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As former members of our countries' congresses we believe that it is time to create a North American Parliamentary Union (NAPU) to address the growing number of big issues that North America's national governments have pushed to the sidelines. Both past and present have been burdened by the ad hoc nature of relations among the United States, Mexico, and Canada. A fairer, more prosperous future for all three countries demands that we take a bold step forward.
Despite US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's snide reference to ``Old Europe,'' North Americans can learn much from the European Union and European Parliament. In the 1950's, most of Europe considered the idea of a Union with a single Parliament a pipe dream. Today the EU elects its Parliament, shares a single currency, and controls a budget that emphasizes raising living standards within the less developed member countries. Within the near future, the EU is likely to be 450 million people strong.
The combined population of the US, Mexico, and Canada is about 410 million people. Yet North America has failed to match Europe in building the political structures necessary to focus the hemisphere on the problems of immigration, cross border security, labor rights, and environmental degradation; or in facilitating a more united approach to strong economic competition from Europe and Asia.
On the contrary, in the aftermath of the Iraq War, relations between the US and its neighbors, Canada and Mexico, are at their lowest level in years. Clearly, efforts to deepen North American political and economic integration will be an uphill battle.
In the near future, the US government will be focused on homeland security, Iraq, the slumping domestic economy, and the run-up to the 2004 presidential election. Canada's government has been more willing to approach North American issues on a bilateral basis than in a tri-national context; furthermore, Canadians are preoccupied with the consequences and aftermath of SARS and mad cow disease, as well as anticipating a new government next year.
Mexico's President Vincente Fox will govern through 2006. But his vision of a North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) encompassing elements of social and political fusion with his North American counterparts was sidetracked by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and by his political rivals' recent successes at the polls.
Notwithstanding this, most Canadians and Mexicans believe that cooperation in North America will proceed regardless of who is in office in Ottawa, Washington, or Mexico City. Not only are Canada and Mexico the US's first and second largest trading partners, but the three countries maintain a myriad of relationships--in business, tourism, and culture--that do not pass through their embassies or governments. Good feelings abound. US citizens register high approval ratings in Canada and Mexico: 90% and 70%, respectively.
In proposing the creation of NAPU, we envision a specific plan to create a larger market by fostering an alliance between the three economies. In just a single decade, the EU managed to bring poorer, peripheral member states--Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland--from 50% to 90% of the EU average in per capita income, creating a bigger market for companies from wealthier northern countries, and stemming migration from poorer southern economies. The EU invested upwards of $35 billion a year to assure the success of their Common Market integration.
North America has largely ignored the significance of ``common,'' preferring to focus on ``market.'' This blinded all three countries to the centrality of community. We have failed to understand that a North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) that achieves its full potential cannot be accomplished on the cheap. A regional political structure will maintain the focus on vital but difficult issues such as immigration.
NAFTA was conceived under the assumption that expanded trade would trickle down benefits to all in the three countries. Regretfully, this corporate-driven NAFTA exacerbated the disparities and asymmetries between Mexico and its two richer northern neighbors. Moreover, throughout NAFTA's lifetime income and wealth have been further concentrated within the elite sectors of US and Canadian society.
Immigration illustrates the cost of integration without convergence. Demand for low-cost Mexican labor by US employers and the 10-1 wage gap between the two countries pushes 350,000 Mexicans to risk their lives every year for better paid jobs north of the border. Without Mexican manpower, much of the work in the US simply would not get done. The issue must be addressed, not ignored and criminalized. NAPU would be the ideal forum in which to address this concern.
Everywhere nowadays, key decisions are made by a self-selected group of elites, often in non-transparent circumstances. NAPU would allow for wider, more consistent participation in the consideration of issues now ignored in all three countries. Inter-American issues can no longer be left subject to the whims and convenience of individual leaders. The people of the US, Canada, and Mexico deserve better.
David Bonior, a member of the US Congress for 25 years, is now Professor at Wayne State University in Michigan. Carlos Heredia, a former member of the Mexican Federal Congress, is an economist with extensive experience in foreign affairs. Both are members of the US/MEXICO FUTURES FORUM a collaboration between the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and the University of California at Berkeley.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, August 2003.
