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 Business News | April 2008 
Protect NAFTA Say Business Leaders
 Norma Greenaway - Ottawa Citizen
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Ottawa - With anti-NAFTA rhetoric swirling south of the border, 30 top business leaders from Canada, the United States and Mexico are warning their political leaders to speed efforts to enhance post-NAFTA security and trade arrangements on the continent or risk losing ground to global competition.
The warning will be delivered personally to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon when they get together in hurricane-scarred New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday to weigh progress in forging closer integration under a three-way agreement, known as the Security and Prosperity Partnership.
The annual leaders' gathering, popularly referred to as the Amigos Summit, is being held against the backdrop of a gripping race for the U.S. presidency where the North American Free Trade Agreement has become a favourite punching bag of Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
The two have promised to kill or rewrite the pact if elected president as they compete for the support of voters, many of whom blame NAFTA for job losses, especially in the manufacturing sector.
The call to arms from the business leaders is contained in a report authored by the 30-member North American Competitiveness Council and obtained by Canwest News Service. Among other things, it expressed frustration over "serious roadblocks" that have hampered efforts to make borders within North America more efficient and secure. In particular, it chastised the governments for ditching negotiations on a land pre-clearance pilot project designed to smooth the flow of good at the Fort Erie, Ont.-Buffalo, N.Y., crossing.
"Our most critical request to the leaders is for them to ensure that the SPP remains a dynamic and effective path forward for trilateral and bilateral co-operation," says the report, urging the leaders to make clear "sustained progress on the SPP agenda is a strategic priority."
"If we work together effectively, we can make a real difference in improving the lives of people in all three countries. If not, we will lose ground on the global stage."
An earlier draft of the report, also obtained by CanWest News Service, had contained stronger words of warning to the leaders. It said NAFTA and efforts to further enhance relations on the continent could be doomed unless leaders and business rally to counter a persistent negative views of NAFTA.
"To the extent NAFTA itself continues to be a target, efforts to "deepen NAFTA" will be largely unsuccessful," the draft said.
Officials familiar with the report say the wording around NAFTA was altered, but the thrust of the message is still a warning that growing protectionism, and anti-NAFTA rhetoric could hurt the broader objectives of increasing security and prosperity within North America.
Harper, Bush and Calderon arrive in New Orleans on Monday and depart a mere 24 hours later. Topics up for possible discussion cover the waterfront, anything from Cuba to the fate of Canadian Brenda Martin, who is still being held in a Mexican jail.
The fresh controversy surrounding NAFTA has prompted some analysts to predict the leaders will be at pains during their public comments in New Orleans to sing the praises of the trade pact, as well as the SPP's potential for smoothing the flow of people and goods across each other's borders and harmonizing regulatory standards on everything from fridges to auto bumpers.
The singing started early in Washington. A senior U.S. official, briefing American reporters on the leaders' summit, said Friday the pact is a winner for all three countries. Dan Fisk said the value of trade among the three countries had grown to almost $1 trillion from $290 billion in 1994, the year NAFTAtook effect.
"We want to find ways to, frankly, convince the American people from our perspective, first and foremost that this is an arrangement that has worked for us, and it's also worked for our neighbours," said Fisk, senior director of western hemispheric affairs.
In Ottawa, the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters and the National Association of Manufacturers joined the cheerleading, releasing survey results that said 49 per cent of manufacturers in the three countries said NAFTA had helped them grow their business within and outside North America. Only 10 per cent of companies said NAFTA had a negative impact on business.
Still, the pending departure of Bush - a NAFTA fan who initiated the SPP process - from the White House next January has added uncertainty to the picture.
"He [Bush] was the author of this thing, he wants to make it work," said Michael Kergin, a former Canadian ambassador to Washington DC. "But he is a lame duck and we don't know where it's going to go with a new administration. If there is a strong move against NAFTA, it is possible the SPP might get sideswiped by it."
Hundreds of anti-NAFTA, anti-SPP activists from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico plan to hold a separate "People's Summit" in New Orleans to coincide with the leaders' meeting.
Maude Barlow, head of the Council of Canadians, said she will be in New Orleans to cheer the increasing opposition to NAFTA and the SPP in the United States. "This is an opportune time to reopen NAFTA - to protect Canadian water and energy," she said in an interview.
Chris Sands, an analyst at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said trade agreements have become a political hot potato in the United States, and that one of the ways to breathe new life into the controversial SPP would be to invite lawmakers, and environmental, human rights and other civil society groups into the process.
Among the Canadian CEOs on the competitiveness council are Paul Desmarais of Power Corp. Canada, Annette Verschuren of Home Depot and Rick Waugh of Scotiabank. |
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