Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you this morning on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America at the Midwest-Canada Relations Committee. This is an important grouping of states and provinces and we as Canadians certainly value the relationship with our American partners and the opportunity to work together with you.
I would like to take a moment to thank Speaker Kowalsky and Representative Buehrer for their leadership and the organizers for all the hard work they have done to bring this group together today.
As we have seen in the first session this morning, Canada and the United States are deeply interwoven by links of commerce, culture, security, history, family and friendship.
In part in recognition of the importance of Canada and the United States to each other, the President of the United States George Bush moved quickly after his re-election last November to pay an official visit to Canada. During the discussions he held with Prime Minister Martin, they agreed to a balanced agenda of cooperation between Canada and the US in the areas of security, prosperity and quality of life. On November 30, they issued a joint statement on a New Partnership in North America, which set out an agenda for cooperation between Canada and the US. The two leaders at that time also expressed their interest in expanding the cooperation to include Mexico.
Discussions with Mexico led to an agreement to launch the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America or SPP. This partnership was announced in Texas March 23, 2005 by Prime Minister Paul Martin, United States President George W. Bush, and Mexican President Vicente Fox. Three Ministers from each country were tasked with developing a report to leaders within 90 days with detailed workplans on the priorities identified by leaders.
As these workplans were developed, the working groups established
worked hard to consult with interested players both inside and outside of
government. In Canada, we consulted with provincial and territorial governments
as well as with private sector stakeholders and Non-Governmental Organizations.
Our American and Mexican counterparts also reached out to their societies.
On June 27th, Deputy Prime Minister McLellan and Industry Minister Emerson
welcomed their American and Mexican counterparts to Ottawa. Ministers from
the three countries endorsed an ambitious list of initiatives under the Security
and Prosperity Partnership. The Ministerial Report to Leaders and the detailed
workplans were published and are available to all on the web. (http://www.fac-aec.gc.ca/
)
United States Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff;
Mexico's Secretary for the Interior, Carlos Abascal; United States Secretary
of Commerce, Carlos Guitierrez; and Mexico's Secretary of Economy, Fernando
Canales, arrived in Ottawa accompanied by leaders from industry and government
advisory groups - a testimony to the energy and wide support for this next
step in the evolving partnership of the North American Free Trade Agreement
members.
I think it would be useful to briefly review what in fact Canada, Mexico,
and the United States are doing, and are committed to doing, under the Security
and Prosperity Partnership. It is useful to note that this is a rolling agenda
- as we make progress in meeting our objectives, others can and will be added.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership provides a framework for moving forward.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership is based on the principle that security
and prosperity in North America are mutually dependent and complementary.
The work under the Security and Prosperity Partnership reflects shared beliefs
in freedom, economic opportunity, and the importance of strong democratic
values and institutions.
More and more of the challenges that we face affect all of North America. They require North American solutions that respect national differences and sovereignty - but that also recognize the profound interdependence between the three countries.
Security
Under the security side of the agenda, there are three overarching themes
that are mutually reinforcing. They are:
I realize that questions have been raised most recently in a report released by the Coalition for Secure and Trade-Efficient Borders about the added cost to business of new border regulations and whether or not more can be done at the North American perimeter. The SPP addresses these concerns by taking an integrated approach to dealing with threats both outside and within North America, while working to further streamline the movement of low-risk people and goods. Let me expand on how we will be doing this.
Securing North America from External Threats
To better secure North America from external threats, we are
now committed to implementing compatible standards to better screen out high
risk individuals and cargo before they leave foreign ports destined to North
America. We are pushing screening and risk assessment away from North American
shores.
In the process, we are working toward real-time information sharing on high
risk individuals and cargo, compatible biometric border and immigration systems,
benchmarks on a wide range of visa issues, compatible criteria for posting
lookouts of suspected terrorists and criminals, and a coordinated strategy
to identify and respond to threats to North American food supply and agricultural
sectors.
You may also be interested to know that we will be developing a single, integrated global enrolment program for North American trusted travellers.
Preventing and Responding to Threats within North America
There's much that we can do to address threats before they reach North America but sometimes the problems are homegrown or reach the shores of the three countries.
To prevent and respond to threats within North America, we are working toward developing:
This also includes having interoperable communications and common standards for screening air passengers, baggage and cargo.
Further streamlining the Secure Movement of Low-Risk Traffic across our Shared Borders
Keeping threats out of North America and dealing with them effectively when they do arise requires us to better streamline operations at shared borders - this frees up resources to concentrate on the real problems. We are making good progress in this regard - we have developed a border facilitation plan to improve the flow of legitimate trade and travel.
Implementing this plan includes working with local stakeholders along borders to make existing infrastructure more efficient.
We will also be working with state and provincial partners to develop an implementation plan to prioritize future infrastructure investments.
Another important Security and Prosperity Partnership initiative
is the establishment of a pilot project to test the idea of a low risk port
of entry for the exclusive use of trusted trade and traveller programs.
I realize that concerns have been expressed about the impact on travel and
tourism of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, a new requirement for
travellers to have passports, or an alternate secure document when going to
the United States, to be phased in over the next two and a half years.
The Canadian government recognizes the key importance of tourism for the Canadian
economy. Both Canada and the United States agree that every effort should
be made to minimize the impact of any new screening measures, whether a requirement
for a passport or another secure document, on the flow of legitimate trade
and travel across the land border. This is the key principle underlying the
Canada-US Smart Borders discussions and more recently, the SPP.
The United States is soon expected to publish its draft rules regarding this initiative for public comment, and has committed to being flexible in the implementation of new requirements. The Canadian government will also be reviewing the draft rules and providing formal comments to the United States.
A Canada-US working group has also been created under the Security and Prosperity Partnership security action plan, to work with the Americans as they develop their implementation plan for this initiative. We understand that the NEXUS cards (for pre-approved, low-risk travellers) and Free and Secure Trade (FAST) cards (for pre-approved, low-risk importers, carriers and drivers) will continue to be considered secure documents.
In conclusion, what we hope to achieve is an approach that pushes entry screening further away from North American shores in order to reduce the security risk at these shores. Through better information sharing, compatible risk assessment tools and the right technology, the three countries are building confidence in each other's security regimes.
As noted above, the SPP provides a framework for moving forward on a rolling set of initiatives. We already have some initial results. To better understand and respond to the threats we face, Canada and the United States are exchanging officers at their respective targeting facilities, the National Risk Assessment Centre (NRAC) in Canada and the National Targeting Centre (NTC) in the United States. WeÒre also expanding the excellent work of Canadian Migration Integrity Officers (MIOs) overseas and building networks with the United States Immigration Advisor Program.
What we are working towards is creating an environment where shared borders become virtually seamless for the best corporate citizens and the most trusted travelling public.
Prosperity and Quality of Life
In terms of the prosperity and quality of life agenda, the
SPP initiatives form a broad and ambitious agenda of collaboration. They are
aimed at transforming important sectors of our economy, ensuring that North
American citizens benefit from high standards of health and safety and joint
stewardship of the environment.
We often pay lip service to the idea of an integrated North American marketplace
but from time to time there are flare-ups of protectionist attitudes that
hurt us both. We have to move beyond thinking of our economic partnership
in terms of our exports and imports. We must think more in terms of a North
American economic space Ö a space in which our industries are closely
linked and form innovative clusters and networks that ultimately provide jobs,
wealth and opportunity for citizens in all three countries.
Here in Canada we like to repeat the well known statistic -- that 80 percent of our exports go to the US. I would argue that an equally relevant and perhaps more telling statistic is that 40 percent of our exports to the US are intra-firm exports Ö exports between subsidiaries of the same company.
We also know that, increasingly, growth is driven by economic clusters. The reality, of course, is that clusters do not recognize geographic borders. The automotive and auto parts sector in Windsor-Detroit is only the best example of that. But there are others, whether we are talking about space technologies, chemicals or our growing hydrogen industry.
This is the context in which we operate today and in which we must take action to ensure that our firms can continue to succeed.
NAFTA provided an important first step. In todayÒs world we must take our game to the next level.
We need to work to eliminate the transportation bottlenecks,
the small regulatory differences that impact on innovative clusters, and the
other barriers that add unnecessary costs to doing business in North America.
Some of this work has already begun. Now, through the Security and Prosperity
Partnership that our Leaders announced in March, we intend to accelerate that
process.
That is the goal of the SPP work plans.
We will be eliminating rules of origin requirements on another $30 billion of goods.
We will build on the regulatory cooperation that already exists, by putting a trilateral regulatory cooperation framework in place by 2007. That will help eliminate duplicative testing and the tyranny of small differences while still maintaining high standards of health and safety for our citizens.
We will be working together to protect intellectual property because we know it is the cornerstone of innovation. We are moving towards the development of a coordinated strategy to combat counterfeit and piracy.
We will be promoting more sectoral cooperation in our key industries, such as autos and steel, because we understand the need to work together to address todayÒs global competitive challenges.
We will be paying particular attention to what some call enabling sectors, such as information and communications, transportation and energy because of the ramifications they have across all industries. One such initiative is the e-commerce framework agreement signed June 27 that will promote electronic commerce while addressing issues of privacy and consumer protection.
Finally, we understand prosperity in the broadest sense of the term. While we will work aggressively to ensure the competitiveness of our industries, we also understand there are other dimensions to prosperity. Improvements in areas such as food safety, public health and the environment not only add to our quality of life, but have important economic implications. By bringing innovative thinking to these issues we can create win-win opportunities for the economy and the environment.
Conclusion
We have accomplished much since March. Now we must begin implementing these
work plans. As work goes ahead, we will continue our consultation process
with sub-national levels of government and with private sector stakeholders,
NGOs and engaged citizens. Federal and Provincial/Territorial officials will
be meeting in mid-September to discuss ongoing strategy and implementation
of the workplans.
As I have noted above, we have published the workplans on the Web in the interests of transparency and also of accountability. We will be counting on your support to challenge us with ideas and advice on how we can best make these initiatives successful.
As we go forward, new issues, and new priorities will be added
to the agenda. Improving North American security and prosperity is not a one-shot
deal. You will be hearing more in the months to come and we will be looking
forward to your continued engagement as we together make the Security and
Prosperity Partnership a success.