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Welcome to Wednesday Night #1329 SPP with Guy Stanley August 20, 2007
The account of the Wednesday Night #1328 . It is a good read!
The Invitation
As we prepare for #1329, we offer the following indispensable addition to the Wednesday Night lexicon::
The word outsight, defined as “A statement believed by the person who utters it to be an important or profound insight, but which is in fact regarded by its audience as so obvious or elementary that it reveals the speaker as hopelessly ignorant or slow-witted, at least relative to the relevant group”
We hope that we shall never have to apply this term to any pronouncement at Wednesday Night!
Over the last few weeks Wednesday Night has (figuratively) travelled to the Arctic, The Republic of Georgia, Russia, China, Darfur and Rwanda. We have discussed human rights, climate change and security, nuclear energy, global governance, innovation and competitiveness, dramatic events in the markets and, of course, Conrad Black. We continue to ponder such global topics as the markets and central banks ; the U.S. presidential election saga - and Karl Rove’s departure from the scene; - havoc wrought by Hurricane Dean and other natural disasters around the world; and more locally, the ponderously titled Québec Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences (Bouchard-Taylor Commission) We also invite you to consider the attached piece from the Wall Street Journal on Europe and Iran forwarded by last week’s guest, David Kilgour.
Along with these topics, SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America) will be on the programme this week.
On the eve of the Montebello meeting, there has been a sudden torrent of conflicting opinion from pundits and think tanks regarding SPP pouring out of every Canadian media outlet. Should we be concerned, complaisant or committed? That Afghanistan, China, Iraq, Iran, Russia or Darfur should be higher on our agenda than SPP is arguable, but it seems to us that a plan hatched by Los Tres Amigos (originally Bush, Fox and Martin) on closer continental cooperation should spark a modicum of interest. Any project that is targeted for criticism by Lou Dobbs and Maude Barlow must have merit!
We quite like the somewhat flippant Gazette editorial view: “Stephen Harper, George W. Bush and Felipe Calderón meet Monday and Tuesday at Montebello, and there, we are told, they will impose a continent-wide draft for military service, destroy the environment, sell us out to the oil companies, create a common currency, confiscate Canada’s water, privatize our health care (but “socialize” U.S. health care), and wipe out thousands of jobs. Then, their work done, maybe they’ll play golf”. However there are some very serious issues involved, not the least of which is WATER.
A National Post story starts off: “To some, it is a ‘corporate coup d’état’, a conspiracy by big business to turn Canada into the 51st state by stealth. Others see it as a plot to destroy the U.S. by forcing it into a North American union with ’socialist Canada’ and ‘corrupt Mexico’ ” and concludes dramatically: “One thing is certain: The fate of North America, and our place in it, has shot into the spotlight with growing public awareness of the SPP, rekindling a wrenching debate about Canada’s ties to the superpower to the south.” In the same paper, Allan Gotlieb presents cogent arguments to Bring back the special relationship
Neil Reynolds in the Globe & Mail (”What’s good for birds is good for econmies”) offers a more upbeat view wherein he points to a very few examples of SPP objectives, all of which sound eminently reasonable and desirable, although given that the bureaucracies of three governments are involved, we are not holding our collective breath
–Develop compatible standards in the manufacture of auto parts.
–Establish common specifications for containers used to transport dangerous goods.
–Take steps to combat the North American trade in counterfeit and pirated goods.
–Pursue greater market access for natural health products in North America.
–Develop common labels for textile products.
–Set compatible standards for the manufacture of pleasure craft.
–Expand scientific collaboration among the three countries on energy - specifically, among other subjects, on the sequestration of carbon dioxide, on the use of carbon dioxide in the recovery of oil, on clean-coal technology and on renewable energy sources.
–Establish ways to identify invasive alien species in North American waterways.
–Develop and sign a declaration of intent on the conservation of North American birds and their habitat. For the record, this last goal has been met. Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have signed the formal declaration, which commits them to act across international boundaries to achieve integrated conservation of native North American birds. “Birds, after all, have economies, too - the continental commerce of the skies.”
But then, as the National Post points out in Monday’s piece Summit has pomp, not much circumstance, “There’s no predicting with certainty what the leaders will actually discuss. The SPP process, having lost much of its momentum, might have to make room for more pressing issues — from Afghanistan to Arctic sovereignty — in the leaders’ talks”. Maybe, after all, they will just play golf? Stay tuned to developments on this and other topics.
We are fortunate to have Guy Stanley as our Concert Master for the SPP discussion .We look forward to having you as members of the orchestra (or perhaps opera troupe?) and to hearing your views on SPP, or not.
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Reading List
Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America
Canada Needs Sharper Game in International Trade Arena – C.D. Howe Institute President and CEO, William B.P. Robson argues that Canada must take aggressive action to protect itself from losing its privileged trade position with the United States . Although multilateral trade liberalization remains the first and best strategy, the turmoil in the Doha Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization – and agricultural protectionism at home – put multilateral progress in doubt.
What’s good for birds is good for economies
What the partners have yet to do - Globe & Mail special comment
Bush, Harper, Calderon to tackle economy, security
Montebello’s summit is less than it seems
Robert Pastor writes in Focal Point, the electronic magazine of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas
“The three leaders need to use the summit to speak to their people - not just to their bureaucrats and CEOs - and explain why North America already represents the most formidable regional trading area in the world with a gross product larger than the 27-member European Union. They need to help the public understand why all will benefit from increased co-operation and integration. Mr. Bush especially needs to explain to the American people that Canada and Mexico are our most important trading partners, sources of energy, and our closest friends. Whatever the three leaders actually do in Montebello, there will be protests that they are doing too much, but the real problem is that they are doing too little. It is commendable to have an agreement on avian flu, but this is inadequate to the task of making North America more secure, prosperous, competitive and co-operative. What the leaders should do is enunciate a vision of a North American Community and sketch a blueprint for accomplishing it.
NAFTA all over again? Promoting a better understanding of the SPP Thomas d’Aquino’s op-ed in the August 2007 Focal Point: Spotlight on the Americas
Where’s the transparency in the ‘Security’ and ‘Prosperity’ Partnership?
Maude Barlowe in the Globe & Mail
and a related piece
Secret Banff Meeting of CEOs and the Defense Establishment : Militarization and the Deconstruction of North America
The BBC chimes in with Trade worries cloud Nafta talks
Bush heading to Canada for summit, business seeks concessions for Canada
SPP FAQs
Diana Thébaud Nicholson Editor
Reader Comments
Always a bad idea to let yourself be defined by your opponents. D’Aquino’s
piece is on target–how else does a country like Canada manage to make its
huge neighbour a tad more predictable, especially when (1) its administration has such a peculiar view of the world and (2) the threat of another terrorist attack is real?
Another aspect of this is the consequence of a single market in so many commodities–producers on both sides of the border want access to the same array of inputs, even chemical ones. So “harmonization” is also about managing a single market for controlled substances across 3 jurisdictions.
Since all 3 governments regulate “by reference” to statutes, as long as the
changes don’t break the boundaries of the relevant laws, the reg changes
have only to be announced in Gazettes or federal registers–official
publications of rule changes. It’s only the working groups that get
involved at that level, however.
The Heads of NAFTA governments are supposed to consult regularly anyway (Chapter 20 of NAFTA) to ensure the agreement is continuing to function as it should. Anyone who studies NAFTA is aware of its flaws as a design for what has emerged from it, namely a single North American market in most of what the 3 countries make. But there is no
mechanism for upgrading continental infrastructure, reducing inadvertent
trade barriers caused by minor rule differences, and now on top of that,
addressing security concerns. The energy stuff is mainly about Alberta
trying to lock in US markets. Water management is not touched in NAFTA but
recent concerns about unilateral action in Great Lakes tributaries need
addressing and the US has been in violation of its treaty with Mexico over water flows for some time. As the Greens point out, no country in NAFTA is a “water surplus” country.The US is also outside the UN mechanism for
resolving international territorial disputes…so lots of reason for the
leaders to talk.
Why not more publicity? The same hostile crowd raised the same objections about the WTO meetings and even managed to shut them down to some extent. Now global trade liberalization has ground to a halt and Doha is moribund if not yet a corpse. Result: even more subsidies for rich western farmers and less hope for raising the welfare of poor countries through trade-led growth. It’s clear that Executive Branches of all 3 governments have not learned the lesson of these WTO disasters–they definitely should never create the impression they are conspiring against their electorates.Many of those who support the SPP process would welcome a debate about the future of North America as an economic partnership. But that debate would have to be much more far reaching than the constrained, relatively technocratic SPP. Guy Stanley OWN
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the account of the Wednesday Night #1328 . It is a good read!
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At least the rest of the world is strong… right? - August 22, 2007
A key source of comfort during the financial turmoil of recent weeks has been the consensus that the world economy remains strong. This is important, for it means that even if the financial contagion continues to spread, the world economy will prove resilient to the shock.
There can be no doubt that the world economy is in better health than it was during 1997-99. At that time, emerging markets with stretched fundamentals staggered from one crisis to another, starting with the Asian flu, then the Russian crisis, and then it spread to Latin America. Global growth slowed, but at the time it was all an emerging market story. Despite the associated financial turbulence, the major economies managed to perform reasonably well. Past issues | his WN page
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