Promoting a Better Understanding of the SPP

August 17, 2007

The following article appears today in the current issue of FOCAL POINT, the newsletter of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas. The author, Thomas d’Aquino, is Chief Executive and President of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and chairs the Secretariat advising Canadian members of the North American Competitiveness Council.

Is This NAFTA All Over Again?

Promoting a Better Understanding of the SPP

 By Thomas d’Aquino

By any measure, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been an extraordinary success. Since it went into effect in 1994, trade between Canada, the United States and Mexico has flourished, employment across the continent has risen and family incomes have marched steadily upward.

Contrast those results with the alarmist predictions made by Canada’s nationalist left during the run-up to NAFTA’s ratification. Critics claimed that more liberalized trade with our southern neighbours would savage Canada’s economy, destroy cherished social programs and sound the death knell for Canadian sovereignty.

The reality could not be more different, yet the doomsayers have not given up. Their new target of choice is the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), which was launched by the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico in 2005. Once again, activists are attempting to sow fear by insisting that Canada’s sovereignty, social programs and quality of life are in imminent danger. Indeed, the charges now being levelled against the SPP bear an uncanny resemblance to the rhetoric they used during the great free trade battles of the 1980s and early 1990s.

In the United States, too, there is an element of “déjà vu all over again” in the debate about the SPP. In 1992, presidential candidate Ross Perot tried to frighten voters into opposing NAFTA by warning about the “giant sucking sound” of jobs heading to Mexico should the agreement be ratified. It did not happen, but today another group of isolationists, of whom the best known is television journalist Lou Dobbs, is working hard to discredit the SPP by claiming that it represents an “unprecedented attack” on the economy and sovereignty of the United States. Mr. Dobbs regularly warns his viewers of a secret conspiracy to erase national boundaries and merge the United States, Mexico and Canada into a “North American Union” similar to the European Union.

Anyone who is even remotely familiar with the SPP knows that such claims are patently false. Still, history teaches that a lie, repeated often enough, can sometimes be mistaken for the truth. That is why, on the eve of this month’s leaders’ summit in Montebello, Quebec, involving Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President George W. Bush and President Felipe Calderón, it is vital that supporters of the SPP speak up and dispel the myths being propagated by extremists on both the left and right of the political spectrum.

To begin with, the SPP is not a treaty or an agreement. Nothing in it infringes upon the sovereignty of any nation. The SPP simply provides a framework to enhance collaboration among the United States, Mexico and Canada in practical ways that will make our people more secure and our enterprises more competitive globally.

In launching the SPP, the leaders of our three nations were responding to two fundamental realities. First, September 11, 2001, marked the beginning of a new era in which economics and security are closely intertwined. Second, the transformation of global trade and investment by new economic powers such as China and India has made it vital for the North American partners to work together more effectively and efficiently. Enterprises in all three countries need markets within North America to work seamlessly and securely if they are to survive and compete against increasingly aggressive global competitors and mounting security threats.

At their 2006 Summit, the three North American leaders recognized that to accelerate progress under the SPP, they would benefit from direct advice from the front lines of the private sector. This led to the creation of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), a trilateral group made up of senior representatives of the business community from each country. NACC members were asked to draw up a list of priority recommendations that, if implemented, would alleviate trade bottlenecks, enhance productivity and lower costs for companies throughout the continent, thereby enhancing North America’s competitive position in global markets.

Those who oppose the SPP have asserted that, by encouraging business leaders to form the NACC, the three North American leaders have handed over control of the continent to the private sector. Some have even accused the business community of staging a “silent coup d’état,” making the NACC the de facto North American government.

The absurdity of such statements is plain to anyone who examines the NACC’s initial report to security and prosperity ministers in February 2007. Following extensive consultations across the business communities of all three countries, the report offered 51 concrete recommendations for the SPP in three areas: improving the secure flow of goods and people within North America; strengthening regulatory cooperation; and enhancing the security of energy supply.

NACC members were pleased with the positive reception of their report by the ministers at their February meeting, and they are encouraged that all three governments have committed themselves to taking action on many NACC recommendations. For instance, in the area of border-crossing facilitation, the governments of Canada and the United States have taken important steps toward a new crossing at Detroit-Windsor to help alleviate chronic transportation bottlenecks. In standards and regulatory cooperation, governments are close to completion of a trilateral Regulatory Cooperation Framework, an essential tool for ensuring the compatibility of new regulations to the greatest extent possible. And on the energy front, ministers are working together to promote the development of specialized skilled labour, at a time when labour shortages threaten to impede economic growth.

As these examples show, the approach of the SPP is to achieve progress through practical, common-sense solutions, and by building on existing systems and processes wherever feasible. At this month’s summit in Montebello, we will be asking leaders to ensure that the SPP remains what it has already shown itself to be: a powerful vehicle for improving trilateral and bilateral cooperation.

Working through the NACC, North America’s private sector is committed to doing its part in shaping a more competitive and secure North America – and in promoting a better understanding of how the SPP serves the interests of people in all three countries.