Why we need to pay attention to the SPP

Because it circumvents any input from affected citizens in any country. There is no oversight and it hands power straight to U.S. corporations.

Via Creekside, Zapagringo:

Summary: This bulletin is intended to be a first introduction to the topic of the SPPNA (hereinafter SPP), initials of a very undemocratic alliance between Canada, Mexico and the United States. On August 201, 2007, the presidents of Mexico and the US and the Canadian prime minister met in Montebello, Quebec, to discuss the SPP. Showing total indifference for democracy, the three governments are reaching crucially important decisions with no prior consultation or consent of civil society. The summit received almost no press coverage in the US, but got reasonably good exposure in Mexico and Canada. We present herein reasons why the citizens of all three countries need to follow SPP developments.

1. What does SPPNA mean?

The initials stand for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, a fairly new regional integration initiative that dates formally from March 23, 2005 when the presidents of Mexico and the United States, and the Canadian prime minister met in Waco, Texas.

2. Is the SPP related to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) that Presidents Carlos Salinas and Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed in 1993?

Yes, it is related and some analysts even call the SPP "NAFTA plus". But there are important differences.

One crucial difference is that the SPP is not an "agreement" as is NAFTA. If it were, it would be subject to scrutiny by the federal legislative branches in the three countries. But under the SPP, the chief executives are signing so-called regulations, hundreds of them, according to some reports. These are similar to presidential decrees and are therefore exempt from legislative review. Civil society has been given very little information.

3. Why is it important that I know something about the SPP?

Citizens of all three countries are concerned because our democratic rights and sovereignty as nations are being ceded to the US government and large corporations. At the behest, or insistence, of the Bush administration, the governing elites of the other two countries have worked rapidly to "securitize" the region which, at least in Mexico, has translated into increased militarization. The SPP is also part of the growing corporate takeover of activities and functions that used to lie in the public sector. Changes are being made in laws, norms, standards, regulations, practices, to facilitate international trade and so increase the profitability of certain corporations, but which in some cases weaken labor, consumer protection and environmental standards. Finding out about the SPP is a necessary first step in detaining its corrosive effects on democracy and national sovereignty.

Read the post for 20 Q+As. It is vital that we keep informed.

And then we get this:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The former top lawyer from the federal agency responsible for trucking safety says the recent backlash against a pilot program that will allow trucks from Mexico to gain greater access to highways in the United States is unwarranted. On Thursday the Bush administration brought its case to a federal appeals court, arguing that to do otherwise could strain diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Attorney Brigham McCown is the former general counsel for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration who helped negotiate and design the new program while serving as a senior Bush Administration official at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C.

The FMCSA program will allow approximately 100 registered truck carriers from Mexico to travel beyond the current restricted U.S. border zone. The Teamsters Union has asked a federal appeals court to keep the program from going forward.

"The last-minute attempts to block the program are just the desperate efforts of a few people who want to protect their own turf," McCown says. "We've been over this for two decades. What they fail to tell you is that trucks from Mexico that were grandfathered before a moratorium in the 1980s travel down our roads -- without incident -- every day, and have done so for years."

Government lawyers said that the trucks enrolled in the program meet U.S. regulations and that the program is a necessary part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

[snip]

NAFTA stipulates all roadways in the U.S., Mexico and Canada to be opened to carriers from all the three countries. The disparity lies in the fact that Canadian trucking firms have full access to U.S. roads, while Mexican trucks can travel about 20 miles into the country and then only at certain border crossings, such as San Diego and El Paso.