 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | March 2005 
North American Leaders Announce Accord On Security and Trade
 William Branigin - The Washington Post
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, left, President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox at their summit this week. |
Leaders of the US, Mexico and Canada on Wednesday announced a broad accord to improve security in North America and promote economic prosperity, adding to existing agreements in ways that they said would facilitate the flow of goods and people across their borders while keeping out terrorists and criminals.
The accord, called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, was unveiled after a meeting in Waco, Texas, of US President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. The three met at Baylor University's Armstrong Browning Library for about an hour and a half before flying to Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, for a working lunch.
A joint statement on the initiative listed general goals but provided few details. It said the specifics would be worked out by "ministerial-led working groups" that would set measurable and achievable targets and issue an initial report within 90 days.
In a news conference with Fox and Martin after the talks, Bush said: "We've got a lot of trade with each other. We intend to keep it that way. We've got a lot of crossings of the border, and intend to make our borders more secure and facilitate legal traffic. We've got a lot to do."
He noted that the cross-border traffic from Mexico to the United States of a million people a day "presents a common issue, and that is, how do we make sure those crossing the border are not terrorists or drug runners or gun runners or smugglers."
Bush also said he told Fox that he would "continue to push for reasonable, common-sense immigration policy with the United States Congress."
Bush added, "We need a compassionate policy" on the U.S-Mexican border, one that offers "decent" treatment to workers coming to the United States.
"And Mr. President, you've got my pledge I'll continue working on it," Bush said, addressing Fox. "You don't have my pledge that Congress will act, because I'm not a member of the legislative branch."
U.S. officials said the talks focused on "trilateral" issues, but that such matters as Fox's complaints about U.S. immigration policy and tighter controls on the American side of the border, including a wall along parts of it, would probably come up during informal talks at the lunch and in other encounters with Bush.
Similarly, Martin was expected to raise Canada's irritation with the United States over continuing restrictions on imports of Canadian beef because of concerns about mad cow disease, as well as punitive U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber from Canada.
Regarding security, Martin said that "protecting our borders is a crucial checkpoint on the road to our collective prosperity." |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us