Thread: Presidents of U.S., Mexico to attend summit with Harper near

Presidents of U.S., Mexico to attend summit with Harper near Ottawa
Thu May 10, 6:40 PM

By Alexander Panetta

OTTAWA (CP) - U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to debunk a few negative misconceptions about post-9/11 North America when he arrives in Canada for a two-day summit this August.

He and Mexican President Felipe Calderon will arrive at a rural hotel resort near Ottawa for a summit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper that begins Aug. 21, sources in two countries told The Canadian Press.

The meeting has not yet been announced and the official agenda is still being finalized but U.S. officials are already fine-tuning the hopeful message they want to convey.

They plan to combat impressions that the U.S. and its continental neighbours have been - or should be - locking down their borders after 9/11 to the detriment of trade and human relationships.

"This is a region that works and that's a story that needs to be told," said one U.S. official.

"There's a perception that countries are turning inward, borders are thickening since 9/11. The statistics really don't bear it out. The decisions people are making to move, to travel, to study, and to purchase in each of our three countries are continuing apace."

Officials will arrive at the posh Chateau Montebello resort armed with statistics to support their case.

Those numbers tell a different tale than the alarmist coverage of many cross-border events: Canadian tourists killed in Mexico; U.S. handguns being smuggled into both countries; illegal Mexican immigrants sneaking into the U.S.; trade disputes; and new passport requirements.

The reality is Canadian exports to the U.S. have risen almost 50 per cent since Sept. 11, 2001 - to $303.4 billion U.S. in 2006, from $216.3 billion five years earlier.

Canadian imports have done the same, rising to $230.6 billion last year from $163.4 billion in 2001.

Canada's merchandise exports to Mexico have almost doubled since 2001 to $4.4 billion last year, and its imports have grown to $16 billion from $12 billion in 2001.

New air-travel passport requirements introduced by the U.S. earlier this year may have had an impact but certainly not the devastating one some had predicted.

American air travel into Canada has dipped 2 per cent since last year, while Canadian travel to the U.S. increased 2.5 per cent, say statistics supplied by the U.S. government.

And the post-9/11 plunge in foreign students arriving in the United States appears to be reversing.

The U.S. Institute of International Education says American universities reported an eight-per-cent increase in new foreign enrolments for 2005-06 - including 28,000 from Canada and 14,000 from Mexico.

There are no plans for drastic measures like a customs union or common currency to be raised at the summit.

U.S. officials say there's no appetite there or in Canada for any European-Union style relationship betwen the countries.

But they say there's also a need to answer what they call the "Lou Dobbs-Maude Barlow coalition" - American right-wingers and Canadian leftists who decry any integration as a loss of national sovereignty.

"The words 'deep integration' have become a dirty word to an odd coalition of people," said one official.

Mexican officials also confirmed the meeting. Only the Canadian government refused to comment.

The summit had initially been planned at Alberta's remote Kananaskis resort for late June but a scheduling conflict kept Bush from attending at the time.

The Aug. 21 meeting at the Montebello location - one hour from Ottawa across the Quebec border - was deemed convenient to all three leaders.

There are also plans for cabinet ministers to attend the summit.

U.S. Secret Service agents were seen in Ottawa this week accompanying cabinet officials to planning sessions for the event.

Canada is not a total leach on our backside!

Seriously, what we are importing from Mexico is primarly illegal and I'm not just talking about people. What are we exporting? Dollars!

Dixie