New documents have been uncovered that reveal how heads of state
of the U.S., Mexico and Canada are beseeching business leaders
they privately meet with to launch public relations campaigns
in order to counter critics of the secretive Security and Prosperity
Partnership of North America (SPP).
The documents detail how corporate representatives
have been urged to "humanize" North American integration,
promote NAFTA success stories to employees and unions and evolve
the harmonization agenda "without fueling protectionism".
The documentation consists of internal memos from
Canada's Foreign Affairs and Internal Trade ministry, which were
obtained by the World
Net Daily reporter Jerome Corsi under an Access to
Information Act request.
"The text of the undated memo is an internal
government summary of the third SPP summit meeting held Aug. 20-21,
2007, in Montebello Quebec," writes Corsi.
The memo details the SPP's behind closed doors inaugural
meeting with the North
American Competitiveness Council (NACC), an advisory
Council Comprised of 30 senior private sector representatives
of North American corporations that were selected by the American,
Canadian and Mexican governments at the June 2006 trilateral meeting
in Cancun, Mexico.
The "PR offensive", as Corsi puts it,
is detailed in the several paragraphs of the memo, the author
of which and the persons referred to within are unknown.
Excerpts of the memo read:
"Leaders had a successful meeting with the
members of the NACC, which had been launched at the leader's
meeting in Cancun in March 2006, to counsel governments on how
they might enhance North American competitiveness,"
"He also urged NACC members to assist in
confronting and refuting critics of the Security and Prosperity
Partnership of North America (SPP)."
"In closing, all leaders expressed a desire
for the NACC to play a role in articulating publicly the benefits
of greater collaboration in North America."
"Leaders discussed some of the difficulties
of the SPP, including the lack of popular support and the failure
of the public to understand the competitive challenges confronting
North America."
"Governments are faced with addressing the
rapidly evolving competitive environment without fueling protectionism,
when industry sectors face radical transformation."
"In terms of building public support, President
Bush suggested engaging the support of those who had benefited
from NAFTA and from North American integration (including small
business owners) to tell their stories and humanize the impressive
results."
"NACC members should have a role in communicating
the merits of North American collaboration, including by engaging
their employees and unions."
The NACC is expected to meet annually with SPP ministers
and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing
basis.
The media and the public are not invited to participate in or
observe the meetings and the minutes of the meetings are to be
kept secret.
The memo highlights how those advancing the North American integration
agenda are concerned about the exposure and subsequent public
backlash they have encountered recently.
The initial Security and Prosperity Partnership
agreement was signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente
Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas,
March 23, 2005. It established working groups, under the North
American Free Trade Agreement office.
Jerome Corsi brought attention to the SPP two years
ago when he obtained SPP
documents, under the freedom of information act,
showing that a wide range of US administrative law is being re-written
in stealth under a program to "integrate" and "harmonize"
with administrative law in Mexico and Canada, just as has become
commonplace within the EU.
The documents contained references to upwards of 13 working groups
within an entire organized infrastructure that has drawn from
officials within most areas of administrative government including
U.S. departments of State, Homeland Security, Commerce, Treasury,
Agriculture, Transportation, Energy, Health and Human Services,
and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
More recently representatives
within Congress have petitioned the government on
the secretiveness of the SPP and multiple states have introduced
resolutions calling on their federal representatives to halt work
on the so called "North American Union".