Thread: 3-nation summit will shine international spotlight on N.O.

3-nation summit will shine international spotlight on N.O.
by David Hammer, The Times-Picayune
Saturday April 19, 2008, 9:58 PM

President Bush and his North American counterparts will tackle emotionally charged topics such as illegal immigration and free trade in New Orleans this week, with Mexican President Felipe Calderon eager to trumpet his countrymen's role in Louisiana's recovery.

About 30,000 Mexican migrant workers poured into the New Orleans area immediately after the 2005 storms. Calderon has been a critic of the treatment of Mexican migrant workers by local U.S. authorities, and Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., said a recovering New Orleans is a good place for Calderon to remind Bush of the workers' economic impact.

"I will expect the president to touch on the economic contributions of migrants to the U.S. economy, particularly to an area like New Orleans, where I understand a big part of the cleaning and reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina has been done by immigrants -- not just Mexicans, but immigrants in general," Alday said.

Bush, Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday, holding their fourth annual summit to discuss security and economic issues.

Border control and free trade have drawn attention because of recent debates in the U.S. presidential campaign. The meeting comes 15 years after the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, indelibly changed trade relations among the three countries.

Bush, Calderon and Harper are expected to discuss ways they can cooperate to make their borders more secure, their businesses more competitive on the international stage and their food products safer.

They are also likely to discuss how their energy use and response to disasters can become more efficient.

Intricate ties

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Efforts at immigration reform, promoted by Bush and Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, died in Congress last year amid criticism that it wouldn't adequately punish those already here illegally.

But all three countries also want to facilitate border crossings for legal trade. Dan Fisk, National Security Council senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs, said they're working on "trusted traveler programs" to "give people identification and .¤.¤. give cargo some kind of security screening so that it can move more quickly."

As for NAFTA, which unions blame for the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs and Democratic presidential candidates have criticized, Bush and Harper administration officials last week defended the 1993 agreement as an economic boon for all three countries.

"There's nothing broken. Why fix a success?" Fisk said in a White House briefing Friday.

A senior Canadian official, required under government rules to remain unnamed, called NAFTA "an institution, a creation well worth preserving" at a briefing in Ottawa on Thursday.

Among other issues, the national leaders expect to discuss pending free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama. They also plan to formalize several initiatives on such matters as trade regulation enforcement, intellectual property rights, unified energy efficiency standards and cooperative disaster response and prevention.

In the context of three-way trade expected to reach $1 trillion this year, agreements among the nations should bring significant economic impact, Fisk said. Canada is the United States' largest trading partner, and Mexico is its third-largest partner.

"Canada, by the way, is our largest source of foreign oil; again, something that most people don't focus on," Fisk said. "There are roughly 1 million border crossings on a daily basis .¤.¤. There are somewhere around 32,000 Canadians and Mexicans enrolled in U.S. universities. Eleven thousand Americans are studying in Canada and Mexico. And this is only a very small snapshot of the vast social, family, commercial and cultural ties that exist between us."

'Terrific opportunity'

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, who will join Gov. Bobby Jindal and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in welcoming the three leaders Monday, said the meeting will have an even more concrete impact on the local and state economies.

"This is a terrific opportunity," Landrieu said. "We'll be able to transmit nationally and internationally that New Orleans is an international destination, and it gives added value to the fact that New Orleans is back."

Calderon's schedule wasn't available last week. Harper's public schedule doesn't include touring New Orleans, but his spokeswoman, Sandra Buckler, said aides are "still looking at options" for additions to the prime minister's plans.

"They're focused on accords, but there are tons of spin-off events," Landrieu said.

One such event, Landrieu said, involves a side trip by a Canadian delegation to Canadaville, a 49-house village in Avoyelles Parish, created at a $5 million cost by Canadian auto parts firm Magna International Inc. as a rent-free refuge for hurricane evacuees.

Landrieu also said he would be inviting Mexican and Canadian ministers to his World Cultural Economic Forum, to be held in New Orleans in October.

Formal, informal talks

Bush is scheduled to arrive at Louis Armstrong International Airport late Monday morning, followed by Calderon and then Harper.

Bush and Calderon will reopen the Mexican Consulate in New Orleans before the leaders take turns holding one-on-one meetings Monday afternoon.

The three will attend a meeting with business leaders at Gallier Hall and have informal discussions over dinner at an undisclosed location. They will hold formal talks Tuesday.

The summit is a part of the trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership, formed in 2005. Leaders held the first summit that year in Texas, and the talks rotate among the countries each year. In January's State of the Union address, Bush said he chose New Orleans to be the second U.S. host city as a nod to the Gulf Coast's efforts to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership gives a formal role to one nongovernmental group: 30 business executives from the three countries' largest companies. They constitute the North American Competitiveness Council and advise the national leaders on commercial priorities. The executives will meet with Bush, Calderon and Harper on Tuesday.

A Canadian group that opposes NAFTA, the Council of Canadians, wants the corporate group disbanded and the partnership's actions examined by the Canadian Parliament.

Both left-wing and right-wing American groups have planned protests for Monday and Tuesday, pushing a multitude of causes. Some activists rail against what they see as the development of a multinational North American government that they fear will would supersede the U.S. Constitution.

David Hammer can be reached at dhammer@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3322.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008 ... _inte.html

With protests expected, NOPD enhances security
by Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune
Saturday April 19, 2008, 9:53 PM

The New Orleans Police Department is gearing up for an unknown number of protesters expected to arrive in the city this weekend to decry federal trade and security policies, as President Bush holds a two-day summit with leaders of Canada and Mexico to discuss economic and security issues among the three countries.

Starting on Sunday, the NOPD will switch to 12-hour shifts, which will help divert some officers from districts around the city to the Central Business District area, said Assistant Superintendent Marlon Defillo. Those shifts will last through Tuesday.

Security will be tightest around Gallier Hall, as well as around the Central Business District hotels where the North American leaders and their entourages will be staying. The security measures will include extensive street closures in the CBD that start on Sunday afternoon, Defillo said.

While the NOPD has been gearing up for potentially huge crowds, they don't expect a "gigantic" turnout of protesters, department officials said.

"We are prepared for the worst-case scenario," said Superintendent Warren Riley, who will be supported by the State Police and National Guard. "At this point we are not overly concerned."

Since Bush announced in his State of Union address that he would be holding the latest round of talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon in New Orleans, the NOPD began preparing for security with Secret Service, Defillo said. Trade talks among the leaders have consistently drawn protests of several hundred people, including in August in Quebec.

Defillo said officials looked at the security for the 1999 World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, which sparked not only large protest rallies, but also civil disobedience that disrupted talks and led to hundreds of arrests.

"We certainly don't object to people protesting, if it is a peaceful assembly," he said. Internet sites for various groups show several plans for protests, including one expected to assemble in Jackson Square on Monday about 8 a.m.

Jim Stachowiak, whose Freedom Fighter Radio Web site and Internet radio show has been touting the Monday gathering, said he expects a few hundred people to come to New Orleans to protest peacefully. They plan to rally against the Iraq war and against the talks among the North American leaders, which Stachowiak said many believe are a pretext to forming a continental government similar to the European Union.

Several left-leaning organizations have organized what they are calling a "People's Summit" that will kick off Sunday in Central City with theater demonstrations scheduled to include skits by Latino laborers, homeless residents of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina survivors, said Mayaba Liebenthal, the local chapter organizer for Critical Resistance New Orleans.

Workshops will be held Monday and Tuesday around the city, talking about the impact of trade agreements on average people and the disadvantages of privatization, Liebenthal said.

Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3316.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008 ... pd_en.html

Major border crossing on agenda as Three Amigos meet

Dalson Chen and Chris Thompson
Canwest News Service



Sunday, April 20, 2008



CREDIT: Reuters
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper (C) gestures while standing with U.S. President George W. Bush (L) and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon following a joint news conference at the two-day North American Leaders' Summit in Montebello, Quebec August 21, 2007.

WINDSOR - The Detroit-Windsor border crossing will be a priority topic at the North American Leaders' Summit taking place Monday and Tuesday, according to a senior U.S. government official.

U.S. President George Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are scheduled to meet in New Orleans.

In announcing the summit, U.S. National Security Council member Dan Fisk specifically mentioned the Detroit-Windsor border crossing as a discussion topic for the leaders.

"We do want to look at what more we can do at the Detroit-Windsor crossing," Fisk said from Washington D.C. on Friday.

After pointing to the magnitude of U.S.-Canada trade that depends on the crossing, Fisk noted that the Ambassador Bridge opened in 1929.

"It's four lanes and was built for traffic in the 1930s. The traffic has increased threefold since then," said Fisk, who is the NSC Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

"If you're a businessman, or frankly for all of us who are consumers, it has a potential impact because if we can't get those crossings to be more effective and efficient, we all pay."

A binational group of government officials is supposed to be announcing the location and route to a new border crossing between Windsor and Detroit later this spring.

Fisk said "trusted traveller programs" will also be a focus point for the leaders' discussion. "That is, how you give people identification and you give cargo some kind of security screening so that it can move more quickly across the border."

The Detroit-Windsor crossing will be a part of a discussion on "smart and secure borders," which was ranked second amongst five priorities listed by Fisk for the summit.

In the first priority, enhancing global competitiveness, Fisk said one of the things the leaders will talk about will be "the regulatory structure that impacts the automobile sector."

"And this gets to, frankly, a dollars and cents impact for the average consumer in terms of buying automobiles," Fisk said.

The summit will be the fourth time the leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico have met to discuss the common challenges the three nations face as the continent.

On Saturday, about two dozen protesters marched through downtown Windsor in a mock funeral procession to mark the so-called death of Canadian sovereignty.

The demonstration, organized by the Council of Canadians, was one of several held across the country in advance of the New Orleans leaders gathering, popularly referred to as the Amigos Summit.

The council believes the meetings on the Security Prosperity Partnership (SPP) are paving the way for a North American union and undermining Canadian sovereignty.

"They are signing away the rights to our resources," said Council of Canadians Windsor chair Doug Hayes.

Windsor Star

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3-nation summit Plots Policy without Congress or Public
http://www.alipac.us/article3119.html

About 30,000 Mexican migrant workers poured into the New Orleans area immediately after the 2005 storms

How many of these "migrant workers" who "poured" into N.O. were illegal aliens working in squalid conditions for low wages? As I recall, stories at the time documented how American workers were turned away.

The Bushwacker, to Calderon, to Harper is not your normal double play combination. The big news concerns when the Bushwacker will become the President of the North American Union? Give him another chance to be a President, he has certainly failed on his first chance!

30,000 poured into New Orleans only because deals had been made at midnight in dark rooms . To put of the American worker out and hire Illegals for less money .
WHY hasn't the Bush Crime Family been arrested ? He Must up hold the Highest law of the land , The U.S Constitution . Sent Reed and Pelosi packing too . I guess Lindey Graham will be there also. He can call the U.S Citizen Bigots again .