SPP Joint Statement By Bush, Calderon, Harper April 22

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April 22, 2008 03:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Joint Statement by President Bush, President Calderon, Prime Minister

Harper - North American Leaders' Summit

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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 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, 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 Calderón to host the next

meeting of North American leaders in 2009.