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The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America is a continent-level dialogue, founded on March 23 , 2005 by the governments of Canada , Mexico and the United States . The reason given for this agreement is to enhance security and economic cooperation in North America . The agreement's stated purpose is to establish a cooperative approach across the continent to advance common security and prosperity. The initial SPP Working Groups are the Manufacture Goods and Sectoral and Regional Competitiveness Working Group, E-Commerce & ICT Working Group, Energy Working Group, Transportation Working Group, Food & Agriculture Working Group, Environment Working Group, Financial Services Working Group, Business Facilitation Working Group, Movement of Goods Working Group, Health, and Immigration. (Immigration is not currently listed as a working group on the SPP website.) {Link without Title} These working groups are tasked with implementing the SPP as initiated by the North American Heads of State on March 23 , 2005 . will consult with stakeholders; set specific, measurable, and achievable goals and implementation dates; and of Government on June 23 with semi-annual progress reports thereafter. A 24-month agenda is established to serve as a timeline milestone to have the initial framework fully developed. Stated goals of the SPP The stated goals of the SPP are cooperation and information sharing, improving productivity, reducing the costs of trade, enhancing the joint stewardship of the environment, facilitating agricultural trade while creating a safer and more reliable food supply, and protecting people from disease. The SPP is based on the belief that prosperity is dependent on security, and claims that the three nations are bound by a shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions. It is intended to assist, rather than replace, existing bilateral and trilateral institutions like NAFTA and claims to work towards the three North American countries work cooperatively in the face of common risks and economic competition from low cost comulti-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America. NASCO has received $2.5 million in earmarks from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan the NAFTA Super Highway as a 10-lane limited-access road (five lanes in each direction) plus passenger and freight rail lines running alongside pipelines laid for oil and natural gas. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is overseeing the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) as the first leg of the NAFTA Super Highway. There is huge opposition to this sort of highway development from many members of communities it would potentially displace as well as from many native groups and environmentalists that often oppose high way developments for the terrible damage caused to the environment and the extensive amount of resources used. Note: The U.S. government is not planning a NAFTA Super Highway. The U.S. government does not have the authority to designate any highway as a NAFTA Super Highway, nor has it sought such authority, nor is it planning to seek such authority. There are private and state level interests planning highway projects which they themselves describe as "NAFTA Corridors," but these are not Federally-driven initiatives, and they are not a part of the SPP. {Link without Title} North American Facilitation of Transportation, Trade, Reduced Congestion & Security (NAFTRACS) is a three phase pilot project designed to focus on business processes and information as freight is transported from buyers to sellers. The project is intended to create a partnership between businesses and local, state, and federal governments, while claiming to fostering cooperation amongst the same entities. North American Competitiveness Council The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) is an official tri-national working group of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). It was created at the second summit of the SPP in Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico, in March 2006. Composed of 30 corporate representatives from some of North America's largest companies, the North American Competitiveness Council has been mandated to set priorities for the SPP and to act as a stable driver of the integration process through changes in government in all three countries. SPP Trilateral Summit Meetings held to date are as follows:
:The leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico had a major trilateral summit meeting, in relation to the SPP, at the Château Montebello, in Montebello, Quebec . This conference was described as a public relations event with the purpose of promoting the SPP among investors and to reassure the public about the consequences of the plan. A protest occuring during the event led to controversy, when labour leaders accused police of disguising themselves as demonstrators in order to incite violence[http://ottawa.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/5383.shtml . The Quebec Provincial Police have admitted to the claims of police disguising themselves as demonstrators but denied any attempts to incite violence. [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/08/23/police-montebello.html] CRITICISM The NACC met with government reps from all three countries to discuss their proposals in September 2006. Some see the SPP as part of a much larger plan wherein the currently existing sovereign governments are first joined into regions - The European Union (in existence}, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (proposed for 2010), The South American Union (proposed for 2013), Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere existence , the African Union existence , and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, in existence). Common currencies are then developed (e.g, the Euro, Dinar, Yen). On May 10, 2007, Conservative MP Leon Benoit , chair of the Canadian House Of Commons Standing Committee On International Trade , prevented University of Alberta professor Gordon Laxer from testifying that SPP would leave Canadians "to freeze in the dark" because "Canada itself – unlike most industrialized nations – has no national plan or reserves to protect its own supplies" by saying Laxer's testimony was not relevant, defying a majority vote to overrule his motion, shutting down the Committee meeting and leaving with the other three out of four Conservative members; the meeting later continued presided by the Liberal vice-chair.1 After these disruptions, the National Post reported on a Conservative party manual to, among other things, usurp Parliamentary committees and cause chaos in unfavorable committees.23 The NDP have also criticized SPP for being undemocratic, not open to Parliament, and opaque4; NDP leader Jack Layton described the process as not simply unconstitutional, but "non-constitutional," held completely outside the usual mechanisms of oversight.5 SEE ALSO
''Related infrastructure projects:''
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