NAFTA Leaders Agree on 5 Priority Areas for Coming Year as Part of Security and Prosperity Partnership

(The SPP is a process of technical negotiations on economic and security rules and regulations conducted by working-level counterparts in the governments of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It was launched in March 2005, with the latest presidential-level summit taking place in Montebello, Quebec from August 20-21, 2007.)

In the joint statement, the leaders direct their ministers to review the SPP process and to focus their collaboration on five priority areas for the next year as follows:

Smart and Secure Borders. The leaders asked ministers to continue to pursue measures to facilitate the safe and secure movement of trade across their borders and, in particular, to (partial list):

expedite air transportation by developing comparable protocols and procedures to eliminate duplicate screening on connecting flights in North America for inbound and outbound air cargo shipments;

develop mutually acceptable approaches to screening for radiological and other similar threats, to include general aviation pathways;

pursue innovative and interoperable law enforcement models that promote seamless operations at the border, such as the Canada-U.S. International Maritime Security Operations;

identify ways to further enhance benefits of trusted traveler programs (e.g., NEXUS, FAST and SENTRI), including expanding and streamlining application processing, further program integration, coordinated infrastructure investments;

alleviate bottlenecks at the U.S.-Mexico border, facilitate the legitimate flow of trade and people, and increase border security to address specific border issues related to congestion, current and future infrastructure needs, customs cooperation, etc.; and

enhance capacity of the border crossing infrastructure in the Detroit-Windsor region, the world's busiest land crossing.

Global Competitiveness of North America. The leaders endorsed their ministers' plans to develop an economic work plan related to North American competitiveness, to facilitate trade in specific sectors, and to conduct an analysis of the free trade agreements that each country has negotiated subsequent to NAFTA. Ministers were also asked to implement the following new programs:

The Regulatory Cooperation Framework: to strengthen regulatory cooperation and compatibility, streamline regulations, eliminate redundant testing/certification, consider measures in areas such as the chemical, automotive, transportation, and information and communication technology sectors, and accelerate national and regional risk-based chemical assessment and management; and

The Intellectual Property Action Strategy: to develop collaborative measures to improve the detection and deterrence of counterfeiting and piracy, expand public awareness of the importance of intellectual property, better measure the scope and magnitude of counterfeiting and piracy in North America, develop best practices for enforcement, and share information/intelligence on border enforcement techniques.

Safe Food and Products. In order to promote the safety of imported products that enter North America and to facilitate trade, the leaders asked their ministers to strengthen existing mechanisms within the region, exchange information on import-safety issues, identify and share best practices used by importing companies in each country to secure their supply chains and ensure that quality and safety are built into products before they are exported, etc.

Emergency Management and Preparedness. Ministers were tasked with developing and coordinating appropriate responses to catastrophic incidents in North America and developing bilateral/trilateral protocols and procedures through the Canada-Mexico-U.S. Emergency Management Council to manage the movement of goods and people, including emergency responders, across the shared borders during and following an emergency, and to improve communications among governments and between governments and industry, particularly during times of increased threat.

(See today's issue of ITT, 07082310, for BP summary of the resumption of "post-incident" business issues discussed at the August 16, 2007 COAC meeting.)

Sustainable Energy and the Environment. In their statement, the leaders asked their ministers to, among other things, reduce barriers to the deployment of new and clean technologies; continue with efforts to align energy efficiency standards in key products and standby power consumption, and cooperate in the development of biofuels and vehicle fuel efficiency technologies.

Joint Statement (dated 08/21/07) available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070821-2.html

Hudson Institute White Paper, "Negotiating North America: The Security and Prosperity Partnership" (Summer 2007) available at http://hudson.org/files/pdf_upload/HudsonNegotiatingNorthAmericaadvanceproof2.pdf

SPP fact sheets, agenda, reports to leaders, etc. available at http://www.spp.gov/