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Skriven 2006-03-31 23:33:50 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060331) for Fri, 2006 Mar 31
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The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America: Progress
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 31, 2006

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America: Progress



Canada, Mexico and the United States share a continued commitment to
enhance the security, prosperity and quality of life of our citizens within
North America. We recognize that the success of our countries is enhanced
by working cooperatively. The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North
America, which celebrates its first anniversary this month, provides a
framework for us to advance collaboration in areas as diverse as security,
transportation, the environment and public health.

This Partnership has increased our institutional contacts to respond to our
vision of a stronger, more secure, and more prosperous region. In June
2005, our three governments released detailed work-plans identifying key
initiatives that form an ambitious agenda of collaboration. Since June, we
have worked to implement these initiatives. Many will take months or years
to be completed, but we already note significant results. We ask our
Ministers to build on this momentum.

We have discussed how we can ensure North America is the most economically
dynamic region in the world and a secure home for our citizens. Today, we
exchanged views with private sector leaders on how to enhance the
competitiveness of North America.

Building on existing commitments, we agree that priority initiatives
warrant special attention in the coming year:

Strengthening Competitiveness in North America. We are pleased to announce
the creation of a North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). The
Council will comprise members of the private sector from each country and
will provide us recommendations on North American competitiveness,
including, among others, areas such as automotive and transportation,
steel, manufacturing, and services. The Council will meet annually with
security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government
officials on an ongoing basis.

We are convinced that regulatory cooperation advances the productivity and
competitiveness of our nations and helps to protect our health, safety and
environment. For instance, cooperation on food safety will help protect the
public while at the same time facilitate the flow of goods. We affirm our
commitment to strengthen regulatory cooperation in this and other key
sectors and to have our central regulatory agencies complete a trilateral
regulatory cooperation framework by 2007.

North American Emergency Management. A disaster - whether natural or
man-made - in one of our countries can have consequences across national
borders. Our vision for a North American response, relief and recovery
strategy would ensure that critical equipment, supplies and personnel can
be deployed expeditiously throughout North America. We commit to develop a
common approach to critical infrastructure protection, coordinated
responses to cross border incidents, and coordinated training and
exercises, with the participation of all levels of government in our
countries.

Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza. Given the highly integrated nature of
our economies, an outbreak of pathogenic avian flu or human pandemic
influenza in any one of our countries would affect us all. Today, we have
agreed to develop a comprehensive, science-based and coordinated approach
within North America to avian influenza and human pandemic influenza
management. We have endorsed a set of shared principles to underpin
cooperative activities by our Governments in all stages of avian influenza
and human pandemic influenza management: prevention; preparedness;
response; and recovery. Pursuant to these principles, officials will
develop, as an immediate priority, incident management protocols to ensure
that we are well prepared in advance of an outbreak in North America. For
instance, we have agreed to work together to accelerate research,
development, production, and availability of human pandemic influenza
vaccines, and develop a strategy to best facilitate the sharing of
information to enhance the availability of vaccines to the region. We will
also establish a small Coordinating Body of senior officials to ensure
follow-up on these commitments.

North American Energy Security. A sustainable, secure and affordable supply
of energy is key to fueling the North American economy. Collaboration in
the areas of innovation, energy efficiency, and technology development,
including moving these technologies to market, promotes energy security.
Our governments renew their commitment to trilateral cooperation on clean
energy technologies, conservation, and market facilitation as a means to
meeting our shared goals of energy security and sustainable development.
Officials will also examine how this cooperation can be expanded to further
our climate efforts.

North American Smart, Secure Borders. Our vision is to have a border
strategy that results in the fast, efficient and secure movement of
low-risk trade and travelers to and within North America, while protecting
us from threats including terrorism. In implementing this strategy, we will
encourage innovative risk-based approaches to improving security and
facilitating trade and travel. These include close coordination on
infrastructure investments and vulnerability assessments, screening and
processing of travelers, baggage and cargo, a single integrated North
American trusted traveler program, and swift law enforcement responses to
threats posed by criminals or terrorists, including advancing a trilateral
network for the protection of judges and officers.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America represents a broad
and ambitious agenda. We instruct our Ministers to develop options to
strengthen the SPP and present them next June as part of the second report
on progress of the SPP.

President Fox and President Bush were pleased to accept, on behalf of their
countries, Prime Minister Harper's invitation to host the next trilateral
leaders meeting in Canada in 2007.

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