North American Union: Fact or fiction?

Reaction to reports about a possible North American Union have been robust, to say the least.

Reaction from a few conservative pundits is way beyond robust, nearing the ridiculous. Popular radio talk-show host, Michael Medved, describes the journalists reporting on the possible North American Union as '' bastards and creeps and jug-heads and drunks and reprobates.''

John Hawkins, a blogger at Right Wing News says claims about a North American Union are ''... not true at all.'' He then explains why he thinks the claims are false.

People who are unfamiliar with the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or the North America Free Trade Agreement, or the Trans-Texas Corridor, or the European Union could easily believe the very superficial analysis of these two, and other pundits who have ridiculed the formation of what could easily become a North American Union.

About the only thing that is correct in the reaction of either of these two pundits is the fact that no one is admitting officially that a North American Union is under construction.

What is quite publicly under construction is a ''North American Community,'' with the express goal of deeper ''integration'' of the economies and culture of the United States, Canada and Mexico. This North American Community is the brainchild of Dr. Robert Pastor, who, as co-chair of a special task force of the Council on Foreign Relations, produced a report entitled ''Building a North American Community.'' This report is essentially a regurgitation of Pastor's earlier book: ''Toward a North American Community.''

Among other goals, Pastor wants the three countries to:

• Adopt a common external tariff.
  
• Adopt a North American Approach to Regulation
  
• Establish a common security perimeter by 2010.
  
• Establish a North American investment fund
  
• Establish a permanent tribunal for North American dispute resolution.
  
• Hold an annual North American Summit meeting
  
• Establish minister-led working groups
  
• Create a North American Advisory Council
  
• Create a North American Inter-Parliamentary Group.

Pastor considers NAFTA to be '' ... the first draft of an economic constitution for North America,'' because it sets up the legal mechanism for achieving all his goals without bothering Congress.

The president apparently agrees with these goals, because he launched the Security and Prosperity Partnership in 2005, which consists of nearly 20 ''minister-led'' working groups, with appointed bureaucrats from each of the three countries, all working toward deeper ''integration'' through harmonization of procedures, rules and regulations – all of which is happening without bothering Congress.

While this is happening, Pastor, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Security and Prosperity Partnership all say they ''in no way, shape or form'' are working toward a North American Union. What they are working toward is Pastor's North American Community.

If it looks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk, it's probably a skunk – regardless of what you call it.

Is it just a coincidence that what is now the European Union began its life in 1957 as a customs union called the European Economic Community. A customs union is a free trade area with a common external tariff. The participant countries set up common external trade policies.

Do Robert Pastor's ideas point to a new and better direction, or are his ideas an echo of a treacherous past that robbed European nations of their independence, their currency and their sovereignty?

By following the European Union timeline, it is easy to see how the European ''Community'' evolved into a ''Common Market,'' and evolved its own currency, and finally established its own Parliament.

Look again at Pastor's goals. Are they not perfectly aligned with the history of the European Union? Again, it may be just a coincidence that the European Union was nurtured from the beginning by the Royal Institute for International Affairs. This non-government organization was created in 1920, by the same people who created its sister organization, the Council on Foreign Relations, in 1921.

Perhaps the North American Union is best described as a work in progress, having established a ''Common Market'' through NAFTA and CAFTA, and now approaching the ''Community'' stage through the Security and Prosperity Partnership. If the bureaucrats are not stopped by Congress, we will see, first, a ''North American Inter-Parliamentary Group,'' which is only a step away from a North American Parliament.

People, including pundits, who fail to see this work in progress could learn much from this NAU presentation. The NAU is moving quickly and quietly toward the same kind of political reality that now grips Europe. Only a concerned and enlightened constituency can compel elected officials to stop this erosion of America's sovereignty.

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