North American Union

Map of the theoretical NAU, with Canada, Mexico and the United States in green.

The North American Union (abbreviated NAU) is a theoretical continental union of Canada, Mexico and the United States similar in structure to the European Union, including a common currency sometimes called the amero. There are no governmental proposals to create such a union, although the idea has been discussed and proposed in academic and scholarly circles, either as a union or as a North American Community (see Independent Task Force on North America).

Origins

Main articles: Independent Task Force on North America and Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America

President Vicente Fox of Mexico discussed an agreement with the United States during President Bush's first term which was referred to as "NAFTA-Plus" and according to Fox included a NAFTA energy policy, a security NAFTA policy, an advance in financial institutions interchanged, and according to other reports a common market, development fund, migration agreement and new institutions. Fox said such an agreement would take the U.S. and Mexico to a "further integration" and eventually seeking a "convergence" of their economies allowing them to "erase that border". Proposals of a NAFTA plus agreement spurred debate on movement towards a North American Community in academic circles.

The Independent Task Force on North America, a project organized by the Council on Foreign Relations (U.S.), the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations, was launched in October 2004 and published two documents: Trinational Call for a North American Economic and Security Community by 2010 (March 2005) and its final report Building a North American Community (May 2005).

The final report proposed increased international cooperation between the nations of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, similar in some respects to that of the European Community that preceded the European Union. As this report states, "The Task Force's central recommendation is establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter."

In reference to the March 2005 summit in Waco, Texas that established the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), this task force's final report stated, "We welcome this important development and offer this report to add urgency and specific recommendations to strengthen their efforts." These specific recommendations include developing a North American customs union, common market, investment fund, energy strategy, set of regulatory standards, security perimeter, border pass, and advisory council, among other common goals.

North American Union conspiracy theories are predominant on the Internet, especially among bloggers and other writers. Jerome Corsi's columns on WorldNetDaily and Human Events, as well as his best-selling book The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger With Mexico and Canada, formed the core of the NAU conspiracy theory. Corsi himself is often referred to as the leader of the anti-North American Union movement.

Features

Concepts of a North American Union share a number of common elements between them. NASCO and the SPP have both addressed the establishment of a common currency, a "NAFTA Superhighway", and the creation of a North American Union in "Myths vs Facts" pages on their websites.

Amero

Main article: North American currency union

The amero is the appellation given to what would be the North American Union's counterpart to the euro. It was first proposed in 1999 by Canadian economist Herbert G. Grubel. A senior fellow of the Fraser Institute think-tank, he published a book entitled The Case for the Amero in September 1999, the year that the euro became a virtual currency. Robert Pastor, vice-chairman of the Independent Task Force on North America, supported Grubel's conclusions in his 2001 book Toward a North American Community, stating that: "In the long term, the amero is in the best interests of all three countries." Another Canadian think-tank, the conservative C.D. Howe Institute, advocates the creation of a shared currency between Canada and the United States. Although Mexican President Vicente Fox has expressed support for the idea, when Grubel brought up the idea to American officials, they said they were not interested, citing lack of benefits for the U.S.

On August 31 2007, conspiracy theorist and Internet broadcaster Hal Turner claimed to have arranged for a United States Government minted Amero coin to be smuggled out of the Treasury Department by an employee of that organization. Snopes has assessed both Turner's story and the existence of the amero as "false".

NAFTA Superhighway

Main articles: North American SuperCorridor Coalition and Trans-Texas Corridor

Interstate 29 and Interstate 35.

The Trans-Texas Corridor was first proposed by Texas Governor Rick Perry in 2002. It consists of a 1,200 foot (366 m) wide highway that also carries utilities such as electricity, petroleum and water as well as railway track and fiber-optic cables. In July 2007, U.S. Representative and 2008 presidential candidate Duncan Hunter successfully offered an amendment to House Resolution 3074, the FY2008 Transportation Appropriations Act, prohibiting the use of federal funds for Department of Transportation participation in the actvities of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). Hunter stated that: "Unfortunately, very little is known about the NAFTA Super Highway. This amendment will provide Congress the opportunity to exercise oversight of the highway, which remains a subject of question and uncertainty, and ensure that our safety and security will not be compromised in order to promote the business interests of our neighbors." Fellow Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul brought the issue to mainstream prominence during the December 2007 CNN-YouTube GOP debate, where he also called it "the NAFTA Superhighway" and, like Hunter, framed it within "the ultimate goal" of creating a North American Union.

The Government of Alberta, Canada displays a diagram on their website that labels I-29 and I-35 as the "NAFTA Superhighway".

Official statements

Plans for the creation of a North American Union, the amero or a NAFTA superhighway have been denied by government officials from all three North American countries, including U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who stated "There is no secret plan to create a North American union, or a common currency, or to intrude on the sovereignty of any of the partner nations". Officials from the Federal Highway Administration have also denied such a creation. NASCO denies a new proposal for a "NAFTA superhighway" saying, "it exists today as I-35." After the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States were asked about the NAU in a August 2007 press conference in Montebello, Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that he didn't believe that the NAU was a "generally expressed concern", while U.S. President George W. Bush called concerns of a North American Union "political scare tactics" and described as "comical" the "difference between reality and what some people are talking on TV about."

Legislative opposition

In September 2006, U.S. Representative Virgil Goode proposed with six co-sponsors non-binding House Concurrent Resolution 487, which specifically outlined opposition to a North American Union or a NAFTA Superhighway as a threat to U.S. sovereignty. The bill never left committee. The same resolution was reintroduced by Goode in January 2007 for the 110th Congress as House Concurrent Resolution 40, this time with forty-three cosponsors, including 2008 Republican presidential candidates Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo, who have all expressed opposition to a North American Union during their campaigns.

Proponents of a North American Union or similar concept

• Then president of Mexico, Vicente Fox said in an interview for Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy that in the long term he sought with the United States a "convergence of our two economies, convergence on the basic and fundamental variables of the economy, convergence on rates of interest, convergence on income of people, convergence on salaries." He suggested this might take as long as 20 years to be realized, but the ultimate "convergence" he saw between the United States and Mexico would allow them to "erase that border, open up that border for [the] free flow of products, merchandises, [and] capital as well as people". After leaving office, he continued to support the concept, while expressing his disappointment with the changed American political situation which made it seem more difficult to come to fruition. In an online discussion of his book Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith, and Dreams of A Mexican President Fox cited the process of European integration and asked a questioner, "Why can't we be not only partners in the long term, but a North American Union?"

• Professor Robert Pastor is a Vice Chair of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America who has suggested forming a North American Commission similar to the European Commission and other governing institutions for North America.

See also

• Canadian Action Party
• Free Trade Area of the Americas
• Central American Free Trade Agreement

External links

• SPP in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
• H. Con. Res. 40: Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.