3.0 Plenary Roundtable - Looking Ahead

Concurrent roundtable sessions were held in the afternoon- Legislators and Civil Society Actors. Each session related to the organization of civil society actors from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. as a network and similarly the parliamentarians discussed the development of action steps and a common legislative agenda. Following that, Civil Society actors and the legislators reported back to plenary. Overall, it was agreed that the work on deep integration is ongoing and increasingly synchronized to meet the challenges ahead.

Highlights of the Civil society roundtable synthesis:

• Development of common work plan and communications strategy
• To consolidate links among civil society actors
• To consolidate links between civil society and parliamentarians
• the need to strengthen and broaden national and international networks;
• Consolidate multi-sectoral wide approaches
• to consider bringing trade issues discussions into on-going campaigns
• Develop alternatives on security issues - refine democratic vision
• Some common policy opportunities might be found in the issues of gender, water, job losses, and militarization.
• The upcoming meetings of the ‘Three Amigos' in March 2007, the August 2006 tri-national forum hosted by Mexico are events around which to organize.
• Would like to encourage parliamentarians to study effects Researching NAFTA and NAFTA plus, research gaps between rhetoric and real results
• Stress that the power of legislatures is diminishing under these trade agreements, therefore it is crucial to document the failures of NAFTA.

Highlights of the Legislative roundtable synthesis:

• To consolidate links among social-democratic legislators;
• To consolidate links between civil society and parliamentarians;
• To create a Secretariat, hosting services provided by Marcy Kaptur's office, this would include four parliamentarians and four civil society actors. The Secretariat would host a website, gather related documents and research pertinent to the North American People-Centred Forum collective and act as a communication conduit. This secretariat will need sufficient monetary resources to operate. Canadian legislators would provide translation for the necessary documents;
• Development of a common legislative agenda;
• Draft a Charter of the peoples of North America;
• Draft a ‘tri-national forum statement of purpose' which would establish framework for future meetings;
• Idea of a ‘Bus across North America' idea as a tool for public engagement.
• The meetings of August 2006 in Mexico, March 2007 in Ottawa, and March 2008 in Washington are highlighted as strategic dates for furthering the tri-national parliamentarian working group
• The emerging issue of white and yellow corn and how that trade is regulated by NAFTA is highlighted as a prime example of how the three countries can work together on common transparency issues.

Key issues/ideas that emerged from the discussion during the plenary session include:

• Forum is an important catalyst to start strategizing for a common multi-sectoral strategic policy;
• Important to develop mechanisms for dialogue and find common action where both parliamentarians and civil society can continue to deepen their collective agenda