a new Fraser Institute report by Alex Moens and Michael Cust, argues that the Canadian government must “expand and speed up the SPP goals,” and make a priority of “rebranding the SPP talks… as well as explaining the specific objective of the talks to the public” at the next summit in New Orleans this April or risk the trilateral partnership losing much of its momentum. (more...)
March 18, 2008 More evidence today that the business-friendly SPP (like NAFTA, upon which it is built) poses an increasing risk to global as well as continental public interest policy. (more...)
March 14, 2008 Common Frontiers has revised several fact sheets on ‘free trade’ to help cut through the spin and clutter around the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) – a ‘next generation’ trade deal involving Canada, Mexico and the United States. (more...)
March 14, 2008 The Washington Post reports today about a last-minute intervention by President Bush that effectively weakened limits on smog-forming ozone that were contained in the Clean Air Act. (more...)
March 12, 2008 As NAFTAgate was just starting to make front-page news in Canada last week, trade analyst Chris Sands was telling Embassy magazine to take U.S. renegotiation rhetoric seriously. (more...)
February 20, 2008
February 19, 2008 February 12, 2008 When the National Post feels strongly about an issue it doesn’t hold back. There were three – count-em, three – op-eds in today’s paper advocating deeper North American integration, including the possibility of a common currency across the continent. (more...)
February 11, 2008 Relying on the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" google news alert for updates is kind of like fishing. Sometimes you hook a prize-winner, like this article on the recent Mexican anti-NAFTA protests by Katie Kohlstedt, or a recent news hit on the NDP's anti-SPP tour out of the University of Calgary's Gauntlet magazine. (more...)
February 4, 2008
January 18, 2008 While Conservative Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon's planned new federal fuel consumption standards are a welcome change from the current voluntary arrangement with auto manufacturers, it is discouraging that he is apparently letting Bush set the new standards in the name of regulatory harmonization. (more...)
January 15, 2008 Vegetarians will probably shrug their shoulders but Canadian meat eaters may soon have another reason to hate the SPP: cloned meat. (more...)
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