Alliance for Responsible Trade

This summary report offered a glimpse at the wide ranging issues that were discussed, the new actions that were reported, and the commitments and recommendations that were made during the 2^nd North American Forum on a People-Centred Approach to Trade. The legislators and civil society actors participating in the Forum have re-committed themselves and their networks to continuing to work collectively to raise awareness, build public support and to build bridges within their respective countries in our common work on countering the deep integration agenda.  It is believed that the continuing development of our progressive trade model will contribute to sustainable development by remaining firm on our commitments to govern in the public interest rather than the corporate interest by offering better trading conditions to and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers, in Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

•  To consolidate links and increase collaboration between civil society and parliamentarians;
• a call for more public consultation during the process of drafting treaties;
• an emphasis on transparency of operations; strengthening the networks between parliamentarians and civil society organizations
• Need to expand the public debate on deep integration, show its relevance to a wide range of sectors and how and to what extent citizens' lives have been adversely affected by NAFTA;
• North American Peoples Trade Secretariat ,via Marcy Kaptur's Office, - to house a web-site and be a repository for key documents/research materials;
• Coordinating the work on preparing a Charter of the Peoples of North America , via Peter Julian's Office;
• Strategizing around a common Agricultural policy for N.A. (defacto Victor's office seems to be running with this given the Aug 2-4 meeting in Mex. City);
• March 2007 as possible target date for the 3^rd North American Forum for a People-Centred Approach to Trade, to be held in Ottawa;
• Increasing the numbers in the legislators networks ( Legislators with support as useful from 4 networks);
• Legislators to tackle question of democratic deficit and lack of transparency around the SPP, and compel governments to open up NAFTA to be reviewed;
• Preparation of research and education materials targeting the SPP (4 civil society networks to take lead);
• Transparency - public debates on NAFTA plus in all three countries using pertinent local examples i.e. agriculture, the fight to eradicate poverty, the increase of the pro-business politico model;
• Get a NAFTA plus public engagement education campaign going;
• Organize in advance of the projected March 2007 'three amigos' heads-of-state meeting in Canada ( Leadership on this is not crystal clear to me, but probably requires some sort of collaborative structure to be put in place in the fall of 2006);