Posted on 08/19/2007 12:30:10 PM PDT by processing please hold
WASHINGTON — Never fond of interrupting his Texas vacations, President Bush is doing it this year to bolster ties with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, two friendly neighbors and vital partners.
Bush joins Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday in Montebello, Quebec, in hopes of expanding cooperation among their countries, which enjoy the largest trading partnership in the world.
The two-day North American Leaders’ Summit appears to lack a signature issue, except perhaps a new U.S. push to halt Mexico’s bloody drug wars.
Instead, the broad theme is economic prosperity, built around several topics: border security, competitiveness with India and China, product safety and energy solutions.
Underlying those points are technical but important matters, such as aligning bordercrossing procedures and commercial standards.
“It’s not necessarily sexy stuff, but it’s essential to our security. It has to be done,” said Roger Noriega, Bush’s former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. “And it just so happens that Mexico and Canada have renewed themselves with the election of two right-of-center leaders who see the world a lot like Bush does.”
The setting will be at a massive red-cedar chateau on the banks of the Ottawa River. Some nettlesome issues await the leaders.
Bush promised to deliver an overhaul of U.S.-Mexico immigration policy, and now he will be seeing Calderon for the first time since that effort collapsed in Congress. Calderon has made clear he is after more from the U.S. than hundreds of miles of fencing to keep the countries divided.
Harper is frustrated over a U.S. law that tightened passport rules for Canadians visiting the United States, although Bush has little influence over the matter.
The leaders probably will discuss how best to counter the message of Venezuela’s fiery president, Hugo Chavez, who is leading a leftward shift in Latin America. Each has a strategic interest in promoting democracy in the Western Hemisphere, an area of emphasis for Bush before he leaves office in January 2009.
“What’s really important is that they continue to reflect the significance of North American integration — the fact that there are post 9/11 problems, but they aren’t going to undermine trade and investment,” said Charles Doran, a scholar at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Doran foresees no dominating issue at the summit. “That’s a good thing. There’s not one thing that’s going to preoccupy them,” he said.
The meeting comes as the U.S. government is poised to offer a major aid plan to Mexico to fight drug trafficking and violence. Bush may announce part or all of the proposal during the summit if the details are completed in time. The effort is expected to help pay for equipment and training.
Calderon has cracked down on drug traffickers and sent soldiers into violence-plagued areas since he won election last year. The effort has earned praise from Bush. Still, many people in Mexico are wary of U.S. intervention, fearing it could threaten their sovereignty. That is a common worry in cross-border efforts.
“I think (Calderon) understands that he can’t — and he shouldn’t have to — take these guys on all by himself,” said Noriega, now a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “And I think President Bush realizes that whether Calderon succeeds or fails will have a dramatic effect on our security.”
Now don't that just break my heart. Maybe he shoulda checked with how the American citizens felt first before promising to give our sovereignty the boot.
Arrogance, pure arrogance.
Is Buffalo in America?
bttt
Again? Didn’t they just have one of these? Geez just how many summits are they gonna hold?
Yes
Buffalo, NY, nothing to indicate otherwise.
How much more of America will Bush give away?
I believe he is.
This is the third one. One held in each country.
I sure hope he doesn’t sell out our national sovereignty any further than he has already.
It's taking on the appearance of a fire sale. give away.
Ai carumba...
We'll have to wait and see what damage is done after this shindig ends.
And there it is.
Now if that is not an in your face Globalist agenda, and the end of borders and our American sovereignty to the great God of Globalism and it’s concurrent shifting trade needs - and the free flow of cheap labor wherever and whenever needed - then I do not know what is.
— the fact that there are post 9/11 problems, but they aren’t going to undermine trade and investment,”
That part got a snicker out of me. I didn't know there was 20-30 million Americans living in Mexico bankrupting their social services, raping and murdering hundreds of their citizens daily and threatening their sovereignty.
Thank you. You don’t know how badly I wanted to point that out but held back. There it is in a nut!
I agree. The world sucks on our taxpayer tit. We’re like a money tree to them and yet they revile us.
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