Tories to Announce Deal Forming North America 'Perimeter'

John Ivison, National Post · Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010

Already signed by The US and Mexico in March 2010, this bill will be signed by the US and Canada in January 2011. New name, same game... Welcome to the NAU boys.

The Conservative government is set to announce a landmark security and trade deal with the United States, designed to create a perimeter around North America and allow people and goods to flow more freely across the border.

Sources suggested that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama will sign the broad-ranging agreement in Washington as early as next month.

“It’s big on ideals but maybe not so great on details,” said one person familiar with the negotiations. “But it does use the word ‘perimeter’ many times...The question is, will it reduce the compliance burden at the Canada-U.S. border?”

The New Border Vision is being billed as a 21st century border management system that will include new common consumer product regulations, a pre-clearance agreement for goods crossing the border to expedite waiting times and the use of advanced technology to utilize biometric data for travelers at airports and land crossings, according to people familiar with the plan.

The new framework will likely be discussed when the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visits Ottawa this Monday but government sources said the announcement will not be made by Ms. Clinton. A spokesman for the Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews, said: “No such announcement is planned. We don’t comment on hearsay or speculation.” A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa refused to comment.

Colin Robertson, a senior research fellow with the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, said the agreement is an attempt by the Canadian government to link security to improved access to the U.S. for Canadians.

“‘Perimeter’ is a vital word because back in the Chrétien government days we couldn’t use it because we would get caught up in the sovereignty allergy we too often have,” he said. “It makes a lot of sense.”

The U.S. announced a similar deal with Mexico in March. It included moves to expedite travel and commerce such as secure transit lanes for pre-cleared rail and truck shipments, as well as passenger pre-clearance for individuals.

Business is likely to welcome a more coordinated perimeter approach to regulation and security but one exporter remained skeptical. “A vision without money is a hallucination,” he said.

The U.S. and Canada have taken piecemeal steps to coordinate their efforts against common threats like terrorism. Last year, Canada signed on to the NEXUS membership card and Free and Secure Trade (FAST) trusted traveller programs as a valid means of identification at the border. However, more sweeping agreements have foundered in the past, notably the Security and Prosperity Partnership agreement signed in 2005 by former Prime Minister Paul Martin, ex-U.S. President George W. Bush and former Mexican President Vicente Fox.

The SPP was aimed at reducing the cost of trade and improving the flow of people and information but became a lightning rod for criticism on both sides of the border. In the U.S., CNN anchor Lou Dobbs argued the SPP was part of a plan to merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a North American Union, while a number of organizations criticized the agreement for its secrecy.

In Canada, NDP leader Jack Layton said the process was not just unconstitutional but “non-constitutional” because there were no oversight mechanisms. By 2009, all three governments had abandoned the SPP, which is “no longer an active initiative,” according to its website.

Mr. Robertson said that increased integration could impact areas like immigration and refugee policy but was unlikely to lead to a European Union-style agreement. “Economic union would mean a common currency and, over the last couple of years, it has been definitively proven that we are far better off with our own currency,” he said.


Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tories+announce+deal+forming+North+America+perimeter/3947584/story.html#ixzz18uNcrbc3

Perimeter with U.S. could hurt Canada’s Sovereignty: Opposition

OTTAWA — The opposition is accusing the Harper government of ceding Canadian sovereignty through a proposed deal with the United States that would establish a security perimeter around the two countries as a way to stimulate trade.

While refusing to confirm the talks, the Conservatives defended their efforts to smooth the flow of goods and people across the U.S. border, which businesses complain has been “thickening” with security red tape in recent years.

“We do in fact work in harmony and co-operation with the Americans. The Conservative government believes it’s essential that our borders with the United States be bridges between us, and not barriers,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told the House of Commons, adding that the government has taken action to “ensure our borders are closed to crime and open for business.”

But Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said the Conservatives can’t be trusted to stand up for Canada’s sovereignty.

“The Conservatives bowed to the Americans on softwood lumber. They asked for Washington’s approval before acting on the environment. They bought American fighter jets without inviting offers here, in Canada,” Mr. Ignatieff said. “With a record like this, how can Canadians be confident that the government will protect Canada’s sovereignty and the freedom of its citizens in their secret negotiations with the Americans on the border?”

The opposition was reacting to reports this week that the government is negotiating an agreement with the U.S. that would allow “pre-cleared” rail and truck shipments to pass more quickly across the border. The deal, which could be signed as early as January, would see the two countries harmonize regulations in certain areas, such as consumer-product safety, the National Post reported. It’s also believed the deal would involve closer co-operation on law enforcement and the screening of individuals through tools such as biometrics.

The U.S. signed a similar deal this spring with Mexico, the other signatory to the North American Free-Trade Agreement.

A representative for Canadian industry welcomed the talks, saying border bureaucracy has become a “huge issue” for companies that rely on integrated North American supply chains.

“It’s really an issue about manufacturing competitiveness in North America,” said Jayson Myers, chief executive of Manufacturers and Exporters. “What we’re seeing is more and more information requirements, more and more regulatory and compliance requirements, more and more security requirements, more and more fees being charged.”

Industry Minister Tony Clement said there’s “no question” that border thickening has affected trade between the two countries.

“We’re always concerned that homeland security in the United States always trumps everything. It trumps our trade patterns, and I know that the Americans have concerns about security, as they should, but we also have to trade with one another,” Mr. Clement told reporters.

Canada should look to other increasing integration of markets in certain regions, such as the European Union and Southeast Asia, he added. “They do a lot better job of making sure that their supply chains are more integrated, for instance. And so this is a comparative advantage they have over North America. So we’ve got to do a better job because we’re losing business to the world.”

NDP Leader Jack Layton said the security-perimeter proposal should be debated in the House of Commons before being adopted.

“Some people think that maybe Canada should be deeply integrated with the U.S., and because we watch the same TV shows, we should become the same country, virtually. I don’t agree with that, and I don’t think the majority of Canadians do,” he said.


Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Perimeter+with+could+hurt+Canada+sovereignty+opposition/3954157/story.html#ixzz18uJZeFWT

Obama Appoints Racist La Raza VP to Director of Intergovernmental Affairs

Ed. -Thanks for the 'Openness and Change' Obama, can you get any more closed minded and negative than this blatant act of RACISM???

(CNSNews.com) – An 18-year veteran of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), who advocates for federal legislation to give the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States a path to citizenship, has been tapped for President-elect Barack Obama’s White House staff.

Cecilia Muñoz, who currently serves as Senior Vice President for the office of research, advocacy and legislation at the NCLR, will serve as director for intergovernmental affairs in the Obama administration.

“We’re continuing to build a White House team that can rise to the challenges facing this country,” Obama said when he announced the appointment of Muñoz last week.

“And I couldn’t be more excited to announce Cecilia. I’m confident that at a critical time in our history, this White House will restore openness and accountability to our Executive Branch and help to put government back in the hands of the people it serves,” Obama added.

In her new post, Muñoz will be responsible for managing relations between the Obama administration and state and local governments. She is a first-generation American whose parents came to the United States from Bolivia.

Muñoz, 46, said in an essay aired on National Public Radio on Sept. 26, 2005, that the anger sparked by what she considered a racist remark about Latinos made by a friend when she was 17 shaped her successful career as an immigration activist.

“My outrage that day became a propellant of my life, driving me straight to the civil rights movement, where I’ve worked ever since,” Muñoz said. “I guess outrage got me pretty far. I found jobs in the immigrant rights movement. I moved to Washington to work as an advocate. I found plenty to be angry about along the way and built something of a reputation for being strident.
“I’m deeply familiar with that hollow place that outrage (Blatant hatred for Americans) carves in your soul,” Muñoz said in the National Public Radio essay. “I’ve fed off it (the hatred) to sustain my work for many years.”

Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told CNSNews.com that the director of intergovernmental affairs will play a critical role in the next administration, but it is a role that may be difficult for Muñoz to fulfill, given her background.

“Her direct and succinct affiliation with La Raza (The Race) taints her ability to represent the broader national interest,” Dane said. “La Raza exists as a way to systematically dismantle enforcement and any semblance of discipline in the immigration system. Are we to believe that she is going to distance herself in her new role to represent the broader national interest?”

Muñoz, who holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Latin American Studies from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, was an advocate for President Bush’s comprehensive immigration reform proposed in 2007.

At a speech at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in March 2007, Muñoz spoke about how the public, including the media, did not understand the NCLR’s goal of economic equity and social justice for immigrants.

“My organization in particular gets challenged, especially in the media,” Muñoz said. “I’m not just taking about talk radio or Fox, but even CNN. We get portrayed as a radical, U.S.-hating, brown beret-wearing separatist organization hell-bent on retrieving the Southwest United States for Mexico, which is really silly (but what we REALLY WANT!).”

She said previous attempts at immigration reform in the United States failed because legislation took a “hostile’ approach to solving what Muñoz said is “one of the most important domestic policies of our time.”

She cited legislation passed in Hazelton, Pa., for example, which made renting property to illegal aliens against the law, and road blocks on Georgia highways “because local police had gotten into the business of immigration enforcement.”

“They thought, ‘If we round people up, if we make the climate hostile, undocumented immigrants will go away,” Muñoz said. “So if you happen to look Mexican and you’re driving down the highway in Georgia, you’re very likely to be picked up by these road blocks (GOOD!, maybe the rest of the country should take note).”

She said people were detained for days and even weeks because they couldn’t prove they were U.S. citizens.

Muñoz said she supported comprehensive immigration reform that required people who are in the United States illegally to come forward, prove they have no criminal record and are paying taxes, pay a fine, start to learn English, and then be put on a path to citizenship that would take about 10 years to complete.

“We’re not rewarding illegality,” Muñoz said. “We are asking (illegal immigrants) to earn something and we’re asking them to pay a fine. And then we need to move on (So then DENOUNCE your loyalty to the RACIST LA RAZA party!!.”

Bush and Moonies Make HUGE Land Grabs in Paraguay

The Governor of Alto Paraguay, Erasmo Rodríguez Acosta has admitted to hearing that George Bush Sr. owns land in the Chaco region of Paraguay, in Paso de Patria. Acosta says that rumor has it that Bush owns near to 70 thousand hectares (173,000 acres) as part of an ecological reserve and/or ranch. However, the governor said he had no documents to prove the rumor. Acosta said that some stories credited the land to the Fundación Patria, which Bush would be a member of. The spokespeople of the organization were not available to comment. Supposedly, Timothy Towell , the U.S. Ambassador in Asunción (the capital of Paraguay) is the present administrator of the land. First accounts signaled that Bush had acquired 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) in the Chaco zone of Fuerte Olimpo, near the Bolivian Border. A spark of the interest in this property may have been Jenna Bush's private visit to Paraguay with Unicef, which started Saturday, October 7, 2006. Supposedly Jenna will travel to the ranch to "observe" several indigenous villages are located on the property.

The original story from Paraguay, in Spanish, from Prensa Latina that identifies the purchaser as George W rather than George HW Bush, but the Chaco purchase strikes me as more likely an initiative of the father than of the son. Bush Sr, let's remember, tootled around Latin America in 1996 as Moon's lapdog and praised him in Buenos Aires as "the man with the vision." (Moon's foresight might have included blackmail, specifically the office of the then Vice President with the Craig Spence call boy scandal. Influence, by any means necessary.) Still, keeping Moon's company is a Bush family enterprise, as Neil accompanied the Reverend last year on his 100-day "global peace campaign."

Paraguay, of course, has been a recent source of alarm to the region for its allowance of its tri-border territory to become a US military beachhead. Now, with the reports of the Bush purchase of an "ecological reserve" alongside Moon's, we have good reason to suspect that US national security has again been seconded to the Bush family business.

The land which is located somewhere near Mariscal Estigarribia is near natural gas reserves, but of more importance, It's near the one of the largest aquafers in N. America.

Argentinean Adolfo Perez Esquivel warned that the real war will be fought not for oil, but for water, and recalled that Acuifero Guaraní is one of the largest underground water reserves in South America, running beneath Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay (larger than Texas and California together).

He termed it “surprising” that the Bush family is trying to settle a few short miles from the US Mariscal Estigarribia Military Base.

Another report notes the land purchase is also nearby a huge tract of land purchased by Sun Myung Moon that sits astride Latin America's largest water aquifer, the Guarani aquifer.

According to this report, Bush and the Carlyle Group are also the owners of major tracts of land along the proposed US super-highway linking Mexico and Canada, land that will be worth hundreds of millions more when the highway is completed.

Do I need to remind everyone that the Nazi's escaped to South America as well?

No extradition treaties, no rule, no conscience..

Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Coming in June 2009

Does "REAL ID" ring a bell? How about "Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative?" It looks like almost no one picked up on it in the media...what a shock.

From our resident Jew,(he holds dual Israeli and American citizenship) Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's speech Monday:

"We have a unique opportunity, one that may not come again, to partner with a determined leader in Mexico, so that we can address a shared problem in a partnership way that we cannot afford to ignore. Now of course we are not only focused on efforts to control the border between the ports of entry, we are increasing our security and our efficiency at the ports of entry themselves. We continue to move forward with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which is slated to go into effect in June 2009 at our land and sea ports of entry.

As you will remember, this initiative reduces the types of identification that can be presented at the border so that we get to a requirement of reliable identification for people who want to enter the United States. And it also has eliminated the old system of allowing people to simply orally declare their citizenship and get waved on through.

We have already implemented the first part of our effort to shrink the kind of acceptable documentation at our airports, and compliance has been close to 100 percent. Likewise, as we’ve increased the rigor of our requirements at the land and sea borders, we have found very high compliance rates. And we are working hard to increase the type of reliable documents, and the number of reliable documents which Americans and Canadians can use once this Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative gets implemented in June of next year.

For example, the new pass-card being issued by the State Department has received more than 200,000 applications, and production is set to begin this month. I have applied for one myself. I hope you have to, or you will shortly Secretary Gutierrez. What these cards are going to do is not be more reliable, but they will be faster, because instead of having to read a driver’s license, these will be machine-readable only. You can simply zip through a machine-reader, which will make the process times faster.

The states have also stepped up and become part of the solution to the issue of secure documentation. The state of Washington is currently issuing its own version of an approved, enhanced driver’s license that will be acceptable at the border. New York has announced that it has completed its business plan to begin producing enhanced driver’s licenses. And other states are on the way to doing so as well."

http://corneliusdurden.mindsay.com/north_american_union_is_here.mws

Absolut 'Gives' Southwest US to Mexico

Vodka ad shows ‘Absolut world’ in which California, Arizona, others secede

Please call Absolut Vodka’s PR department at 1-212-641-8720 and voice your concerns.

New ad for Absolut Vodka reconfigures North America according to the aspirations of many Mexicans, who believe the U.S. Southwest was stolen and should be returned.

Over a redrawn map of the U.S., the ad by the Absolut Spirits Co. declares, “In an Absolut World,” noted columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin.

Major Hispanic civil rights groups in the U.S., such as the National Council of La Raza, are tied to movements advocating a “reconquista,” or reconquest, of territory lost when Mexico signed the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican-American War.

As WND reported in 2006, Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., called on La Raza to renounce its support of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan – which sees “The Race” as part of an ethnic group that one day will reclaim Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan includes California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas.

In 2002, a prominent Chicano activist and University of California at Riverside professor, Armando Navarro, told WND he believed secession is inevitable if demographic and social trends continue.

“If in 50 years most of our people are subordinated, powerless, exploited and impoverished, then I will say to you that there are all kinds of possibilities for movements to develop like the ones that we’ve witnessed in the last few years all over the world, from Yugoslavia to Chechnya” Navarro said.

“A secessionist movement is not something that you can put away and say it is never going to happen in the United States,” he contended. “Time and history change.”

Navarro said one could argue “that while Mexico lost the war in 1848, it will probably win it back in the 21st century, in terms of the numbers,” “But that is not a reality based on what Mexico does, it’s based on what this country does,” he insisted.

In a 1995 speech to Chicano activists, Navarro said demographic trends are leading to “a transfer of power” to the ethnic Mexican community in the Southwest. He notes that most studies show that within the next 20 to 30 years Latinos will comprise more than 50 percent of the population of California. This fact, and other cultural and social developments, are opening the door for “self-determination” and even “the idea of an Aztlan,” he said in his speech.

McCain to attend convention of RACIST La Raza group

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain, the de facto Republican presidential nominee, announced today he will attend the national convention of La Raza, a radical Hispanic lobby tied to the movement to reconquer the Southwestern U.S. that was part of Mexico before the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848.

The convention will be held in San Diego July 14.

Though La Raza bills itself as a civil rights organization, the group's name literally means "The Race." La Raza information {Here}

La Raza was condemned in 2006 by Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., as a radical "pro-illegal immigration lobbying organization that supports racist groups calling for the secession of the western United States as a Hispanic-only homeland."

Norwood has called on La Raza to renounce its support of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan – which sees "The Race" as part of an ethnic group that one day will reclaim Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan includes California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas.

McCain, who steadfastly opposed efforts to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border and supported legislation to permit illegal aliens to remain in the U.S., also announced the launch of his campaign's Spanish language website. {Link}
The announcements came on Cinco de Mayo, the day commemorating an 1862 battle fought by Mexican troops.

"Today, we join together to remember the sacrifice that these Mexican patriots endured, as well as the struggles of all those around the world striving for freedom," said McCain in the statement. "We recognize as well the important friendship that exists between our country and Mexico, and celebrate the many contributions Mexican-Americans have made to our society, culture, security and economy."

Bill to improve health care…in Mexico!

The health care mess in the United States is a top concern of voters. Too many Americans find that, despite their best efforts, they are unable to provide quality health care for their families. Too many Americans live in fear that an illness might leave them destitute. Too many Americans spend years sacrificing to pay skyrocketing premiums only to discover that, when the need arises, their policies offer protections that are next to worthless.

Most of us agree that it’s simply not right that so many Americans, sincerely trying their best to provide for their families, are at the mercy of a phalanx of greedy insurance companies, medical malpractice lawyers, health care corporations, and other profiteers that have used decades of influence in Washington to institutionalize their chomp hold on the public jugular.

What would Americans think, then, of a member of Congress who introduced legislation, not to improve health care in the United States, but to improve health care in Mexico?

Insane? Drunk? Unworthy of public office?

What would Americans think, then, of a bill introduced in Congress that required federal agencies to come up with a plan, not to expand health coverage in the United States, but to expand health coverage in Mexico?

Impossible? Unthinkable? Wildly irresponsible?

What would Americans think, then, of the motives of a senator, who not only introduced a bill to improve Mexico’s health care system and extend coverage to a growing population of 120 million people, but gave health insurance companies the right to help devise the plan?

Blatantly corrupt? Grossly indifferent to the well-being of the American people? Downright treasonous?

Unbelievable as it may seem, the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 contained a provision giving insurance companies the right to help devise a plan for extending US health care to Mexico (Sec. 1004. BINATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND HEALTH INSURANCE).

A North American Community Approach to Security

I hope this Committee will pursue the North American agenda beyond the travel initiative considered here. On June 23rd, the three leaders promised to publish a report with specific recommendations on how to deepen North American integration. These should be reviewed together with Senator Richard Lugar’s far-sighted bill for a “North American Cooperative Security Act” and Senator Cornyn’s “North American Investment Fund.” The time has come for us to define a true North American Community. Our security and prosperity depend on it.

http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/testimony/2005/PastorTestimony050609.pdf

North American Union "Conspiracy" Exposed

A top Democratic Party foreign policy specialist said that a “very small group” of conservatives is unfairly accusing him of being at the center of a “vast conspiracy” to implement the idea of a “North American Union” by “stealth.” He called the charges “absurd.”

But Robert Pastor, a former official of the Carter Administration and director of the Center for North American Studies at American University (CNAS), made the remarks at an all-day February 16 conference devoted to the development of a North American legal system. The holding of the conference was itself evidence that a comprehensive process is underway to merge the economies, and perhaps the social and political systems, of the three countries.

Pastor said that he favors a “North American Community,” not a formal union of the three countries, and several speakers at the conference ridiculed the idea of protecting America’s borders and suggested that American citizenship was an outmoded concept.

Wearing a lapel pin featuring the flags of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, Pastor told AIM that he favors a $200-billion North American Investment Fund to pull Mexico out of poverty and a national biometric identity card for the purpose of controlling the movement of people in and out of the U.S. Read more...

http://www.pushhamburger.com/expose.htm

Former Mexican president wants North American Union based on EU

Mexico's former president, Vicente Fox, made an astounding admission last night on CNN's Larry King Live when he acknowledged the plan for a NAFTA single currency, a "euro-dollar" as King labeled it.

Fox also vowed to help unite the Americas beyond a trade agreement, following what he described as "a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA".

The comments follow Fox's appearance on The Daily Show in which he advocated the creation of a North American Union based on the model of the European Union.

Building a North American Community

What follows is a brief summary of the report. Note the involvement of the Council on Foreign Relations in the development of this report and its policy "recommendations". For further background information about the CFR and its role in establishing the one world system, see our Shadow Government section. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for the complete report, which follows the summary. The report is in portable document format (pdf) and must be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Report originally located at
http://www.usembassycanada.gov/content/can_usa/northamericancommunity_TF_final.pdf

Special thanks to Connie Fogal of the Canadian Action Party, who wrote the summary below and to Wanda Benton of the PRC-Digest for calling it to our attention.


Summary:

The North American continent is being transformed from three sovereign nations (Canada, USA, Mexico) into one regional corporate power base, the North American Union.

Unlike the creation of the European Union, there is no public political/ academic discourse on the merits, or pros and cons of a North American Union building up to a vote within each nation as to the wish of the people to join such a union. Instead the union is being created by stealth, is already well on its way to fruition, and is being imposed on us by our own "elected" representatives and government with no opposition.

The ultimate enforcement mechanism for the North American Union is a police state. The tools for the police state are "anti-terrorist" laws. Anti Terrorist laws are a ruse to strip the people of their liberties in order to prevent dissent. The Orwellian justification is "security", "safety".

The plan of this Canada-U.S.-Mexico task force is to establish a continent-wide customs union with a common approach to trade, energy, immigration, law enforcement and security that would virtually eliminate existing national borders. The task force released its recommendations for a common North American in May 17/18, 2005.There was minor reference to it in mainstream media - no headline presentation.

The recommendations include:

• a common security perimeter by 2010
• a North American Border Pass with biometric identifiers.
• a unified border and expanded customs facilities
• a single economic space
• a common external tariff.
• seamless movement of goods within North America.
• A North American energy strategy -as a regional alternative to Kyoto.
• Review those sectors of NAFTA that were excluded.
• A North American regulatory plan that would include "open skies and open roads" and a unified approach on food, health, and the environment.
• Expand temporary worker programs and create a "North American preference" for immigration for citizens of North America.
• A North American Investment Fund to build infrastructure to connect Mexico's poorer regions in the south to the market to the north.
• Restructure and reform Mexico's public finances.
• Fully develop Mexican energy resources (Mexico wisely kept their energy out of NAFTA)
• A permanent tribunal for trade and investment disputes.( Here is where any vestige of democratic government disappears)
• An annual North American summit meeting.
• A Tri-national Competition Commission with a common approach to trade remedies.
• Scholarships for a network of Centers for North American Studies. (To serve the corporations)
• Below is the list of the Members of the Independent Task Force on North America- Many are members of the Trilateral Commission - a similar corporate interest group from the USA, Japan and Western Europe )

http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/nafta_gatt/community.html

Teamsters to Try to Block Mexican Trucks

WASHINGTON - The Teamsters Union said Wednesday it will ask a federal appeals courts to block the Bush administration's plan to begin allowing Mexican trucks to carry cargo anywhere in the United States.

The union said it has been told by officials in the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that the first Mexican trucks will be coming across the border on Saturday.

Teamsters leaders said they planned to seek an emergency injunction Wednesday from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

"What a slap in the face to American workers, opening the highways to dangerous trucks on Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest driving weekends of the year," said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa.

Joining the Teamsters in seeking the emergency stay were the Sierra Club and Public Citizen. "Before providing unconditional access throughout the country to tens of thousands of big rigs we know little to nothing about, we must insure they meet safety and environmental standards," Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in a statement, said it was working closely with the department's inspector general "as his office completes an additional assessment of the program and we prepare a detailed response to that report."

The Bush administration said last week it would start the cross-border program once the Transportation Department's inspector general certifies safety and inspection plans.

Leslie Miller, a Teamsters spokeswoman, said attorneys for the federal truck safety agency advised the union's lawyers that they expect to get that certification on Friday. She said the Teamsters also were told by the agency attorneys that limited authority for trucks to begin crossing the border will be approved Saturday.

Supporters of the plan say letting more Mexican trucks on U.S. highways will save American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Labor and driver-owner groups have been fighting the measure _ part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement _ since it was first proposed, saying the program will erode highway safety and eliminate U.S. jobs.

A one-year demonstration project would allow 100 Mexican motor carriers full access to U.S. roads. It can begin as soon as the inspector general certifies that safety and inspection plans and facilities are sufficient to ensure the Mexican trucks are as safe as U.S. trucks.

Since 1982, Mexican trucks have had to stop within a buffer border zone and transfer their loads to U.S. trucks.

___

One the Net:

Teamsters: http://www.teamsters.org

http://www.cnbc.com/id/20325958/for/cnbc/