North America summit set to begin amid protests, storm
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The leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico are expected to meet Monday at this log cabin resort, near Ottawa, for a two-day summit to bolster trilateral trade and security.
But, local demonstrations and a deadly hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico already threaten to derail the talks, aimed at unifying trade rules and security following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) was launched at the first “Three Amigos” summit in Waco, Texas, in March 2005.
Since then, it has been maligned by activists, labor groups and academics who lament its acute business focus.
Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon, meanwhile, may cut short his visit to Canada as Hurricane Dean surged toward his homeland, a diplomatic official said Monday.
The category-four hurricane is packing winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour, so far killing at least five people across the Caribbean basin, and whipping up a giant surf as it heads for Belize and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
“We’re monitoring the hurricane’s progress in order to make a timely decision (to return to Mexico) at the right moment,” said a Mexican diplomatic source in Ottawa, adding “for the moment, the summit program is unchanged.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is to host Calderon and US President George W. Bush for the SPP’s third installment at this historic resort, where G7 talks were held in 1981, on the treed shores of the Ottawa River, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Canada’s capital.
Thirty top businessmen from Canada, the United States and Mexico have also been invited.
According to organizers, Harper, Bush and Calderon will review current market turmoil, trade and security, and strategies to stem pandemics.
The three conservatives may also confer on product safety, following recent recalls of toys, dog food and toothpaste, and growing worries about defective “made in China” goods, imported into North America.
A perceived lack of transparency in the negotiations, however, has provoked the ire of anti-globalization activists, environmentalists, peaceniks, and civil rights groups — all suspicious of the outcome.
Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators marched from Canada’s parliament to the US and Mexican embassies in Ottawa, railing against the SPP.
In Montebello, a fence three meters (10 feet) high and running 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) around the meeting place has been erected to keep them out.
But several of them, refusing to be “caged” in a forest clearing set up for them by summit organizers, vowed to try to get closer to Bush, Harper and Calderon to make their views known in the coming days.
A parallel counter-summit uniting academics and opposition MPs is also planned in Ottawa.
Calderon, arriving early, stayed with Harper and his family over the weekend at the Canadian prime minister’s summer home in Harrington Lake, Quebec.
He was expected to stay an extra day, until Wednesday, for bilateral talks with Harper, but this portion of the trip may be annulled due to the storm, a diplomatic source told AFP.
During the summit, Bush and Harper are likely to discuss climate change, unrest in Afghanistan, and competing Arctic claims by Canada, the United States, Russia, Denmark and Norway, officials said.
Paul Cellucci, former US ambassador to Canada, told broadcaster CTV on Sunday: “In the age of terror, it’s in our security interests that the (disputed) Northwest Passage be considered part of Canada.”
“That will enable the Canadian navy to intercept and board vessels in the Northwest Passage to make sure they are not bringing weapons of mass destruction into North America,” he said.
But the proposal was immediately dismissed by his successor as “not current US policy.”
Calderon, meanwhile, is likely to ask for more US aid to curb drug trafficking, and propose a hike in the number of temporary worker visas issued by Canada to Mexican seasonal workers, now at 12,000 annually.
Tuesday, the three leaders will hear from the North American Competitiveness Council on recommendations to boost the competitiveness of North America’s automotive, transportation, manufacturing and services sectors.
Filed by Egor Ouzikov under Multilateral Trade, Regional Security