The besieged Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America received a renewed commitment from all three NAFTA leaders at the recent summit in New Orleans. This is a much needed boast for the North American Union agenda that is seen as widely unpopular. There is little doubt that big business is a driving force behind deeper continental integration. The latest SPP Summit reaffirmed that corporate interests will continue to further dominate this process. The corporate agenda is shaping policy, and as their profits increase, they gain more control over our lives.

The SPP is the brainchild of business and political elites who wish to advance North American integration. In June of 2006, the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) was launched, and is the only formal advisory board in the SPP. The NACC represents private corporate interests, and through the SPP, transnational corporate rights are being further empowered. In February of 2007, the NACC made 51 proposals to SPP negotiators. They are essentially formulating policy and using the SPP to lay the foundation for a North American Union. The NACC is now actively promoting energy privatization in Mexico. It is the multinational corporations who have the most to gain from the SPP.

Bruce Campbell, the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, lays out just how the SPP structure operates. He said, “Business conveys its demand, the politicians respond, consensus is reached, and civil servants implement. This takes the privatization of public policy-making to a new level.” Stuart Trew of the Council of Canadians said, “These corporate recommendations are going directly to the respective bureaucracies, and they are being pushed heavily.”

Recent national polls reflect that the majority of Canadians and Americans wish to retain their sovereignty and reject the secrecy surrounding the SPP. I guess most people think it is a big deal when powerful and influential corporate elites and politicians meet in private, plotting the destruction of the country. Dismantling of the borders will allow for the freer flow of goods and cheap labor, which will increase corporate profits at the expense of our sovereignty and prosperity.