Is a 'North American Union' in the future?*

Mexico, U.S. deny plan for any EU-like merger

Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau
Oct. 24, 2007 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Someday soon, you'll be keeping ameros in your wallet, not
dollars. The goods they buy will zip freely from Mexico to Canada on an
enormous new road. And the United States will merge with its neighbors
into a massive North American Union that reigns sovereign over more than
440 million people.

At least that is the vision being raised by a small but vocal group of
bloggers, activists and border-security hard-liners.

As the U.S. has increased efforts to cooperate with Canada and Mexico on
security and trade, and as the Bush administration has pushed
immigration reforms that are extremely unpopular with many
conservatives, opponents have become more convinced that North America
is heading toward a merger.

Although all three governments strongly deny any such plan, a series of
private meetings by top leaders and a sweeping effort to rewrite
regulations in all three countries aimed at smoothing cross-border
relations have emerged as a lightning rod for speculation, criticism and
fear.

The goal of the initiative, known as the Security and Prosperity
Partnership, is to ensure that the countries work together to keep
weapons and terrorists from entering North America while making it
easier for movement and commerce among all three nations. Business
groups and advocates of free trade have pushed for even more
cooperation. The meetings started in 2005 and grew out of long-standing,
less-formal cooperation among the three nations.

But critics say the partnership is just the first step in a much broader
attempt to build a "North American Union" modeled after the political
and economic integration that the European Union built.

Those who fear a merger see signs everywhere. They cite the dollar's
recent decline in value, increasing illegal immigration and attempts to
expand free-trade areas in the Western Hemisphere. They also point to
efforts to increase trade along Interstate 35, which runs straight up
the middle of the United States from Mexico to Canada. In Internet
postings about the partnership, I-35 has morphed into a "NAFTA
Superhighway."

An agreement in the works to allow Mexican trucks to drive into the U.S.
is seen as another tip-off, as is the growing U.S. foreign-trade
imbalance, even though China exports more to the U.S. than Mexico and is
gaining on Canada.

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox recently told CNN's Larry King that
"long term, very long term," the goal of free-trade agreements could be
a Western Hemisphere united by one currency.

"There's too much evidence. You've got too many things happening," said
Jerome Corsi, a conservative activist and author of The Late Great
U.S.A., a book that delves into some of the most alarming
interpretations of the U.S.-Canadian-Mexican meetings.

Still, to officials involved in the meetings, the idea that the
partnership will move to infringe on individual countries' sovereignty
is misguided.

"I can tell you that that is categorically wrong, it is misleading, it
is false, and that type of information, it just creates tension when it
shouldn't because it's not true," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez
said in an interview. "We want to do things that are common sense
through regulations that will make our three countries more efficient
and more productive. But this has nothing to do with sovereignty."

In August, during a meeting with the Canadian prime minister and Mexican
president, President Bush called the idea "comical" and a "political
scare tactic," accusing his opponents of "(laying) out a conspiracy and
then (forcing) people to try to prove it doesn't exist."

Working together

Although theories about a North American merger may sound far-fetched,
they are rooted in negotiations and working groups that all three
countries say are important.

In its brief existence, the Security and Prosperity Partnership has
produced the kind of dry government documents that might be expected
from meetings and working groups that try to treat each nation as equal
when it comes to both symbolism and substance.

The U.S., Canadian and Mexican flags dot each release. The partnership
has pursued increasing cooperation among public-health labs in each
nation and drafting plans for cross-border emergency assistance in a
disaster. It also wants to write similar regulations for industries
ranging from medical devices to textile manufacturing so companies
operating in all three countries can follow the same standards. Members
also are pursuing policies that ease entry and exit into each country.

"What we tried to do was simply meet, talk about our common problems and
see what we can do in practical terms in order to improve the lives of
our people," Mexican President Felipe Calderón said at the past meeting.
"Whether it's to standardize the (regulatory) parameters for chocolates
or medicines, I think these are common-sense things."

Business organizations that seek increased cooperation among the
countries have praised the partnership's work, as have some economists
who favor free trade.

"One of the realities of our country is that we live in a global
economy," said Maria Luisa O'Connell, president of the Phoenix-based
Border Trade Alliance, a group that pushes for more integration and
cooperation among the three nations. "From a security perspective, from
an economic perspective, we cannot afford not to work together with
Canada and Mexico."

The meetings, which are closed, are held every year. This year's was in
Montebello, Canada. Bush has invited Calderón and Canadian Prime
Minister Stephen Harper to his Texas ranch for next year's meeting.

Reminiscent of EU

Some of the claims made by critics about plans for a merger appear to be
mostly hypothetical. For instance:

• No treaty has been signed or proposed to formalize the partnership,
and none of the governments involved has called for integration like the
European Union, which issues common currency and passports.

• Although the U.S. dollar is now roughly as valuable as the Canadian
dollar after decades of trading at higher prices, both are still worth
much more than the Mexican peso. All three nations say they have no
plans to set up any new currency or do away with their own money.

• Critics fault plans to build a "superhighway" from the U.S.-Mexican
border to the U.S.-Canadian border. But the highway already exists:
I-35. There are no known plans for another highway.

Even so, critics see the meetings as dangerous. Many focus more on
Mexico than Canada, though the partnership's meetings have been trilateral.

"Our borders have been opened and amnesty (for undocumented immigrants)
has been granted through executive fiat by the Bush administration
already," said William Gheen, executive director of Americans for Legal
Immigration PAC, a group that advocates tougher border security and
immigration enforcement.

Corsi's book details how the European Union formed out of similar
meetings among French, German and other officials. He says denials that
anything sinister is afoot help prove his point because EU officials
also originally said they didn't intend to set up the kind of
multinational bureaucracy that now exists.

Republican primary voters have occasionally pressed GOP candidates to
disavow the Security and Prosperity Partnership. None of the leading
contenders for the party's nomination have explicitly done so.

Congress takes note

Some of the objections by conservative activists are shared by critics
on the left, though not the dire warnings of a North American Union.

"What actually will happen (through the partnership) is that Mexico will
continue doing worse economically, and, in fact, the immigration push
will grow," said Manuel Perez Rocha, an associate fellow at the
Institute for Policy Studies. The progressive Washington think tank is
pushing for the partnership to include more labor protections and
economic development in Mexico.

Critics on both sides fault the governments for closing meetings to the
public.For supporters, the problem with the cooperation is that they're
not moving fast enough, not that they'll erode sovereignty.

The meetings have attracted some attention from Congress. Conservative
Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., introduced a non-binding resolution opposing a
North American Union in January, and 39 co-sponsors, including Rep.
Trent Franks, R-Ariz., have signed on.

Even lawmakers who don't share Goode's concerns say Congress should be
more involved in efforts to increase cooperation with neighboring countries.

"This is a White House-driven initiative that has not been worked on by
the Congress at all," said Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who sits on
a cross-border working group with Mexican legislators. "This is not an
official agreement, and there's a lot of myths that are floating around."