North American leaders to meet on NAFTA

[Joanne98]

Source: AP

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) — The leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States will meet here Monday for an annual summit on the North American Free Trade Agreement, amid sharp criticism of the pact in the US presidential race.

As US President George W. Bush meets with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in New Orleans, US workers' unions and the Democratic White House hopefuls have lambasted NAFTA.

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who are battling for the Democratic nomination, have warned that they are willing to re-negotiate parts of the agreement if elected president in November.

NAFTA, which aims to eliminate tariffs on products traded between the three countries, came into effect on January 1, 1994 under Clinton's husband, then-president Bill Clinton.



Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5igvcAT8NMfOh-LbdpMcH5vRLy_6w

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Cross reference with Greg Palast

http://www.gregpalast.com/jose-can-you-see-bush%e2%80%99s-trojan-taco/

[douglas9]

2. Three Amigos Summit

President George W. Bush will soon host what has become an annual “Three Amigos Summit.” The leaders of Mexico, the United States, and Canada will be gathering in New Orleans on April 21 and 22. What do you suppose is on the agenda? A rational response to immigration, perhaps? A thoughtful renegotiation of the unpopular North American Free Trade Agreement? Lessons from Canada’s affordable medicines program?

No. No. And no. Rather than putting their heads together around pressing issues such as these, the three leaders will be advancing a so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). And while that may sound well and good, this initiative, begun in 2005, is unlikely to produce either security or prosperity. That’s because the partnership is only with big business.

The chief executives of Wal-Mart, Chevron, and 28 other large corporations are in on the closed-door negotiations, while members of Congress, journalists, and ordinary citizens are excluded. And the secrecy is not just around the presidential summits, but also the meetings of about 20 SPP working groups that carry on negotiations over the course of the year.

What’s on the table? Not much is public, but we do know that the executive powers of the three countries are hammering out regulatory changes that they claim do not require legislative approval. And given who’s in the room, it’s a safe bet that these changes will favor narrow corporate interests over the public good.

...........

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5152

[OKthatsIT]

3. It's 'Classified'. We aren't allowed to know.