WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- This week鈥檚 North American summit in Montebello,
bottes style ugg, Quebec,
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At the summit鈥檚 closing news conference Tuesday,
www.uggsprix.org, President Bush laughed off the idea that the partnership -- a series of efforts to bring government regulation in the three countries more into line -- was a secret plan for a North American super-state modeled on the European Union.
鈥淚'm amused by the difference between what actually takes place in the meetings and what some are trying to say takes place,鈥?Bush said, 鈥淚t's quite comical, actually.鈥?/p>
He accused critics of the summit,
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鈥淚f you've been in politics as long as I have, you get used to that kind of technique where you lay out a conspiracy and then force people to try to prove it doesn't exist. That's just the way some people operate.鈥?/p>
Right-wing conspiracy theories about the secret goal of a super-state have gained traction and respectability in the United States after being picked up by anti-free-trade TV pundits and House Republicans.
Liberal watchdog Media Matters for America says that CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, a fierce critic of immigration reform and of the North American Free Trade Agreement, has raised the issue 53 times in recent broadcasts.
Dobbs 鈥渉as repeatedly hyped the possibility of a North American Union,鈥?reads an analysis on the group鈥檚 Web site.
Earlier this month a group of 21 GOP congressmen and one Democrat wrote to Bush warning of "serious and growing concerns in the U.S. Congress about the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership.鈥?/p>
The SPP was launched by Bush and his partners at a summit two years ago in Waco, Texas. Observers say it stemmed in part from fears that heightened border security in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings could impede commerce.
The partnership says on its Web site its objective is to 鈥渒eep our borders closed to terrorism,
www.uggschoenentekoop.com, but open to trade.鈥?/p>
But because the process is conducted at a regulatory level, rather than the legislative one, work is largely carried out behind closed doors.
The GOP letter says the secrecy is stoking concern that 鈥渢he desired end state (is) a supra-national North American association of some kind.鈥?/p>
Bush isn鈥檛 the only one who laughs off such fears.
鈥淚f this is a secret plan for a North American Union, we鈥檙e not going to see one for 150 years,鈥?analyst Christopher Sands at the Heritage Foundation told United Press International.
He said the partnership had not created a single supra-state institution. 鈥淭he European Union is criticized as being too bureaucratic,鈥?he said, 鈥渂ecause they created too many institutions.鈥?/p>
The SPP is,
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But the government-to-government technical-level discussions of the kind the SPP employed had been non-transparent, and that was stoking the fears of both left and right.
鈥淚t鈥檚 feeding the spiral of mistrust,鈥?he said.
From the left, critics have focused on the fact that business has a seat at the SPP table through the North American Competitiveness Council -- formed last year as a forum for business leaders to provide input to the partnership -- but that labor unions, consumer rights and environmentalist groups have been left out.
鈥淣orth America鈥檚 corporate elite 鈥?has a permanent seat at the table,鈥?says the pro-union group the Council of Canadians on its Web site.
鈥淭he SPP is not about improving the lives of workers. It is about lowering working standards and further exploiting existing supply chains to the benefit of a few CEOs.鈥?/p>
鈥淭he problem is,
aanbieding ugg,鈥?said Sands, a consultant to the Competitiveness Council, 鈥渢hey let the business community in but they excluded all the rest of the special interests.鈥?/p>
鈥淭he feeling is, the governments are just not listening.鈥?/p>
But business leaders say they had to fight for their seat at the table and have no objection to other stakeholders being part of the SPP process.
鈥淭he business community had to bang on the door,鈥?Scotty Greenwood, a trade lobbyist and executive director of the Canadian American Business Council, told UPI. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 a plot to keep them out,鈥?she said of other interest groups. Business leaders 鈥渨orked hard to insert themselves into this government-to-government process.鈥?/p>
鈥淭here鈥檚 no resistance from business鈥?to bringing in other stakeholders, she said, providing they were 鈥減repared to engage in a responsible dialogue.鈥?/p>
Indeed, from the business point of view it was important to get political buy-in for the SPP.
鈥淵ou are not going to be able to build political support to get these recommendations done if you don鈥檛 bring (these other voices) to the table.鈥?/p>Topics related articles：
