Yup, They've Been Thinking About This For A Long Time

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Business visionary predicted North American union in '93 Late author Peter Drucker saw Mexico, Canada, U.S. integrating so fast, nothing could stop

WASHINGTON – While even in 2007 many express skepticism about a plot to integrate North America along the lines of the European Union, 14 years ago, one of world's most celebrated economists and management experts said it was already on the fast track – and nothing could stop it.
Peter F. Drucker, in one of his dozens of best-selling books, "Post Capitalist Society," published in 1993, wrote that the European Community, the progenitor of the European Union, "triggered the attempt to create a North American economic community, built around the United States but integrating both Canada and Mexico into a common market."
"So far this attempt is purely economic in its goal," wrote the Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree. "But it can hardly remain so in the long run."
Drucker describes in his book the worldwide trends toward globalization that were evident back then – the creation and empowerment of transnational organizations and institutions, international environmental goals regarding carbon dioxide and agreements to fight terrorism long before 9/11.
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But it is insight into what he describes as the advanced stage of North American integration that is striking in the context of so much doubt even today. Also of interest is where the movement began.
"What makes this so important is that the impetus for the North American economic community did not come from the United States; it came from Mexico," he writes. "Yet for over 150 years, ever since Mexico was unified under the presidency of Benito Juarez, the goal of Mexican policy has been to put as much distance as possible between its country and its pushy and totally alien neighbor to the north. No two contiguous countries in the world are as different as Mexico and the United States in language, in religion, but above all in culture, values and tradition. Yet Mexico had to accept in the end that the 150 years of isolationist policy had ended in failure; in order to survive as a country and civilization, it has to integrate itself, at least economically, with the huge, dangerous and alien neighbor to the north."
It all began with a plan to establish common customs procedures between the three countries, he wrote.
"The treaty which the Mexican government has proposed to establish a customs union between Mexico and the other two North American countries, the United States and Canada, may fail to go through," he explained. "But the economic integration of the three countries into one region is proceeding so fast that it will make little difference whether the marriage is sanctified legally or not."
Drucker authored some 39 books before his death in November 2005 at the age of 95. Born in Austria, he moved to the U.S. in 1937. He became a citizen in 1943. He taught management at New York University from 1950 through 1971. He regularly contributed to the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Atlantic Monthly and the Economist.
Most of those denying the drive toward integration, or for a North American Union, point out that it has not been debated in Congress – that no legislation has been introduced for actual merger. But Drucker pointed out 14 years ago that political and economic inertia was already so strong, the formalities of legislation would not be necessary to achieve the goals.
That's not to say there aren't officials working overtime on integration.
In March, WND uncovered a State Department cable of Commerce Secretary Carlo Gutierrez pressing to implement major trilateral initiatives to help "capture the vision of North American integration."
The cable was among some 150 pages of State Department SPP documents released to WND under a Freedom of Information Act request.
On the other hand, since the North American integration plans were first revealed in WND, many state legislatures have attempted to "opt out" of the Security and Prosperity Partnership agreement between the three countries that serves as a kind of blueprint for the process.
Idaho was the first state to approve a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to use all efforts to get the U.S. out of the SPP – an agreement signed by President Bush and his counterparts from Mexico and Canada. Similar legislation is pending in more than a dozen other state legislatures.
The SPP, according to its own description, "was launched in March of 2005 as a trilateral effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing."
Federal officials up to and including the White House say the plan doesn't and won't infringe on U.S. sovereignty.
Likewise, as WND reported, a U.S. House resolution opposing the SPP and moves toward establishing a North American Union has also gained steam and picked up sponsors.
Last fall, a top Mexican official said a North American Union is needed – and needed fast.
In a panel discussion on U.S.-Mexico relations in November at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Enrique Berruga, Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations, came right out and said a North American Union is needed – and even provided a deadline. Berruga said the merger must be complete in the next eight years before the U.S. baby boomer retirement wave hits full force.