Obama Administration Urged to 'Seize North American Opportunities' on Security and...

Obama Administration Urged to 'Seize North American Opportunities' on Security
and Competitiveness

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- As President Obama prepares for his first
foreign presidential trip to Canada on Feb. 19, leading experts in the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico are urging his administration to strengthen U.S.
partnerships with its neighbors on challenges ranging from border security to
global competitiveness and environmental protection.

Their recommendations were released today in a report entitled "North America
Next: Report to President Obama on Building Sustainable Security and
Competitiveness". The report, prepared by the Arizona State University's
North American Center for Transborder Studies (NACTS), represents more than a
year of intensive consultations by its consortium of leading experts and
universities in the three countries.

"Despite the multiple crises facing the new administration," NACTS Director
Rick Van Schoik said recognition of the "urgency next door" is required
"because a number of significant challenges facing the United States also have
created unprecedented North American opportunities for enhancing our nation's
competitiveness, security and sustainability.

Almost 40 million jobs were created in the US, Canada and Mexico between
1993-2007," he noted, "and today Canada and Mexico are respectively the first-
and third-ranked trading partners and foreign suppliers to the U.S. Our
challenge should not be to undo NAFTA," Van Schoik added, "but to build a
North American strategy for the 21st century, one that generates economic
development and job creation for all three nations.

Post-9/11 border congestion has left the U.S. in many ways poorer, less secure
and with major environmental challenges in the border region itself, Van
Schoik said. One estimate cited a $7.2 billion annual output loss, or the
equivalent of 62,000 jobs, between just two border sister cities in 2007 due
to border congestion, traffic and paperwork.

In contrast, Van Schoik said "smart infrastructure investments can
simultaneously enhance U.S. and North American security, competitiveness and
sustainability by creating jobs, enhancing outdated infrastructure and
facilitating faster and 'greener' trade."

Other urgent challenges cited by Van Schoik include:

-- The necessity of increasing global competitiveness with other trading
blocs, a vital element for sustainable economic recovery.
-- Security threats to North America from the narcoinsurgency waged by
Mexican organized crime that is raging along the border, fuelled by
guns
and cash from the U.S.
-- Rapidly accelerating climate change that underscores the need to not
only deal with emissions, but also water shortages and lost
biodiversity.
-- The prospect of "achieving energy security next door, not an ocean
away, if we do a few things right...and right now."
-- Mexico's difficult commitment to economic, legal, and political
reform, which "offers a vital window of opportunity that simply
must be supported, as potential risks and benefits extend far beyond
its
borders."

Key Recommendations

"These challenges also are opportunities," said Van Schoik, as he outlined
recommendations that are "highly doable" in the near or medium-term,
including:

-- Strengthening the Merida Initiative in a way that maximizes bipartisan
U.S. support and multi-partisan Mexican consensus and buy-in.
-- Energizing the North American Trilateral Leaders Summit by expanding
involvement by the three federal legislatures and other key
stakeholders.
-- Designating a North America/borders authority to coordinate
sustainable
security, preferably within the National Security Council, with a
focus
upon all critical border functions.
-- Expanding joint risk assessment and preparedness for enhanced joint
defense and better management of natural and human-generated
catastrophes.
-- Developing an effective North American trade and transportation plan
that addresses congestion, bottlenecks, and infrastructure in all
three
countries.
-- Creating a joint, revolving fund for infrastructure investments in
North
America, jump-starting our collective economic engine for global
competitiveness.
-- Implementing a North American greenhouse gas exchange strategy to
promote energy independence and climate security.
-- Establishing joint, practical assessment of progress on key North
American issues.

For additional information and the full text of the report, see
http://nacts.asu.edu

SOURCE Arizona State University, Media Relations

Erik Lee, +1-858-449-3798, erik.w.lee@asu.edu; or Steve Meeter,
+1-202-255-1932, StephenMeeter@hotmail.com, both for Arizona State University,
Media Relations