The Administration's "Secret"

What is the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America?

How best to protect our borders is an ongoing debate. Families discuss it at the dinner table; co-workers debate the merits of their ideas on coffee breaks; politicians base entire platforms on ensuring our nation's security through border protection. What most of these discussions do not include is mention of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).

The latest SPP Ministerial Meeting was held in Ottawa, Canada on February 23, 2007. As with the past two meetings, the local and national media mostly ignored its occurrence. Why were American co-workers leaving this meeting out of water cooler discussions? Perhaps because it was not announced until February 16, 2007, and most people still do not even know of the SPP's existence. It seems few understand its true purpose.

On March 23, 2005, President Bush, former Mexican President Vicente Fox and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin met in Waco, Texas to announce a trilateral dialogue called the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). This declaration was never submitted to Congress for review, because it does not constitute an agreement or treaty of any kind, but it did result in the creation of a working group within the Department of Commerce's North American Free Trade Agreement office, the sole purpose of which is to implement the SPP. (Both the Mexican and Canadian governments have offices comparable to the US SPP office.) Much public concern that exists is due to the lack of public discussion about the SPP.

In the beginning, the membership of the working groups was not announced and the work products were not published anywhere other than on the SPP website. Such secrecy raised flags throughout all three nations involved. The only thing the public knew from the announcement was that the SPP's goal was to create a North American community based on the principle that "our security and prosperity are mutually dependent and complementary, and will reflect our shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic values and institutions."