OTTAWA—The leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States launched the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) to increase security, prosperity, and improve the quality of life for the citizens of each sovereign nation. Last March in Cancun, Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the SPP and identified five priorities: 1) Strengthening Competitiveness through creation of a private sector-led North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), and enhancing regulatory cooperation; 2) Emergency Management; 3) Avian and Pandemic Influenza; 4) Energy Security; and 5) Smart, Secure Borders.
We, the Canadian and United States Ministers responsible for Foreign Affairs, Security and Prosperity, are pleased to welcome our counterparts from the new Government of Mexico. We met today to review progress since the Leaders' meeting in Cancun and are pleased to report that progress has been achieved in a number of areas.
In order to ensure tangible results on the Cancun priorities: We thank the representatives of Canada, Mexico and the United States of the NACC for their dedication and commitment, and for their report on enhancing competitiveness. We note their recommendations in the areas of border crossing facilitation, standards and regulatory cooperation, and energy integration. Our respective governments will review the report and consider carefully its recommendations in preparation for the next Leaders' meeting. We will continue to work with the NACC and other stakeholders as we strive to make North America the safest and best place to live, invest and prosper.
Building on our strong partnership, we recognize the importance of focusing on initiatives that will further competitiveness and quality of life in North America, and will continue to work together to successfully meet the security and prosperity challenges of the 21st century. We will pursue this work to deliver tangible results and a focused agenda to the Leaders at their next meeting in August 2007, in Canada.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
