President Bush, center, with Mexico President Felipe Calderón, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper April 22 (© AP Images)

23 April 2008

North American Leaders Defend Free Trade Pact, April 23, 2008

(North American Free Trade Agreement basis for cooperation, they say)

By David I. McKeeby
Staff Writer

Washington -- Since the United States, Canada and Mexico established the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, trade has tripled, laying a firm foundation for expanded regional cooperation among three countries united by geography and a shared belief in democracy, President Bush says.

“Now is the time to make it work better for all our people, and now is the time to reduce trade barriers worldwide,” Bush said April 22 following talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderón in New Orleans at the fourth meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership.   

All three leaders joined in defending NAFTA, which in recent months has become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, where Democratic nomination contenders have cited labor and environmental concerns in calling for reconsideration of the 15-year-old trade pact.

“Thanks to the free trade agreement,” says Calderón, “we have jobs, we have investment, we have goods and services that improve the quality of life of Canadians, Americans and Mexicans. And we want these benefits to reach more and more of all our citizens.”

“I’m confident that when the facts are looked at, any president, just as any prime minister of Canada, will quickly conclude how critically important NAFTA and our North American and Canadian-American trade relations are to jobs and prosperity on both sides of our border,” Harper said.

By reaching agreement on business regulations and product health and safety standards, Bush said, the North American leaders have worked through the partnership since 2005 to make it easier for entrepreneurs and farmers to do business across the continent, bringing down prices to consumers while boosting the region’s competitiveness in the global economy.  

With a combined gross domestic product of $15 trillion, the three countries are each other’s top trading partners, exchanging goods and services worth nearly $900 billion in 2007 -- about $2.4 billion a day -- according to the State Department.

The three leaders discussed progress toward developing a border policy to expedite trade while protecting communities on all sides from criminal violence and illicit activity through efforts such as the Merida Initiative -- a new $1.4 billion security plan among Mexico, the United States and several Central American nations to tackle transnational organized crime.

“It's very important for our congresses and parliaments in our respective countries to strengthen, support the decisive actions that we are carrying out in order to eradicate this scourge that is affecting all of North America,” said Calderón.

Today, even as Canada and Mexico are the United States’ two largest energy suppliers, the three leaders also agreed to continue cooperation on developing and promoting new, clean energy technologies, as part of a larger, shared effort toward confronting the global challenge of climate change.

“The United States is for an effective climate agreement that includes binding commitments from all major developed and developing economies,” Bush said.

Launched by President Bush in a 2005 summit in Waco, Texas, the partnership is a forum to help the three North American neighbors develop common approaches to transnational security challenges and sustain shared economic expansion through continued streamlining of trade regulations.  The leaders met in Cancun, Mexico, in 2006, and Montebello, Québec, in 2007. 

Although this will be Bush’s final partnership meeting, Calderón extended an invitation for him to join the next American president at the next North American leaders’ meeting, scheduled for the summer of 2009.