Opinion Editorial

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff
Opinion Editorial, El Universal
”Acting Together We Are Stronger. Acting Together We Succeed”

Three years ago, the United States, Mexico and Canada launched a landmark partnership to promote the security and well-being of our sovereign nations.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) builds on our successful NAFTA partnership. NAFTA helped create jobs, spur growth, and propel trade between the U.S. and Mexico, increasing Mexico’s exports to the U.S. by 428 percent.

As the secretaries for SPP, we’ll be meeting this week in Mexico with our Mexican and Canadian counterparts to prepare for the upcoming North American Leaders’ Summit in New Orleans. We will review progress in meeting our common goals: securing our respective borders, ensuring safe food and products, strengthening our emergency management and preparedness, and facilitating global competitiveness, sustainable energy, and a cleaner environment.

How much progress have we made? Under the SPP framework, we have made considerable advances indeed.

We’ve strengthened the security of our borders while facilitating the trade and travel that fuel our economies. In Mexico, for example, we’ve worked closely with the Calderon Administration to combat border violence and inhibit the flow of illegal drugs and weapons. With our Mexican and Canadian counterparts, we have also tightened travel document requirements at the border to prevent dangerous people from passing between our countries while improving our ability to process lawful trade and travel more efficiently.

In other words, today, three years into our partnership, our common borders have become increasingly safe and secure. At the same time, they remain the world’s busiest, with some of the largest movements of people and products anywhere.

Through the SPP, we’ve also made great strides in coordinating responses to and sharing information about threats to our food and agriculture systems, increasing the safety of critical food supplies.

Our countries are also working together to better predict and prepare for crises, both man-made and natural. Diseases and disasters don’t stop at our borders, and there’s no sense pretending otherwise. By planning together, we reduce the challenges and disruptions that could otherwise impair our long-term security and prosperity.

We’ve also seen progress in areas that impact our quality of our lives. For example through the SPP our three countries have developed common standards for appliances such as freezers, refrigerators and air conditioners. This increases consumer choice and lowers prices throughout our continent.

Yet in spite of all the strides we have made, there is still work to be done. Our governments need to be ever-vigilant and prepared to address the unforeseen as well as the existing challenges to our security and our prosperity. Within the United States, even as we act aggressively to secure our borders we also advocate strongly for meaningful immigration reform to provide sane, sensible, and humane responses to the issue of cross-border migration. A critical opportunity to address this long-standing challenge was lost in our legislative process last year. We urge the U.S. Congress to revisit this legislation.

Nonetheless, progress has been unmistakable and with every advance, we have shown that both security and prosperity can advance together. When we enhance security, we strengthen rule of law, which makes our economies more predictable and attractive to investors. When border crossings become more efficient, delays are reduced and businesses thrive.

It is our good fortune to be bordered by unique and sovereign nations that are democracies, allies and friends. Through meetings like the one this week in Mexico, common solutions to our challenges can be found that will bring about a better tomorrow for the people of Canada, the United States and Mexico.