[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.