Independent Task Force On North America

Independent Task Force On North America

The Independent Task Force on the Future of North America advocates a greater economic and social integration between Canada, Mexico, and the United States as a region. It is a group of prominent business, political and academic leaders from the U.S., Canada and Mexico organized and sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations (U.S.), the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. It was co-chaired by former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, John Manley, former Finance Minister of Mexico, Pedro Aspe, and former Governor of Massachusetts and Assistant U.S. Attorney General William F. Weld.

It was launched in October 2004 and published Task Force Report #53 entitled, Building a North American Community (May 2005). As well as it accompanying Chairmen’s Statement, Creating a North American Community (March 2005). A press release called Trinational Call for a North American Economic and Security Community by 2010 preceded the publications on March 14, 2005.

The final report proposed increased international cooperation between the nations of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, similar in some respects to that of the European Community that preceded the European Union (EU). As this report states, "The Task Force's central recommendation is establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter."

Read more about Independent Task Force On North America:  Background, Reception, Task Force Members

Famous quotes containing the words north america, independent, task, force, north and/or america:

    “I knew that the wall was the main thing in Quebec, and had cost a great deal of money.... In fact, these are the only remarkable walls we have in North America, though we have a good deal of Virginia fence, it is true.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “There is in fact no such thing as art for art’s sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause.”
    —Mao Zedong (1893–1976)

    “Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope.”
    —William Penn (1644–1718)

    “...here he is, fully alive, and it is hard to picture him fully dead. Death is thirty-three hours away and here we are talking about the brain size of birds and bloodhounds and hunting in the woods. You can only attend to death for so long before the life force sucks you right in again.”
    —Helen Prejean (b. 1940)

    “—Here, the flag snaps in the glare and silence
    Of the unbroken ice. I stand here,
    The dogs bark, my beard is black, and I stare
    At the North Pole. . .
    And now what? Why, go back.

    Turn as I please, my step is to the south.”
    —Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)

    “In America we eat, collectively, with a glum urge for food to fill us. We are ignorant of flavour. We are as a nation taste-blind.”
    —M.F.K. Fisher (b. 1908)