Summit brings out the North American Union kooks

Washington Times:

President Bush's two-day summit with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, beginning today in nearby Montebello, is raising fears among some conservatives that the three governments are planning a European Union-style super-government.

Concerns about such an agreement and where it could lead started on Web sites and among talk-radio hosts, picked up by CNN commentator Lou Dobbs and gained traction among some of the House Republicans who successfully derailed Mr. Bush's immigration-reform plan, which critics described as an amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens in the United States.

"We want you to be aware of serious and growing concerns in the U.S. Congress about the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership you launched with these nations in 2005," 21 Republican members of Congress, along with one Democrat, said in a letter to President Bush.

The House has adopted an amendment barring U.S. transportation officials from participating in future meetings of the partnership.

The White House dismissed suspicions of a coming North American Union as a "silly" conspiracy theory. "Americans are going to remain Americans, Canadians are going to remain Canadians and Mexicans are going to remain Mexicans," a senior Bush administration official said on the condition of anonymity.

But the fight over immigration policy, in which some conservatives accused Mr. Bush of siding with multinational business interests to adopt policies undermining U.S. sovereignty, has aggravated fears about cross-border cooperation with Mexico.

...

The Bush administration official said the White House has made the Partnership, a series of talks begun in 2005, overly complicated. "If people think it's that complicated, then there's something more to it," he said. The purpose of the Partnership is to build upon the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he said has generated $884 billion in trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada over the past 12 years. He said the Partnership adds a security element to the economic and trade partnership.

"We've tried to recognize that this is an economic relationship, but also in a post-9/11 world, we have to have security. You can't have one without the other," he said. "None of these three countries are talking about changing their fundamental political structure or their fundamental constitutional structure in any way, [nor] adding either a common currency or a "bureaucratic superstructure."

...

It turns out the kooks have the ear of a few in Congress. They are going to wind up looking very silly. The biggest fear in both Mexico and Canada is that the US will wind up dominating them. That is a reasonable fear if their were such a union. Europe can have a union of small states because Germany and to some extent France are willing to share their wealth with smaller states. In North America trade between the three countries has been mutually beneficial. Mexico and Canada are two of our biggest suppliers of oil and gas and they are certainly the most dependable and friendly. Working closely with them on controlling all our borders is in our mutual interest.