Remarks by Secretary Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Gutierrez at the Security and Prosperity Partnership Press Availability

Release Date: 06/27/05 00:00:00

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
June 27, 2005

Secretary Chertoff:  Thank you Deputy Prime Minister McLellan for introducing us.  And thank you also for hosting us here as we continue the progress that was first set forth in our meeting in Texas three months ago.  We are, as three countries, really three friends living in the same neighborhood.  We have a common interest in our mutual security and our mutual prosperity.  

As the Deputy Prime Minister said, we are really working to several common goals as part of this program.  We want to confront external threats; we want to prevent and respond to threats within North America; and we want to facilitate the flow of traffic across our borders.

In this sense, security and prosperity are not inconsistent.  In fact, they are complimentary.  The more secure our region is, the more our prosperity will flourish and the easier our flow of goods, services and people will be.  And of course, without prosperity and ease of movement, there is no point in having security.   Because we want not only to protect our lives, but also to protect our way of life.  

I’m not going to review all of the accomplishments that are contained in this very handsome book, which is quite detailed about what we’ve already done and what we are setting out to continue to do.  But I do want to talk about three parts of the Initiative we are currently taking in the security area.

First, we have agreed to develop and implement comparable methods of screening individuals, as well as goods and cargo.  We talk about bio-metrics, we talk about secure documentation.  The vision is eventually to have a common theory of how we screen to make sure dangerous people and dangerous cargo do not enter our waterways, our airways or our land areas.  

Second, we want to encourage the development of a unified trusted traveler approach to security.  We now have NEXUS, we have SENTRY, we have FAST.  All of these are ways in which people can enroll in a program that will allow them to move rapidly and conveniently between and among our countries and inside of North America and outside of North America with a single set of documents that will be a common standard for making sure that the people can be trusted.  And again, that is an initiative not only to increase security, but also to increase convenience and to increase privacy for all our citizens.

Finally, we are working together to develop a collective approach to protecting our infrastructure.  We share an awful lot – we share electricity, we share water power, we share a food system – and we have to protect them all.  Part of what we are trying to do here is to make sure we have a common theory of protection, a common ability to talk across borders to take the steps necessary to preserve and protect our important infrastructure.  And also to make sure that if, God forbid, we have to respond to some kind of an emergency, we can work together in a compatible and convenient fashion in making that response.    

The Security and Prosperity Partnership reflects the strength of our trade and economic relationships within North America.  An important part of that is the private sector.  So we have been working with private stake-holders in a vital way as we put together the initiatives we have achieved today and those we intend to achieve going forward.  Our desired end-state is this:  we want to have a smarter set of security initiatives; we want to have a safer set of security initiatives; and we want to have a more convenient set of security initiatives.  

So with that I look forward to continuing to work with our colleagues here; and I want to welcome our newest colleague, Secretary Abascal from Mexico.  

Secretary Gutierrez: Thank you and good afternoon.  I want to thank once again the Deputy Prime Minister for her leadership in bringing us together today.  And I want to thank all of my colleagues, on one hand, in Homeland Security and the Ministry of the Interior; and of course my colleagues from Commerce and Industry.  

This has been a tremendous amount of work since our three leaders initiated this process in Waco, Texas, March 23.  And I can say that it shows the commitment and the determination to continue to build the most prosperous and secure area in the world.  I also want to recognize the work of the staffs.  There has been a lot of work done.  And we are just getting started.

The people of the United States, Canada and Mexico today have a trading relationship that is worth over 700 billion dollars.  And that number has grown from 1993 to 2003 by 88 percent.  So we have a lot of jobs and a lot of prosperity tied to this very important trading relationship.  We want to build on that and continue to drive that forward and continue to grow that for the benefit of citizens in all three countries.

First, the security environment and economic progress depend on each other.  No market economy can thrive without safety and security for its people.  The threats we face require seamless cooperation that extends beyond borders.  

Second, we won’t be competitive in the global economy unless our region is competitive.  That means regional integration.  And that means regional cooperation.  No country can reach its full potential by sailing alone into what is clearly, more and more, a global economic system.  By strengthening our neighbors, we strengthen ourselves.  Success in the 21st century global economy demands regional strength.  And that is the framework we are discussing here today.  

So think of this agenda as a blueprint to secure North American leadership in the global economy.  We have a plan to make North America the best place in the world in which to do business, and importantly, the best place in the world in which to create jobs.  

We’re already making progress on a number of fronts.  We are signing a framework of common principles for e-commerce.  We agreed to streamline regulation - we need to test products once and sell them in all three markets.  We agreed to simplify trade flows.  We will cooperate to make air transportation, energy, steel, automotive manufacturing and other economic sectors more competitive.  

Finally, establishing protections for intellectual property rights is one of the most important steps we can take.  We will develop a joint strategy to stamp out piracy and counter-fitting.  We will preserve creativity, defend the public health and safety and protect our economic development.  That is also very important.  We call that “making North America a fake free zone of the world.”  And we can really lead the world in terms of intellectual property rights.

We understand that this partnership is only the beginning.  Our ultimate goal is to speed the secure movement of our people, goods and services across our borders and to eliminate barriers to trade, investment, research and education.  North America will be ready to lead in the 21st century.  And we believe that we are on the way to making this, without question, the best place in the world to live; the best place in the world in which to do business; and the most secure place in the world.

I want again to thank my colleagues for their leadership in this endeavor.  Thank you.

Q&A

Q. On movement of people.  In the U.S. congress there has been a lot of talk about a biometric card.  What stage are we at in developing the biometric card for a North American perimeter?

Secretary Chertoff: I think it’s absolutely right that the way forward ultimately,  not just with respect to North America, but with respect to the world, is biometrics.  Biometrics give us the capacity to move beyond names, which is the most simple and primitive way of identifying, into something that is much more secure and much more specific and actually eliminates a lot of false positives.  What we want to do moving forward is build a compatible, inter-operable set of chips and documents that will allow us essentially to assimilate all of these various programs into a single trusted-traveler program.  And ultimately I think as we look out across the entire world, we’ve been dealing with the Europeans on the visa waiver issue for example, we are looking to having passports that also incorporate a common biometric standard that is inter-operable and inter-changeable.

My bottom-line message on biometrics is this:  biometrics not only enhance security, they enhance privacy.  What they do is, they guarantee people that they control their identity with something that cannot be changed or forged or counter-fitted.  Something that we in government can rely upon, but also something that gives private citizens the assurances that they need that their identity is unique and will be protected about the kinds of misuse and theft that, unfortunately, we have read about increasingly in the last few months.      

Q. (in Spanish) Why has the Initiative not included funding provisions for reducing the economic gap between Mexico and the United States and Canada?

Secretary Gutierrez:  We have had a lot of discussion about - I believe you are talking about compensation for specific cases that we have.  There are cases in U.S. courts of law.  I believe we have made the position of the U.S. pretty clear from the standpoint that we believe that any agreement or settlement of any of the cases that are alive today should be prospective.  That is a position that we have taken, that is something that we believe is important for any settlement.  

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