Mexicans urged to reclaim a piece of Texas

Telegraph | Jun 26, 2008

By Tom Leonard

Mexicans are being encouraged to reclaim a piece of Texas, more than 150 years after they lost the Lone Star state to the United States.

Texan estate agents are heading south of the border to drum up the interest in buying cut-price land and property in the foreclosure-hit state.

Thanks to a rising Mexican peso and an economy which is growing faster than that of the US, a country that has previously been looked on by America as a source of cheap labour is now seen as a potential source of rich investors.

A “Texas for Sale” sign and cowgirl-clad models greeted visitors to a recent property fair in Monterrey, Mexico, at which hundreds of Mexicans looked over lists of potential investment opportunities. Virgilio Garza, a Monterrey developer, said he and his partners were considering investing $8 million in buying up foreclosed homes in Texas.

He told Bloomberg: “Texas is like our home. We believe there can be some opportunities.”

Marco Ramirez, a Texas estate agent, said that residents of Monterrey, which is 150 miles from the Texas border, were his best hope of buying the 120 foreclosed properties on his books.

“Many of these people have children who are studying in the US. They’ve been renting or leasing and now it’s a great time to buy.”

America annexed Texas in 1845 after Texans gained independence from Mexico nine years earlier following the Battle of the Alamo.

A three-year war between the two countries resulted in Mexico losing about half its territory – including what is now Arizona, Nevada and California – to the United States.

Foreclosures in Texas have risen by 29 per cent in a year with one in every 274 households now going through the process.

The peso has risen by 5.9 per cent against the dollar since the beginning of the year.

Texas Corridor detour: Officials nix land grab

Toll plan tossed: ‘Any area that is not along an existing highway will not be considered’

WorldNetDaily | Jun 14, 2008

Opponents of a plan to build a Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) road and rail system from Mexico to Oklahoma received welcome news this week, as Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials announced their strategy would no longer include building new highway routes southwest of Houston, a plan that would have annexed huge tracts of private land.

The $184 billion TTC project originally called for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors, 1,200 feet wide, to be built across Texas. The plan would have taken about a half million agricultural acres out of private hands, leading to a maelstrom of objections from Texas landowners.

But now TxDOT executive Director Amadeo Saenz says plans have changed. In a conference call with reporters he said TxDOT “had narrowed the study area for TTC I-69″ and that the department “is going to be considering only existing highway” routes, and “any area that is not along an existing highway will not be considered.”

“This is great news for landowners,” said John Means, president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. “TSCRA appreciates the agency’s decision to not build the toll roads through rural lands that would threaten the private property rights of many of our members.”

The TxDOT website states that “the preliminary basis for this decision centers on the review of nearly 28,000 public comments made” on the issue. Saenz added that 47 town hall meetings with Texas residents had further influenced the decision.

Brehham, Tex., State Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst, who joined in the battle to protect rural lands from the project, told The Huntsville Item, “The real heroes who deserve the credit here are the constituents. I want to thank the thousands of people who joined me in fighting the I-69 TTC for the past 5 years, writing letters, calling and attending meetings to make their voices heard.”

Though opponents of the TTC celebrate victory in this battle, they have been quick to point out that the war is not over.

“This is good news about a retreat from the corridor,” Kolkhorst said, “but the controversy over how we pay for our roads will continue. We need to stay strong against the forces out there who want to sell off our highway infrastructure to foreign sources.”

“This is a great first step,” said Kenneth Dierschke, president of the Texas Farm Bureau. “But we must continue to hold TxDOT’s feet to the fire during the next legislative session to ensure they keep these promises.”

David Stall of the anti-TTC group CorridorWatch is also wary of crying victory too soon. Speaking of TxDOT, Stall told a Houston Community Newspaper, “They’ve never taken the public’s input into consideration before.”

Part of the concern is that the announcement to limit the TTC’s scope only included project proposals south and west of Houston. The announcement did not mention plans for the northern I-35 corridor.

“We want (Saenz) to send the same letter to the Federal Highway Administration for TTC I-35 that he sent about I-69,” Stall said. “There was as much public input about I-35 as there was about 69.”

Stall also worries that TxDOT was motivated largely by “financial ability and political expediency,” warning, “As soon as it becomes fiscally viable, it will come back.”

For now, landowners in southwestern Texas are breathing a sigh of relief and preparing for future battles if necessary.

Last year Amy Klein, a member of CorridorWatch, quoted Stall in the Gainesville Daily Register with words that are just as meaningful now to the group as they were then. “You eat an elephant one bite at a time,” she quoted. Then she added, “I think we’re slowly devouring this elephant.”

North American Union agenda whether Canadians want it, or not, is a top priority for elite interests

Largest gathering of wealth and power ever assembled on American soil off-limits to American media

The Canadian | Jun 15, 2008

by Kurt Aldag, TrineDay Editorial Coordinator

Eugene, OREGON — A press corps recently scourged by former White House Press Secretary, Scott McCellan, as being “too deferential,” have once again bowed to pressures, and decided not to report the largest gathering of corporate, banking, governmental and royal power ever assembled on American soil.

Over 140 of the world’s most elite powerbrokers gathered in a high class hotel in Chantilly, Virgina, June 5-8, not far from this nation’s capital for the annual Bilderberg Conference. First held in 1954, the Bilderberg Group has, until recently, never even acknowledged its own existence and attendees, who even today, will not admit they attended or what they actually discussed.

In a rare moment of public relations, an anonymous group affiliated with the ultra-secretive Bilderbergers, called Friends of Bilderberg, issued a list of power elites invited to this year’s conference. The list included American Secretary of State Rice, Secretary of the Treasury Paulson, National Security Agency Director Alexander, World Bank president Zoellick, Fed Chairman Bernanke, NY Fed President Geithner, along with Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, George Schultz, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Holbrooke, as well as major European politicians, bankers and businessmen.

All the major corporations, the royal houses of Europe, and representatives of the media, such as Donald Graham of the Washington Post and Paul Gigot of PBS, were also invited. Yet, not one photo or word documenting the event showed up in the mainstream media, despite a howling blogosphere rife with rumours that Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama secretly attended.

The Friends of Bilderberg press release also states that the “meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion” and that “all participants attend Bilderberg in a private and not an official capacity.” Under the Logan Act, passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994, it is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years, for any U.S. citizen to conduct foreign relations without authority. The attendance of U.S. citizens at annual Bilderberg Group Conference in an unofficial—meaning unauthorized — capacity raises the question of violation of federal law on a rather large scale, which should at the very least draw the mainstream media’s attention.

Daniel Estulin, author of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group (TrineDay; September, 2007), is recognized as the only reliable source of information on the meetings, attendees, and agendas of this secretive group of corporate titans, media moguls and political powers. For years, he has been tracking the movements, speeches, and political webs of Bilderberg members to glean what he can about their plans to re-invent the world in their own image. According to Estulin, and other printed sources, the funds for the first conferences were supplied by intelligence organization interests, and security at these conference are still handled by corresponding government agencies.

“The fact of this sinister conclave, as spooky as any midnight meeting of the KKK in a piney wood, was bound to get known to the world eventually,” says Estulin.” There is a queer parallel between Bilderberg´s secret meeting in Chantilly and a conference on Jekyll Island way back in 1908 in which the currency of the United States and of the world was manipulated — to what effect, whether for good or evil, opinions vary. There have been many excited versions of that secret meeting on Jekyll Island in 1908, but relatively few have ever heard of it at all. Most Americans are not aware of Bilderberg nor understand that the decisions taken at their secret confab affect the lives of the entire planet.”

Underlining the serious nature of the meeting, Estulin reports that Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haas spoke at the Bilderberg Conference Thursday, June 5, calling for the elimination of superpowers and sovereign nation states. Estulin quotes Haas as saying in his speech on International Non-Polarity, “The United States’ unipolar moment is over. International relations in the twenty-first century will be defined by nonpolarity. Power will be diffuse rather than concentrated, and the influence of nation-states will decline as that of non-state actors increases.”

Estulin has reported over the past few years that the true Eugenic-inspired purpose of these “private” and “informal” discussions, under the disguise of solving world problems, such as nuclear arms and terrorism, are in fact organized to:

– Dissolve national hegemonies and create a neo-fascist super state, spanning North America and Europe (in other words, Goodbye Canada);

– Centralize control of the people—eliminate the middle class, leaving only rulers, their helpers and workers;

– De-industrialize industrialized nations (except for computer and service industries) by moving industries to Third World, non-unionized countries;

– Reduce human populations around the globe;

– Centralize control of all education;

– Empower the United Nations to bring nations under a “New World Order”;

– Create and expand the western trading bloc throughout the western hemisphere to establish an “American Union” similar to the European Union (in order words, an American Empire ruling over continental North America, South America, Latin America, and the Caribbean/West Indies);

The True Story of the Bilderberg Group by Daniel Estulin exposes this powerful cabal as no one else can. Estulin spearheads a network of activists and journalists tracking their every move.

For more info, please contact:

Kurt Aldag, (800) 670-4372

kurt@aldag.net
Related

Largest gathering of wealth and power ever assembled on American soil off-limits to American media

‘North American Parliament’ under way

The “Triumvirate” North American Model Parliament, operates well outside of the public media spotlight of all three countries

Some hope exercise of U.S., Canadian, Mexican reps becomes reality

Worldnet Daily | May 28, 2008

By Jerome R. Corsi

A group supporting North American integration is holding its fourth annual “North American Model Parliament” for 100 university students from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, began is “Triumvirate” sessions Monday in Montreal’s City Hall with a plan to conclude Friday.

According to the NAFI website, “Triumvirate 2008″ brings together the students “to participate in an international negotiation exercise in which they will simulate a parliamentary meeting between North American political actors.”

Participants are assigned to play one of three roles: a legislator, representing a country other than their own; a journalist; or a lobbyist.

Four themes were selected as subjects of the mock parliament’s debate: Fostering Renewable Electricity Markets (in English); Countering North American corporate outsourcing (in French); Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (in English); and NAFTA’s Chapter 11 on investments (in English).

A major goal of the model parliament, according to the NAFI Triumvirate website, is to “develop the participants’ sense of belonging to North America.”

WND contacted the NAFI office in Montreal requesting comment but received no reply.

As WND previously reported, Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S., was quoted as claiming the exercise was intended to be more than academic.

“The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered,” Chretien told WND.

Among the NAFI board of directors are Robert A. Pastor, Ph.D., former director of the Center for North American Studies at American University; and M. Stephen Blank, Ph.D., director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University.

Pastor has written extensively on his proposal for the creation of a “North American Community,” while denying he has intended to form a North American Union modeled after the European Union.”

In January, Pastor resigned his position at American University’s Office of International Affairs amid a reorganization. Pastor announced he was taking a one-year sabbatical in which he planned to work as co-director of The Elders, a group of 13 world figures, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter.

As WND previously reported, Pastor’s 2001 book, “Toward a North American Community,” presents an argument that North American integration should advance through the development of a “North American consciousness” by creating various institutions which include a North American customs union and a North American Development Fund for the economic development of Mexico.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, “Building a North American Community,” that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action though trilateral “working groups” constituted within the executive branches of the U.S, Mexico and Canada to advance the North American integration agenda.

Stephen Blank is the driving force behind the North America Works conference.

North America Works II, held in Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 1-2, 2006, was organized by the David Rockefeller-created Council of the Americas to discuss “North American Competitiveness and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).”

Critics contend the working groups are pursuing a stealth process to transform the SPP into a North American regional governmental structure.

WND reported last year’s Triumvirate 2007 was held in Washington, D.C.

The Triumvirate 2006 North American Model Parliament was held in the Mexican Senate, and Triumvirate 2005, the first model parliament, took place in Ottawa, Canada.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative emerged from the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which requires all travelers to present a passport or other equivalent documents denoting identity and citizenship when entering the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

NAFTA Chapter 11 establishes an international tribunal to resolve disputes in which NAFTA investors claim national, state or local laws in the U.S., Canada or Mexico adversely impact NAFTA investments.

NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunals are empowered under NAFTA to overturn U.S. federal, state or local laws or ordinances that are judged to have harmed the interests of investors under NAFTA.

A Canadian government website lists Chapter 11 arbitrations involving Canadian companies and investors.

The U.S. State Department website lists on a sidebar all current NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitrations.

Related

The North American Model Parliament – homepage

South American nations to seek common currency

UNASUR Flag of South America

Xinhua | May 27, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 26 (Xinhua) — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday that South American nations will seek a common currency as part of the region’s integration efforts following the creation of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) last week.

“We are proceeding so as, in the future, we have a common central bank and a common currency,” said Lula in his weekly radio program, noting that this process will “not be fast.”

The president highlighted the importance of helping the group’s more “economically fragile” members, such as Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia.

“We have to help them because the stronger the countries in South America economically are, the more tranquility, peace, democracy, trade, companies, jobs, incomes and development,” he said.

The Brazilian leader said the creation of Unasur will allow cross-nation construction of railroads, highways, bridges and transmission lines connecting the region, while the alliance will make negotiations with other blocs easier.

The president said changes will be made on the proposal to create a regional defense council, which the South American leaders failed to agree during a summit in Brasilia on Friday.

A working group is expected to analyze the revised proposal in August, he said.

Lula plans to visit Colombia in July and meet Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Colombia was the only member that opposed the plan to build the regional defense council designed to resolve regional conflicts, promote military cooperation and possibly coordinate joint weapons production in the region.

Uribe has said Colombia is experiencing a difficult time in its fight against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest rebel group in the country, and such a regional defense body would not offer solutions to Colombia’s problem.

The heads of state of 12 South American countries — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela — signed a treaty last Friday in Brasilia on the creation of Unasur aimed at boosting economic integration and political cohesion in the region.

“Three Amigos summit” gets under way amid tight security, protests

“They (The leaders) are doing this without consulting with the American people,” Thomas Anderson, a protester from Texas, told Xinhua, saying that they were calling for transparency from the meeting.

Anderson accused the leaders at the summit of ignoring the concerns of ordinary people and engaging in secrete discussions that violate the U.S. constitution and endanger the sovereignty of the United States.

Xinhua | Apr 22, 2008

NEW ORLEANS, THE UNITED STATES, April 21 (Xinhua) — The fourth annual summit of leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico, dubbed the “Three Amigos summit,” got underway Monday in New Orleans, the city still marred by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, amid tight security and sporadic protests.

During the two-day event, U.S. President George W. Bush will confer with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in promoting integrated trade and security arrangements under the framework of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).

With street closures and traffic restrictions, security was tightest around in the Central Business District, where the North American leaders will engage in most of their summit-related activities.

But the morning scene inside the Gallier Hall, a historic building which used to serve as New Orleans’ city hall, was messy as workers were still in last-minute preparations for Bush’s arrival later in the day for a meeting with business executives.

Local police and secret service agents lined the streets surrounding the luxury Windsor-Court Hotel, where the three leaders will be staying during the summit, effectively blocking traffic and authorized personnel from getting too close.

Prior to the leaders’ arrival, under the watch of police officers, a small number of protesters gathered in front of the hotel, chanting anti-summit slogans and waving placards that read: “No North American Union”, “U.S. citizens say no to tyranny,” etc.

“They (The leaders) are doing this without consulting with the American people,” Thomas Anderson, a protester from Texas, told Xinhua, saying that they were calling for transparency from the meeting.

Anderson accused the leaders at the summit of ignoring the concerns of ordinary people and engaging in secrete discussions that violate the U.S. constitution and endanger the sovereignty of the United States.

Jim Stachowiak, a New Orleans native who operates an independent on-line radio station, said that through their protests, they wanted the American people to know that the “real enemies” are not in Iraq, but “in Washington D.C..”

“We are pleading, begging them to listen to the American people,” Stachowiak said.

The protesters demonstrated for several hours outside the hotel and later left peacefully in the afternoon. But elsewhere in the business district, small groups of demonstrators could still be seen sporadically.

Some activists said they expected protests of larger scale to take place on Tuesday when Bush, Harper and Calderon are due to have a more formal meeting before wrapping up the summit.

U.S. economic slowdown likely to bring Mexican workers north

McClatchy | Apr 18, 2008

By Franco Ordonez

TEZIUTLAN, Mexico — As the U.S. economy heads south, Mexicans may have to head north.

That’s the fear of many workers here, where the slowdown in the United States already has cut production at manufacturing plants whose output is largely sold in the United States .

“If it’s bad there, it will be worse here,” said Bartolo Juarez , 35, who makes jeans for Levis and Guess at a Teziutlan factory and already has discussed moving to the United States if his job here vanishes. His 12-year-old daughter, Gabriela, has broken down in tears more than once after hearing her parents talk about her father leaving for the States, her mother said.

“It’s a sacrifice. I don’t want to go, but I know I can get a good-paying job in San Antonio ,” even in troubled economic times, Juarez said. It’s always easier to find work in the United States than in Mexico , he added, and for five times more money.

Economists say that U.S. recessions historically are tougher on Mexico than they are on the United States , and that while U.S. officials say that border security measures, such as building a wall along the Mexican border, have reduced illegal immigration in recent months, they won’t hold back the flood of workers that’s likely if Mexican factories close.

The majority of the 72,000 people who live in this rainy town tucked up in the cloud forests of the Sierra Norte mountains in central Mexico work in more than 30 factories that specialize in assembling pants for distribution in the United States .

Rodrigo Martinez , the coordinator of the National Job Service in Teziutlan , estimates that 10 percent of the community already has gone to the United States in search of work after losing jobs here or deciding to find better pay there.

As demand for Mexican-made pants declines in the United States , he expects more workers to go.

“This community is almost 100 percent maquiladora,” he said, using the Spanish word for factories that assemble goods for U.S. consumption. “Closing some of those shops would affect us greatly.”

Manufacturing is by far Mexico’s most vulnerable sector during a U.S. downturn, economists say. More than 80 percent of Mexican exports are destined to go north. A drop in U.S. demand would cut into Mexican production levels and employment.

As the old adage goes, “When Uncle Sam sneezes, Mexico catches a cold.”

Jaime Ros , an economics professor at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame , said the Mexican manufacturing industry already was experiencing a pinch from the U.S. economic downturn. Those who lose their jobs will “certainly add to the supply of immigrants” heading north, he said.

Ros, who formerly taught at Mexico City’s Center of Investigation and Economic Studies , is skeptical that U.S. border-security measures will have a significant impact when so many desperate immigrants see the U.S. as their only option for work.

While the crash of the U.S. housing market has reduced demand for immigrant workers in construction, immigrants are likely to find jobs at hotels, restaurants and other services that won’t be as affected by a U.S. recession.

The U.S. learned how closely Mexico’s fate is tied to its economy in 2001. At the time, Mexico’s maquiladora industry was at its peak, with more than 3,000 companies employing about 1.2 million workers. Then the U.S. went into a recession after the dot-com crash. Hundreds of maquiladora plants closed as a result from 2001 to 2004 and more than 200,000 people lost their jobs.

Maquiladora workers who lose their jobs are more likely than other Mexicans to move north, said Kathy Kopinak , a senior fellow at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at University of California San Diego .

Because many maquiladoras have been set up in border towns, Kopinak said, workers have family members and friends on both sides of the border who can assist in labor migration.

Mexico hasn’t fallen into a recession, but several economists say that’s the direction the country is going if the U.S. recession is deeper than expected.

Mexico’s economy grew 3.3 percent last year. Wachovia Corp. forecasts this year’s growth to slow to 2.5 percent. Others are less optimistic: The Economist Intelligence Unit forecast that Mexico’s growth would be just 1.9 percent this year.

“The risk is that if we have a deeper, darker, longer recession than what we are expecting, then Mexico is going to catch a pretty bad cold and it could pull Mexico into a recession itself,” said Jay Bryson , a global economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte .

Mexican officials say their economy is more resilient now than in it was in 2001. They say that a pickup in automobile exports to Europe and Asia will help offset decreased demand from the United States . Central bank Governor Guillermo Ortiz said last month that Mexican exports to countries other than the U.S were growing by 30 percent a year.

President Felipe Calderon has announced several initiatives intended to weather a U.S. economic slowdown.

Last month, he announced a $5.6 billion stimulus package of tax breaks, discounts and bank loans. Last week, he called for sweeping changes in Pemex , Mexico’s ailing oil company and the country’s largest source of foreign exchange.

Calderon’s initiatives may never be approved, however. Opposition legislators have seized control of Mexico’s Congress , some spending the night in sleeping bags, to protest the bill, which they claim is an effort to privatize the state oil company.

Over drinks after their shift at an auto parts company that feeds the giant Volkswagen plant in Puebla, Mexico , Antonio Paredes , 24, and Jaime Galicia Alonso , 23, were discussing the likelihood of an economic downturn.

Paredes said he’d already talked to his wife about accompanying him to the United States . He’s also talked with a co-worker about getting in touch with his son in Chicago , where Paredes is considering moving.

Galicia said he’d do whatever he could to stay in Mexico , but he acknowledged that it will be tough. Many people from his village already have left for the United States .

“If you lose your job and you can find another job, you stay in Mexico ,” Galicia said. “Otherwise you’re almost obligated to go to the United States .”

Inside the hush-hush North American Union confab

State Department talks open borders, EU links

WorldNetDaily | Mar 13, 2008

By Jerome R. Corsi

WASHINGTON — A largely unreported meeting held at the State Department discussed integration of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in concert with a move toward a transatlantic union, linking a North American community with the European Union.

The meeting was held Monday under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, or ACIEP. WND obtained press credentials and attended as an observer. The meeting was held under “Chatham House” rules that prohibit reporters from attributing specific comments to individual participants.

The State Department website noted the meeting was opened by Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs Daniel S. Sullivan and ACIEP Chairman Michael Gadbaw, vice president and senior counsel for General Electric’s International Law & Policy group since December 1990.

WND observed about 25 ACIEP members, including U.S. corporations involved in international trade, prominent U.S. business trade groups, law firms involved with international business law, international investment firms and other international trade consultants.

No members of Congress attended the meeting.

The agenda for the ACIEP meeting was not published, and State Department officials in attendance could not give WND permission under Chatham House rules to publish the agenda.

The meeting agenda included topics reviewing the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, and the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council, or TEC.

The SPP, declared by the U.S., Canada and Mexico at a summit meeting in 2005, has 20 trilateral bureaucratic working groups that seek to “integrate and harmonize” administrative rules and regulations on a continental basis.

Several participants said the premise of the SPP is to create a North American business platform to benefit North America-based multi-national companies the way the European Union benefits its own.

Others noted the premise of the TEC is to create a convergence of administrative rules and regulations between Europe and North America, anticipating the creation of a “Transatlantic Economic Union” between the European Union and North America.

Participants pointed out that transatlantic trade is currently 40 percent of all world trade. They argue that trade and non-trade barriers need to be further reduced to maintain that market share as a framework is put in place to advance transatlantic economic integration.

Still, some participants argued that many corporations in North America already have moved beyond a North American focus to adopt a global perspective that transcends even the Transatlantic market.

“Supply chains and markets are everywhere,” one participant asserted. “What’s to stop global corporations from going after the cheapest labor available globally, wherever they can find it, provided the cost of transporting goods globally can be managed economically?”

Other participants argued regional alliances were still important, if only to put in place the institutional bases that ultimately would lead to global governance on uniform global administrative regulations favorable to multi-national corporations.

“North America should be a premiere platform to establish continental institutions,” a participant said. “That’s why we need to move the security perimeters to include the whole continent, especially as we open the borders between North American countries for expanding free trade.”

One presentation on the agenda identified four reasons why administrative rules and regulations need to be integrated by SPP in North America and by the Transatlantic Economic Council, bridging together European Union and North American markets:
Standardization – to keep prices low and productivity high;

Investment – for every $1 traded, $4 is invested; right now 75 percent of investment in the U.S. comes from the EU, and 52 percent of the investment in the EU comes from the U.S.;

Productivity Improvements – to lower production costs and stimulate trade; and

Open Borders – to facilitate the free movement of labor to markets where employment opportunities are available.

The discussion pointed out the SPP trilateral working groups and the Transatlantic Economic Council were being supported by top-level Cabinet officers and the heads of state in both the EU and in North America.

Progress in EU-U.S. regulatory integration was noted in financial market coordination, investment rule cohesion, trade security measures and efforts undertaken recently to preserve intellectual property rights.

Before the meeting began, concerns were raised informally by participants worried that the Ohio Democratic Party primary had prompted both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to talk of renegotiating NAFTA.

Participants at the State Department meeting pointed out U.S. political candidates could be expected to argue “protectionist themes opposed to global economic integration” as a tactic, without necessarily being committed to taking aggressive steps once in office.

“The political dialogue misses the point of economic reality,” one participant argued. “There is a J-curve correlation between when a currency like the U.S. dollar depreciates and when exports kick in to increase. We should accelerate the J-curve and our discussion about it, to help the local politics catch up with the international reality.”

Part of the discussion was devoted to concerns that national regulators in North America and Europe were too reluctant to abandon provincial regulatory advantages.

“Regulators by nature are advocates, and they are hard to move,” one participant grumbled. “What we need is more diplomats and negotiators to identify solutions, otherwise the bureaucrats will bog down the progress we need to see coming out of the SPP and TEC.”

“North America is already an integrated continental economy and a continental-wide business platform,” another said. “What we need now is more regulatory convergence. ‘Harmonized’ should mean that once approved, the same set of administrative regulations and procedures ought to be ready throughout NAFTA, SPP and the TEC.”

As WND previously reported, the Transatlantic Economic Council, or TEC, was created by President Bush at an April 30 summit meeting at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current president of the European Council, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

WND also reported the Transatlantic Policy Network, a non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels and advised by a bi-partisan congressional policy group chaired by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, has called for the creation of a Transatlantic Common Market between the U.S. and the European Union by 2015.

A complete membership list of the current 60-person Advisory Committee on International Policy is published on the State Department website.

ACIEP members include corporate officers from General Electric, Exxon Mobil, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Archer Daniels Midland, United Parcel Service, Citibank, Proctor & Gamble, Hunt Oil, CMS Energy, Boeing, 3M, Goldman Sachs and Cargill.

The most recent “Summary of Discussions” published on the Department of State website was for the Dec. 18 ACIEP meeting.

A published article on the State Department website includes photographs of the Dec. 18 ACIEP meeting, listing by name several participants who were photographed in attendance.

President Bush Announces North American Summit In New Orleans

 

A triumphant President Bush (framed by two Roman fasces, symbolic of Fascism), delivers the final State of the Union address of his presidency to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington January 28, 2008 as Vice President Dick Cheney (2nd L) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (R) applaud.

BayouBuzz | Jan 28, 2008

President Bush (this year, unlike last year) mentioned the Gulf Coast and New Orleans during his final State of the Union Speech.

Bush said, “Tonight the armies of compassion continue the march to a new day in the Gulf Coast. America honors the strength and resilience of the people of this region. We reaffirm our pledge to help them build stronger and better than before. And tonight I am pleased to announce that in April we will host this year’s North American Summit of Canada, Mexico, and the United States in the great city of New Orleans.

President Bush initially made that pledge in Jackson Square in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  During his speech, the President also announced the upcoming Summit in New Orleans.

In response, Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) Chairman Dr. Norman C. Francis issued the following statement regarding President George W. Bush’s announcement: “This is an historic time for our city and state, a time of unprecedented hope and confidence in Louisiana’s recovery. Tonight’s announcement certainly sends that message, and underscores the fact that Louisiana is once again open for business.

“While much remains to be done, Louisiana has made significant recovery progress since the 2005 storms. Federal recovery funds are flowing, neighborhoods are re-awakening and the sound of hammers and construction can be heard throughout the most impacted areas of South Louisiana. Over the last two years, New Orleans has also played host to many large gatherings, conventions, music festivals and major sporting events since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including this year’s BCS National Championship game, which brought tens of thousands of visitors to the Crescent City.

“I applaud President Bush for his commitment to the people of New Orleans and Louisiana. His pledge and support of federal dollars ensure that Louisiana’s recovery will be successful. We are most grateful for this opportunity to highlight both our progress and our remaining needs to the nation and world.”

. . .

Related

Bush’s plan to hold a North American summit in New Orleans cheered by business-hungry leaders

McCain aide touts ‘Mexico first’ policy

WorldNetDaily.com | Jan 25, 2008

By Jerome R. Corsi

The Hispanic outreach director for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is a dual American-Mexican citizen known for his “Mexico first” declarations to immigrants in the U.S., WND has confirmed.

Word of the appointment, made in November, spread across the Internet last night, sparking reaction from secure-border activists who charge Juan Hernandez’s position in the campaign belies the Republican candidate’s attempt to position himself as an advocate of border security.

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers emphasized to WND that Hernandez is “a non-paid volunteer to the campaign, and he does not play a policy role.”

“Juan works with us to reach out to the Hispanic community to meet with the folks in the various states,” Rogers said.

Asked if the McCain campaign has repudiated Hernandez’s “Mexico first” declarations, Rogers did not give a direct answer.

Twice he referred WND to McCain’s immigration position on the campaign presidential website arguing for border security.

In an appearance on ABC’s Nightline in 2001, Hernandez said, referring to Mexican immigrants in the U.S., “I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think ‘Mexico first.’”

Hernandez told the Associated Press the same year, “I never knew the border as a limitation. I’d be delighted if all of us could come and go between these two marvelous countries.”

Last August, Hernandez published a book entitled “The New American Pioneers: Why Are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants?” in which he argued Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, were at the forefront of establishing a new North American market combining the U.S. with Mexico.

Mark Krikorian, director for the Center for Immigration Studies, asked last night on a National Review Online blog, “Has McCain offered Hernandez, a former high-level foreign government official who presumably swore an oath to uphold the Mexican constitution, a place on a future McCain Administration? That’s not a rhetorical question.”

Columnist Michelle Malkin posted equally critical comments this morning on her blog HotAir.com.

Noting that McCain has attempted to distance himself from the comprehensive immigration reform bill he co-sponsored with Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, Malkin said the appointment of Hernandez “tells me that John McCain is as weak on border security now as he ever was.”

While McCain is now emphasizing border security, the policy posted on his website repeats many of the “flexible labor market” arguments advanced in the Kennedy-McCain comprehensive immigration reform bills, arguing for the necessity of a guest-worker program.

No fence

Hernandez has appeared on various cable news talk shows aggressively arguing against building any fence on the Mexican border, insisting the frontier need to remain wide open so illegal immigrants can easily cross into the U.S.

Hernandez was the first U.S.-born cabinet member to serve President Vicente Fox, operating from Los Pinos, the Mexican White House. Hernandez represented the 24 million Mexicans living abroad whom Fox then called “heroes” for representing Mexico in the foreign nations in which they lived.

In 1996, Hernandez was responsible for inviting Fox, then governor of the Mexican state of Guanajuanto, to speak at the University of Texas, Dallas, where he met George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, for the first time.