    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
    [Pages 1092-1095]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    SECURITY AND PROSPERITY PARTNERSHIP OF NORTH AMERICA: NEXT STEPS

        We, the leaders of North America, have asked our ministers to pursue
    the following priority activities and ask them to report to us on their
    progress in one year:

    Enhancing the Global Competitiveness of North America

        Global markets are changing, with dynamic new players becoming more
    competitive and innovative. More and more firms are relying on inputs
    from a wide

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    range of international sources for their manufacturing and production
    processes. In this highly competitive environment, compatible
    regulations and standards enable us to protect health, safety and the
    environment, as well as to facilitate trade in goods and services across
    our borders. Strong copyright and piracy protection also encourage
    entrepreneurship and protect our citizens. Over the coming year, we ask
    our ministers to strengthen North America as a platform for global
    success and to achieve progress on regulatory cooperation and the
    protection of intellectual property. In particular, we ask our ministers
    to implement:
        The Regulatory Cooperation Framework announced today by:
         strengthening regulatory cooperation, streamlining
                regulations and processes, encouraging compatibility of
                regulations and eliminating redundant testing and
                certification requirements while maintaining high standards
                of health, safety and environmental protection;
         considering measures and initiatives in areas such as the
                chemical, automotive, transportation, and information and
                communication technology sectors; and
         undertaking trilateral cooperation to accelerate and
                strengthen our national and regional risk-based chemical
                assessment and management efforts.
        The Intellectual Property Action Strategy released today by:
         developing collaborative measures to improve the detection
                and deterrence of counterfeiting and piracy, expanding
                public awareness of the importance of intellectual property
                to our economies and for consumer health and safety, and
                better measuring the scope and magnitude of counterfeiting
                and piracy in North America; and
         taking steps such as developing best practices for
                enforcement and sharing information and intelligence on
                border enforcement techniques.
        We also endorse our ministers' plans to
         develop an economic work plan to respond to the ever
                increasing pressures on North American competitiveness and
                to facilitate trade in specific sectors to foster stronger
                North American value chains; and
         conduct an analysis of the free trade agreements that each
                country has negotiated subsequent to the NAFTA, beginning
                with those in the western hemisphere, including
                opportunities for innovative provisions on rules of origin.

    Safe Food and Products

        In order to promote the safety of imported products that enter North
    America and to facilitate trade, we ask ministers to:
         strengthen existing mechanisms within the region and the
                exchange information on import-safety issues, with the
                objective of enhancing the safety of food and products
                before they enter our countries; and
         identify and share with their SPP counterparts the best
                practices used by importing companies in each country to
                secure their supply chains and ensure that quality and
                safety are built into products before they are exported.

    Sustainable Energy and the Environment

        Balancing our energy requirements with the stewardship of our
    environment is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We need to
    enhance our research into new and clean technologies, facilitate the
    deployment of these technologies to the market, and improve our energy
    efficiency. We ask our ministers to advance work over the next year to:
         identify and pursue cooperative energy science and
                technology activities under the newly signed Trilateral
                Agreement for Cooperation in Energy and Science Technology;
         reduce barriers to the deployment of new and clean
                technologies;

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         continue with efforts to align energy efficiency standards
                in key products and standby power consumption;
         cooperate for our mutual benefit in the development of
                biofuels, vehicle fuel efficiency technologies and
                technologies to reduce emissions; and
         share information and experience and cooperate in efforts
                to achieve comparable emission measurement, reporting and
                verification, in order to develop publicly available
                national emissions inventories. This exchange would include
                sharing of emissions information on, for example,
                NOx, SOx, CO2,
                VOCs, NH3, Hg and particulates.

    Smart and Secure Borders

        Our three countries have a long history of cooperative border
    management, predicated on the understanding that our prosperity and
    security depend on borders that operate efficiently and effectively
    under all circumstances. In some cases, the best time to screen
    travellers and commerce is before they enter North America. Coordinated,
    mutually acceptable procedures for detecting threats far from our
    borders are a means to do this. Recognizing differences in legal
    frameworks and policies, and noting the positive effect on our common
    security of current information sharing initiatives, we will seek to
    enhance our cooperation in this respect.
        We ask ministers to continue to pursue measures to facilitate the
    safe and secure movement of trade and travellers across our borders and,
    in particular, to:
         expedite air transportation through the development of
                comparable protocols and procedures to eliminate duplicate
                screening for baggage placed on a connecting flight in North
                America, and for inbound and outbound air cargo shipments;
         develop mutually acceptable approaches to screening for
                radiological and other similar threats, to include general
                aviation pathways, and to continue to undertake cooperative
                or joint research to manage such threats;
         develop mutually acceptable approaches to screening people
                during a pandemic;
         pursue, according to our respective laws, new, innovative
                and interoperable law enforcement models that promote
                seamless operations at the border, such as the Canada-US
                International Maritime Security Operations, to better
                protect our citizens from criminal and terrorist threats;
         improve and expand existing radio communications available
                to law enforcement agencies working on border security and
                cross-border law enforcement;
         work with stakeholders to identify ways to further enhance
                benefits of trusted traveller programs (NEXUS, FAST and
                SENTRI), including through expanding and streamlining
                application processing, further program integration and
                coordinated infrastructure investments;
         alleviate bottlenecks at the US-Mexico border, facilitate
                the legitimate flow of trade and people, and increase border
                security to address specific border issues related to
                congestion, current and future infrastructure needs, customs
                cooperation, stakeholder outreach and technology; and
         Canada and the US will maintain a high priority on the
                development of enhanced capacity of the border crossing
                infrastructure in the Detroit-Windsor region, the world's
                busiest land crossing.

    Emergency Management and Preparedness

        Neighbours help each other in times of distress. Our governments
    have worked together to address how we might better prevent, prepare
    for, and respond to disasters--either natural or man-made--by developing
    a common approach to all aspects of emergency management. We ask our

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    ministers to continue this work and specifically to:
         define, develop and coordinate appropriate responses to
                catastrophic incidents in North America; and
         develop bilateral and trilateral protocols and procedures
                through the Canada-Mexico-United States Emergency Management
                Council to manage the movement of goods and people,
                including emergency responders, across our shared borders
                during and following an emergency, and to improve
                communications among governments and between governments and
                industry, particularly during times of increased threat.