[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
[April 22, 2008]
[Pages 557-559]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Joint Statement by President George W. Bush, President Felipe de Jesus 
Calderon Hinojosa of 
Mexico, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of 
Canada
April 22, 2008

New Orleans

    As continental neighbors and partners committed to democratic 
government, the rule of law and respect for individual rights and 
freedoms, Canada, Mexico and the United States have shared interests in 
keeping North America secure, prosperous, and competitive in today's 
global environment. We met in New Orleans to discuss how we might 
collaborate further to achieve these goals, as well as to discuss our 
hemispheric and global interests and concerns.
    The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), based on the 
principle that security and prosperity depend on each other, is a useful 
mechanism that helps us to identify and pursue practical solutions to 
shared challenges in North America in a way that respects our individual 
and sovereign interests. We each remain open and accountable to our own 
people.
    The SPP complements the success of the North American Free Trade 
Agreement (NAFTA), which has helped to triple trade since 1993 among our 
three countries to a projected $1 trillion in 2008. NAFTA has offered 
our consumers a greater variety of better and less expensive goods and 
services, encouraged our businesses to increase investment throughout 
North America, and helped to create millions of new jobs in all three 
countries. NAFTA is key to maintaining North America's competitive edge 
in an increasingly complex, fast-paced and connected global marketplace.
    Our Ministers responsible 
for security and prosperity met in Los 
Cabos, Mexico on February 27, 2008 to advance the five priority areas we 
identified last year in Montebello. In New Orleans, we decided that our 
Ministers should renew and focus their work in the following areas:
     To increase the competitiveness of our businesses and 
            economies, we are working to make our regulations more 
            compatible, which will support integrated supply chains and 
            reduce the cost of goods traded within North America. In the 
            auto industry, for example, we are seeking to implement 
            compatible fuel efficiency regimes and high safety standards 
            to protect human health and the environment, and to reduce 
            the costs of producing cars and trucks for the North 
            American market. We also are strengthening efforts to 
            protect our inventors, authors, performers and other 
            innovators by advancing our Intellectual Property Action 
            Strategy. We have forged stronger relationships to support 
            more effective

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            law enforcement efforts to combat the trade of counterfeit 
            and pirated goods.
     To make our borders smarter and more secure, we are 
            coordinating our long-term infrastructure plans and are 
            taking steps to enhance services, and reduce bottlenecks and 
            congestion at major border crossings. In this regard, we are 
            working to coordinate the efforts of federal agencies to 
            enhance capacity at major border crossing points, such as 
            Detroit-Windsor and San Diego-Tijuana. We are deepening 
            cooperation on the development and application of technology 
            to make our border both smarter and more secure, as well as 
            strengthen trusted traveler and shipper programs. We will 
            seek to allocate resources efficiently so as to avoid 
            unnecessary inspections. We are exploring new customs 
            procedures, such as a more uniform filing procedure, with 
            the aim of reducing transactional costs while enhancing the 
            security of our borders. We are cooperating to install 
            advanced screening equipment at ports of entry to deter and 
            detect the smuggling of nuclear and radiological materials. 
            The United States and Canada are working to finalize a 
            framework agreement to govern cross-border maritime 
            enforcement operations in shared waterways. All of these 
            efforts will help us more effectively facilitate the legal 
            flow of people and goods across our shared borders while 
            addressing threats to our safety.
     To strengthen energy security and protect the environment, 
            we are seeking to develop a framework for harmonization of 
            energy efficiency standards, and sharing technical 
            information to improve the North American energy market. 
            Together we intend to create an outlook for biofuels for the 
            region, work to enhance our electricity networks, and make 
            more efficient use of our energy through increasing fuel 
            efficiency of our vehicles. Building on the gains in 
            technology over the last 5 years, we are exchanging 
            information and exploring opportunities for joint 
            collaboration to further reduce barriers to expanding clean 
            energy technologies, especially carbon dioxide capture and 
            storage to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. We are working 
            to better North America's air quality and working together 
            to improve the safety of chemicals in the marketplace.
     To improve our citizens' access to safe food, and health 
            and consumer products in North America, we are increasing 
            cooperation and information sharing on the safety of food 
            and products. We are working to strengthen our respective 
            regulatory and inspection systems to protect consumers, 
            while maintaining the efficient flow of food and products 
            among our three countries. We are working to make our food 
            and product safety standards more compatible. We are also 
            working to improve continental recall capacities and are 
            engaging the private sector to ensure that our efforts are 
            complementary.
     To improve our response to emergencies, we are updating our 
            bilateral agreements to enable our local, State, Provincial, 
            and Federal authorities to help each other quickly and 
            efficiently during times of crisis and great need, including 
            responding to threats posed by cyber or chemical-biological 
            attacks. We have made significant progress in discussions 
            for new bilateral emergency management agreements to help 
            manage the movement of goods and people across the border 
            during and after an emergency. We will explore ways to 
            expand cooperation in North America to the trilateral level.
    Our efforts in these areas have been informed by the insights of 
interested parties,

[[Page 559]]

in particular the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), 
representatives from the business community who have helped us identify 
and develop solutions to the most pressing issues affecting North 
American competitiveness.
    Our citizens represent the true promise and potential of North 
America. Our governments help best when they act to promote the 
conditions necessary for the liberty, safety and success of our people. 
We believe that we should continue and strengthen our regular dialogue 
and ongoing cooperation. The partnership among Canada, Mexico and the 
United States is broader than the sum of our many bilateral and 
trilateral activities. We share the goals of strengthening democratic 
governance and reducing barriers to trade within our region and beyond. 
We also share a common purpose to strengthen our hemispheric 
institutions and consultative processes.
    We will continue working to fight transnational threats that pose 
challenges to our countries and to the well being of our people, such as 
organized crime; trafficking in arms, people, and drugs; smuggling; 
terrorism; money laundering; counterfeiting; and border violence. The 
transnational nature of these threats makes it imperative that our 
domestic efforts be complemented and strengthened by our cooperation 
together, and in international fora.
    We reiterate our support for the Bali Action Plan and stress the 
urgency of reaching agreement to ensure the full, effective and 
sustained implementation of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate 
Change now, up to and beyond 2012. We believe that the Major Economies 
Leaders Meeting should make a contribution to that outcome. All should 
redouble efforts to address climate change and to establish nationally 
appropriate programs and goals to be reflected in binding international 
commitments based on the principle of common but differentiated 
responsibilities and respective capabilities, to contribute to ensuring 
global greenhouse gas emission reductions, adaptation measures, energy 
security, and sustainable development. We are determined to work 
together to further explore regional cooperation in climate change 
efforts, including, but not limited to, advancing innovative and 
suitable clean energy technologies, building the capacity to adopt and 
deploy them and developing appropriate financial and technical 
instruments. We reaffirm our shared conviction that increased trade in 
environmental goods, services, and technologies can have a positive 
impact on global climate change efforts and encourage the removal of 
barriers to such trade.
    We welcome the invitation of President Calderon to host the next 
meeting of North American leaders in 2009.

Note: The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
version of this joint statement. An original was not available for 
verification of the content of this joint statement.