The Canwest News Service reports that, “Mexican President Felipe Calderon is preparing to host Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama for a North American leaders’ meeting in early August…”
The article reports that, “The focal point in past summits was always the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a White House-driven initiative to increase intelligence sharing, co-operation on counterterrorism programs and border security between the three countries. But the partnership’s agenda — which activists on the political left criticized as secretive and undemocratic — has effectively been pushed to the background since Obama took office in January. Instead, Obama has placed global warming and economic stimulus at the top of his priority list in early dealings with both Harper and Calderon.”
Trade campaigner Stuart Trew notes that the Brookings Institution and the Canadian International Council released a report this week by Chris Sands of the Hudson Institute called “Toward a New Frontier: Improving the U.S.-Canadian Border.”
In the report, Sands writes that the Security and Prosperity Partnership “was built with elite support but in the absence of public or even stakeholder support.”
Because of this, Sands writes that US President Barack Obama “will most likely rename the SPP.”
Sands recommends in part that, “The SPP must be rebranded to win any kind of consensus support. …The Obama administration recognizes this, and could take a few tactical steps to make the SPP (or its eventual successor) work better and win broader support.”
To read Stuart’s blog on this report, please go to http://canadians.org/tradeblog/?p=188.
The Canwest News Service article is at http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/fp/Obama+Harper+Calderon+meet+August/1790486/story.html.
