For those who think the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) or North American Union (NAU) merger plans are in decline, here’s evidence of a renewed commitment based on concerns about the environment.

Renewed efforts toward tri-national cooperation in protecting marine biodiversity in North America plus the launching of a new partnership to “green the supply chain” in the North American automotive industry was pledged by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) at its latest meeting in June. The CEC was established to ensure coordination of environmental and import policies, complementing the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and implementing the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).

The collaborating leaders of the CEC are EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, Mexican Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, and John Baird, the Canadian Environment Minister. Their latest session has them working together to identify new environmental challenges and opportunities that will arise for “all of North America.”

After patting itself on the back for eliminating or reducing the use of DDT, chlordane, PCBs, mercury and lindane (used to kill lice), the group is setting its sites on a whole new array of chemicals under its “chemical management agenda.” It is now greatly concerned with the threat to air quality from “non-compliant small engine products; is working to establish Green Suppliers Partnerships for the automotive industry; and will “accelerate the market uptake of green building” for both commercial and residential buildings throughout North America.

And just so it can have an effect on every inch of North America and its waters, it plans on supporting and conserving the migratory flyway of the monarch butterfly — though admittedly not endangered in the least, but a “spectacular natural” biological phenomenon — and on aggressively protecting the Vaquita porpoise. To illustrate the extent of its reach, the long-term agenda for the butterfly set by the CEC includes 60 specific actions relating to “possible” threats to the habitat, breeding grounds, and deforestation of anywhere the butterfly flies. These actions are to be imposed in the next decade.

The CEC has also established a citizen submissions mechanism — cynics might call it a snitch program — which enables the public to submit supposed violations in matters of international environmental law. Under Article 14 of the NAAEC, “any person or nongovernmental organization may submit a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner has failed to effectively enforce its environmental law.”  The claim will be reviewed and investigated by the CEC Secretariat. Presently nine activist enviro groups have submitted a claim asserting that the United States is failing to enforce the Clean Water Act with respect to mercury discharges from coal-fired power plants in ten states. 

While promoting the agenda of “environmental cooperation among NAFTA nations” and admittedly now having enforcement officials, the CEC’s website doesn’t say how it intends to go about enforcing what are effectively non-binding regulations. The only way the CEC could attempt enforcement is through supranational adjudication – international courts — superceding U.S. laws and courts, in direct violation of the Constitution. This would be a total loss of sovereignty and a de facto merger of governments.

According to its Website the CEC will continue strengthening “North American cooperation” and responding to the global management needs and goals “set at the North American Leaders’ Summit in 2007.”

Does anyone really need a translation?
 

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