Thread: Top foreign affairs, security and trade officals of canada,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070223/pl ... 0223210337

OTTAWA (AFP) - Top foreign affairs, security and trade officials of Canada, the United States and Mexico met Friday under the auspices of a business-friendly alliance that critics allege is unfairly opaque.

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The meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was expected to discuss border security, trade and energy, the Canadian government said Friday. The US State Department said the deadly bird flu would also feature on the agenda.

The complete agenda, however, was not made public, prompting protests.

The talks are the second since the 2005 creation of the SPP, at the initiative of the White House.

They are aimed at preparing a summit of the heads of state and government of the three countries, said Tom Shannon, US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier hosted the meeting.

The United States sent US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

Mexico was represented by Foreign Affairs Secretary Patricia Espinosa, Interior Secretary Francisco Javier Ramirez Acuna and Commerce Secretary Eduardo Sojo Garza-Aldape.

The ministers were meeting "to discuss how the three democracies are working together to ensure continued prosperity and how we can provide greater security for all of North America," Rice's spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.

They were also presented 50 recommendations from the National American Competitiveness Council, a tri-national working group of the SPP comprised of some 30 chief executives from some of the continent's largest companies, to speed people and goods safely across borders, harmonize trade regulations and improve energy security and production by 2010.

The group, after nine months of consultations and deliberations, called for border infrastructure expansion and improvement; a reduction of "unnecessary differences" in rules and standards, particularly in the food and agriculture, financial services, and transportation sectors; and for enhanced cooperation to protect intellectual property rights.

The group also called for better cross-border oil and gas distribution systems, joint development of clean energy technologies and faster development of Mexico's oil and gas resources.

"The NACC simply sees huge potential for greater cooperation -- in managing borders, regulation, energy and many other issues affecting the quality of life of the citizens of Canada, Mexico and the United States, from responses to emergencies and pandemics to the environment and education," the group said.

In the United States, right-wing commentators have criticized further integration of North America, saying it would erode US security and long-term economic prosperity.

In Canada, condemnation of the SPP has come from the left.

The Council of Canadians said the high-level talks have elevated corporate interests above the public interest, and seek to lower environmental and labor standards in each country.

"The big-business community has been an integral part of these negotiations, while the public and most of our elected officials have been left out," said John Urquhart, executive director of the Council of Canadians.

In Canada's House of Commons, Jack Layton, leader of the socialist New Democratic Party, accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government of conspiring to "sell out Canadian sovereignty."

"The discussions ... affect ordinary people, but this whole process is very, very obscure," he lamented.

"These are secret discussions about security, transportation, the environment, health, increasing integration, without Parliament's involvement, without the public being able to participate in the debate."

Government House leader Peter Van Loan replied that Layton was "imagining conspiracies, but the reality is this is a very open, transparent process."

The three North American neighbors launched the SPP in March 2005 to bolster cooperation on border security, trade and energy.

The three economies were already integrated by the North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in 1994.

This is so very, very wrong.