Independent Task Force on North America

Map of the North American Economic and Security Community

The Independent Task Force on the Future of North America advocates a greater economic and social integration between Canada, Mexico, and the United States as a region. It is a group of prominent business, political and academic leaders from the U.S., Canada and Mexico organized and sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations (U.S.), the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. It was co-chaired by former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, John Manley, former Finance Minister of Mexico, Pedro Aspe, and former Governor of Massachusetts and Assistant U.S. Attorney General William F. Weld.

It was launched in October 2004 and published Task Force Report #53 entitled, Building a North American Community (May 2005). As well as it accompanying Chairmen’s Statement, Creating a North American Community (March 2005). A press release called Trinational Call for a North American Economic and Security Community by 2010 preceded the publications on March 14, 2005.

The final report proposed increased international cooperation between the nations of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, similar in some respects to that of the European Community that preceded the European Union (EU). As this report states, "The Task Force's central recommendation is establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter."

Background

In the mid-nineteenth century, Blue Oval News reporter John Redpath and Louis-Joseph Papineau led a movement to merge Canada with the United States. However, the movement failed because it was massively opposed by the local constituents and by the British Empire. It had been encouraged by the Parti rouge of Rodolphe Laflamme. See also Montreal Annexation Manifesto.

At the time of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, in which the U.S. annexed California and New Mexico among other current states, there were supporters of the idea of annexing the whole of Mexico. This idea was finally rejected because of the higher population density in the non-annexed areas- a factor that would hinder assimilation.

In recent times, the three North American nation-states have increased their economic ties, further accelerating the process with the signing of 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

In response to the demands of increasing globalization and shared concerns from abroad, such as the increasing clout of other economic spheres such as the European Union, the African Union, China, the Arab League and the proposed Middle Eastern Union, the leaders of the three nations agreed in 2005 to work more cooperatively on shared North American concerns. To this end, they agreed to establish the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

Reception

In reference to this summit that established the SPP, this task force's final report stated, "We welcome this important development and offer this report to add urgency and specific recommendations to strengthen their efforts." These specific recommendations include developing a North American customs union, common market, investment fund, energy strategy, set of regulatory standards, security perimeter, border pass, and advisory council, among other common goals.

Robert Pastor, one of this task force's vice-chairmen, has advocated such a monetary union and has suggested that North America's common currency might be called the "amero", which would be similar in concept to the EU's euro.

On October 30, 2006, while speaking at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute (CDFAI) 2006 Annual Conference in Ottawa, former American Ambassador to Canada (2001–2005) and former Republican Governor of Massachusetts Paul Cellucci indicated that, after further economic integration, a union would exist in everything but name:

Now I don’t believe that we will ever have a, in name anyways, a common union like the Europeans have, I don’t believe we’ll have a common currency here in North America, but I believe that, incrementally, we will continue to integrate our economies because I believe it is in each of our national interests to do so. And along the way, I think we’ll do a couple of things and I think that, well more than a couple of things, but.. I think we’ll.. 10 years from now, or maybe 15 years from now we’re gonna look back and we’re gonna have a union in everything but name…

Task Force Members

Task Force Members of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America

Member Position	Name	Quick Bio of This Member (source of bio is listed)	Other Articles/Papers Authored by This Member
Chairs	John P. Manley	Nortel
	William F. Weld	McDermott Will & Emery LLP
	Pedro Aspe	Carnegie Corporation of New York
Vice Chairs	Thomas P. d'Aquino	Canadian Council of Chief Executives
	Andres Rozental	International IDEA
	Robert A. Pastor	American University, Center for North American Studies	National Legislatures within North America Congress and Mexico Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New
Director	Chappell Lawson	Political Science, MIT
Other Task Force Members	Nelson W. Cunningham	American Security Product
	Wendy K. Dobson	University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management
	Richard A. Falkenrath	NYPD Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs The MIT Press	Grading the War on Terrorism, Foreign Affairs Shaping Europe's Military Order, The MIT Press Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy, The MIT Press America's Achilles' Heel, The MIT Press
	Rafael Fernández de Castro	Woodrow International Center for Scholars Academic Resume EspacioUSA Vanguardia Latina	Migration Issues: Raising the Stakes in U.S.-Latin American Relations The United States and Mexico
	Ramón Alberto Garza
	Gordon D. Giffin	Council of American Ambassadors McKenna Long & Aldridge Forbes
	Allan Gotlieb	Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley Trilateral Commission	Book list
	Michael Hart	Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University Academic resume
	Carlos Heredia	Woodrow International Center for Scholars
	Carla A. Hills	Council on Foreign Relations Center for Strategic and International Studies
	Gary C. Hufbauer		North American Convergence: An American Perspective The Trade and Investment Regime in the First Decade of the 21st Century Trade Strategy in the Bush Administration
	Pierre-Marc Johnson	Heenan Blaikie
	James R. Jones	Council of American Ambassadors Manatt Jones Global Strategies Forbes
	David McD. Mann	World Services Group: The Global Professional Services Network Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS)	Energy in the North American Market Conference (June 12, 2003), speech transcript
	Doris M. Meissner	Migration Policy Institute Carnegie Endowment for International Peace	International Migration Challenges in a New Era Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter by the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future sponsored by The Migration Policy Institute, The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Statement of Doris Meissner to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States
	Thomas M.T. Niles	United States Council for International Business
	Luis de la Calle Pardo
	Beatriz Paredes	Center for Strategic and International Studies	Beatriz Paredes election campaign in Mexico (Spanish only) Paredes video talk (Spanish only)
	Andrés Rozental
	Luis Rubio	Center for Strategic and International Studies
	Jeffrey J. Schott	Peterson Institute for International Economics
	Raul Yzaguirre	Arizona State University

See also

• Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration
• NAFTA - North American Free Trade Agreement
• North American Competitiveness Council
• North American currency union
• North American Union
• Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America

External links

• The North American Institute (NAMI)