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Trade, Immigration Top N. America Summit

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by poncho, Mar 30, 2006.

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  1. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 20 minutes ago

    CANCUN, Mexico - The leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada are converging in this bikini-and-beer mecca for a second annual show of North American unity.

    Despite the emphasis on cross-border comity and cooperation, however, the neighbors come together with no resolution of nagging issues that for years have strained U.S. relations with its two largest trading partners.

    President Bush arrived in Cancun on Wednesday evening to an understated welcome from just a few local officials gathered at the bottom of Air Force One's stairs for the two-day summit with Mexican President
    Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

    With separate bilateral meetings set for Thursday, followed by joint sessions with all three leaders on Friday, Bush promptly turned in for the night in his luxury hotel along the Caribbean resort's sugar-white beach while thousands of winter-weary college students prowled Cancun's bars nearby.

    <snip>

    The official focus of the trilateral summit is a three-way pact designed to make borders more secure without hampering business and traffic. Signed a year ago near Bush's Texas ranch by Bush, Fox and Harper's predecessor, Paul Martin, the Security and Prosperity Partnership aims to better protect North America from outside attack and ensure its global competitiveness with China and other trade powerhouses.

    But Fox and Harper come to Cancun with much more on their minds. Both have powerful constituencies at home pressing for progress on problems related to the enormous flow of goods and people between their countries and the United States.

    Mexico's top priority with its northern neighbor is a migration accord that would address the status of the estimated 6 million illegal immigrants from Mexico now living in the United States. For Canada, issue No. 1 as it looks south is a messy trade dispute over softwood lumber.

    Bush extended an olive branch in both directions before the trip. He told foreign reporters "don't underestimate" his ability to wring from Congress a guest-worker program that would address some of Mexico's concerns , and said he would "like to get the issue solved" on Canadian lumber tariffs.

    SOURCE

    Are these meetings open to the public or do they take place behind closed doors?
     
    #1 poncho, Mar 30, 2006
  2. LadyEagle

    LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

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    Billions of Americans will be buying jelly beans for Easter. Most of them are made in Mexico, with familiar sounding names like Brachs, Starburst, etc. A few years ago, our FDA issued a warning about some candy from Mexico containing lead. Nice. Poison your children with lead. Not to mention, no one knows how clean the candy factories are and how much rodent feces, rodent and human hairs, insects, dirt, bacteria, pesticides, and other undesireable substances are mixed in with all those fruit and spice flavors billions of Americans will be feeding their kids for Easter.

    Are Mexicans required to wash their hands as they mix up the sugary stuff? At least in America we have the FDA which, while not perfect, offers some oversight on quality, contamination, harmful substances, etc.

    I'd put my money on closed doors. Just like the lack of information available to the American public about what is in what they are eating that has been imported from Mexico under American brand names. It's all very secretive. And even if there is some semblance of a Mexican FDA, it's probably as corrupt as the rest of their government. Not to mention terrorist/security issues that one could raise regarding importing foodstuffs from foreign countries that billions of Americans will consume.

    Read your package labels, folks, before you chow down.
     
    #2 LadyEagle, Apr 1, 2006
  3. Rocko9

    Rocko9 New Member

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    I say if these peoples that are making the candies in Mexico are doing the job that Americans do not want,Mexico is the appropriate place to do those jobs.
     
    #3 Rocko9, Apr 1, 2006
  4. SpiritualMadMan

    SpiritualMadMan New Member

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    I think LE makes some very valid points...

    Mexico does not have the same level of sanitation guidlines...

    Nor, do they enforce the ones they have adequately...

    But, we have already been put in mortal danger by the federal givernment requiring states to accept Mexican Truck Drivers...

    Mike Sr.
     
    #4 SpiritualMadMan, Apr 1, 2006
  5. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    I think meetings like this should be open to the public, reporters with cameras would be nice so we could all see and hear what is being discussed.
     
    #5 poncho, Apr 2, 2006
  6. SpiritualMadMan

    SpiritualMadMan New Member

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    AMEN!

    And, not be allowed to air just editorialized snippets either... Make the *whole* thing available...

    Mike Sr.
     
    #6 SpiritualMadMan, Apr 2, 2006
  7. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, that's what's I'm talking about Mike Sr. Seems like there are cameras going up every where to watch over citizen's shoulders how about a few more to watch over government's? How about some cameras in corporate board rooms also?
     
    #7 poncho, Apr 2, 2006
  8. SpiritualMadMan

    SpiritualMadMan New Member

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    Ponch...

    Does it *really* have to be this dangerous to find a minor point of agreement...

    Without your putting words in my mouth?

    Mike Sr.
     
    #8 SpiritualMadMan, Apr 2, 2006
  9. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    What??

    I ageed with you.
    Then I made a statement based on my own observations.
    The I asked a couple questions.
    Now I'll ask another couple questions...How is what I said dangerous to you, and how did I put words in your mouth?
     
    #9 poncho, Apr 3, 2006
  10. SpiritualMadMan

    SpiritualMadMan New Member

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    Poncho,

    Sorry about that...

    Must'ave been a bit tired and cross-eyed...

    (I do have just a touch of Dyslexia...)

    My apologies...

    I jumped on the partial snippet about the government watching over our shoulders...

    And, that made me respond to the rest of your post as sarcasm....

    Ooops! My bad...

    Forgive me?
     
    #10 SpiritualMadMan, Apr 3, 2006
  11. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Ah fagitabotitit. :cool:
     
    #11 poncho, Apr 3, 2006
  12. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Doesn't matter what they say at the conference. Nothing is going to slow the elimination of the American middle class.
     
    #12 billwald, Apr 3, 2006
  13. SpiritualMadMan

    SpiritualMadMan New Member

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    I am afraid you are correct Mr. Bill...
     
    #13 SpiritualMadMan, Apr 3, 2006
  14. LadyEagle

    LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

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    Well, isn't it strange that for decades, maybe even 100 years or more, Americans wanted to make candy and suddenly, they don't? It's not that Americans didn't want jobs - in fact, American candy employees have lost thousands of jobs to south of the Border because of cheap labor. The candy manufacturers say it's because of the price of sugar. The sugar industry claims it isn't so. The bottom line is cheap labor.

    http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0408/p01s02-usec.html
     
    #14 LadyEagle, Apr 3, 2006
  15. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Cheap labor is part of the equation but profit is the bottom line. Without it business couldn't sustain itself, with it a business can expand in size and into bigger markets with enough of it business can purchase its competition, and with lots of it business can purchase government officials and the media and rule the world. Good thing the later would never be allowed to happen in America! [​IMG]
     
    #15 poncho, Apr 3, 2006
  16. Rocko9

    Rocko9 New Member

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    I do not like seeing American businesses going south either but if businesses here in America choose to operate in Mexico then that is their prerogative, it is better than enticing illegal immigrants to come over here and cheapen our labor market and take away jobs that Americans will work at if that business was located in our country. Bottom line is cheap labor and it is not a fair two way street with Mexico either. Mexico wants labor to go here in this country because it is profitable for Mexico, I think it is the second largest means of revenue for Mexico next to their oil. It is not as easy for Americans to own businesses in Mexico as compared to how easy we have made it to Mexicans to own businesses here in America.
    Mexico needs to come a long way to meet America fairly when it comes down to trade and immigration, until they do we should stop allowing Mexico from taking advantage of American generosity by putting a stop to immigration of any kind until they choose to treat us with the same respect that they get from us..
     
    #16 Rocko9, Apr 3, 2006
  17. LadyEagle

    LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

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    What you say is true, but the facts are that the Mexican leadership promotes their illegal aliens coming to the US. IOW, Mexican government hates us. All they like about us is our $$$.

    Eat Mexican jelly beans all you want to. Just remember, they may contain pesticides, lead, insects, bacteria, or some other substance that some terrorist may want to slip in.
     
    #17 LadyEagle, Apr 3, 2006
  18. SpiritualMadMan

    SpiritualMadMan New Member

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    LE,

    I checked out my favorites at Wal Mart and discovered that my jelly beans by brock were a product of mexico...

    But, so were the "Great Value" Fruit Slices and Orange Slices...

    Thanks! You may have saved my life...

    Hey, wait a minute...

    If absent from the body equates to being present with My Lord...

    Then by telling me, you've prevented a legitimate and innocent early exit!

    Aw Drats! :D

    Guess I'll have to bug the baptists a little longer! [​IMG]

    Oh, no, that's right... The bugs are in the candy!

    LE you're just spoling all my fun! :D

    Mike Sr.
     
    #18 SpiritualMadMan, Apr 3, 2006
  19. LadyEagle

    LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

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    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    One day at Walgreens, a middle-aged couple were perusing the jelly beans to get some for the grandkids, trying to decide on which ones. I spoke up and said, "I won't buy any of these jelly beans, because they are made in Mexico."

    The fella said in a snotty tone, "Oh, does that make them special?"

    I retorted, "Well, you don't know what they put in them or even if they're clean. There's no FDA down there, you know." And went about my business. They put the jelly beans back and walked off. :D

    You can find jelly beans made in America at Wal-Mart, but they are in the regular candy row, not the Easter candy aisle. If consumers would think about what they are putting in their mouths when it's made in some foreign country, things would sit on the shelves and eventually, retailers would get the message, in spite of what our Congress and the past couple of Administrations has done about NAFTA, CAFTA, and FTAA. Consumers have the ultimate power, if only they would use it.

    BTW, I won't give my pet dogs leather chews from China, either. Whose to say it's really beef. It might be human skin (from executed prisoners) for all we know. Our government isn't keeping on top of the stuff being imported in here.
     
    #19 LadyEagle, Apr 3, 2006
  20. Rocko9

    Rocko9 New Member

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    You have talked me into it LE, I'm kicking the jelly bean habit.
    But seriously it is a good idea to get the word out to American consumers about the dangers of food items from other countries. Thanx for the info.
     
    #20 Rocko9, Apr 4, 2006
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