Bad things come in threes…
Manuel Pérez Rocha and Sarah Anderson:
President George W. Bush will soon host what has become an annual “Three Amigos Summit.” The leaders of Mexico, the United States, and Canada will be gathering in New Orleans on April 21 and 22. What do you suppose is on the agenda? A rational response to immigration, perhaps? A thoughtful renegotiation of the unpopular North American Free Trade Agreement? Lessons from Canada’s affordable medicines program?
No. No. And no. Rather than putting their heads together around pressing issues such as these, the three leaders will be advancing a so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). And while that may sound well and good, this initiative, begun in 2005, is unlikely to produce either security or prosperity. That’s because the partnership is only with big business.
The chief executives of Wal-Mart, Chevron, and 28 other large corporations are in on the closed-door negotiations, while members of Congress, journalists, and ordinary citizens are excluded. And the secrecy is not just around the presidential summits, but also the meetings of about 20 SPP working groups that carry on negotiations over the course of the year.
What’s on the table? Not much is public, but we do know that the executive powers of the three countries are hammering out regulatory changes that they claim do not require legislative approval. And given who’s in the room, it’s a safe bet that these changes will favor narrow corporate interests over the public good…
mexfiles.net 
Considering how well Canada’s buy a bunch of drugs with tax payer money and then resell below profit to the public idea worked, I would love to see the US buy a bunch of food and resell it to the public below profit so that…. wait a minute they already do that. (farm subsidies)
So what are you advocating? More socialism? I thought that you protested the farm subsidies that the US gives its farmers? How on earth can you support Canada’s drug subsidies? Free markets work, unfortunately Free Trade Agreements are just compromises between the two countries trading. The US does this to ensure that thier exports do not get heavily taxed and that thier businesses do not get nationalized. Involving more people than the executives would result in a futile effort and make things worse for the poor. Nothing special is going to be done here except a simple coordination of what all sides would like to be presented with. 3 years from now all sides successors might actually agree to something.