James Langton
Sunday, March 4, 2007
London Telegraph
If it were built, the road would be one of the engineering wonders of the 21st century -a trade route a quarter of a mile wide, carving a path from Mexico through the heart of America to Canada.
In its most radical form, it would allow lorry drivers to travel hundreds of miles from the Mexican border deep into the US before reaching customs and immigration controls in Kansas.
Backers of the idea, labelled the "Nafta Superhighway", after the North American trade pact, say it would revolutionise patterns of commerce across the continent and enhance the economic prospects of millions. But its critics say it could spell the end of US sovereignty...
Opposition is strongest in Texas, where the state's plans for a vast road project, known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, are well advanced.
Once complete, the corridor could become the first leg of a Nafta Superhighway, crossing the Mexican border at the Rio Grande, near Laredo, and then pushing north to Kansas.
It would include a toll road with 10 lorry and car lanes, a high-speed railway, and oil, gas and water pipelines.
With costs estimated at $183 billion (£94 billion), the 1,200 ft wide road would consume one million acres in Texas alone. Construction could take up to 50 years.
...In Texas, the superhighway would be so wide that critics say it would be too expensive to construct overpasses except in the cities, severing tight-knit rural communities.
The superhighway is being promoted by a pressure group, the North America's Supercorridor Coalition, which includes business leaders, trade groups and government officials from Canada, Mexico and the US.
...Many conservatives...link the highway to agreements being negotiated behind closed doors between the Mexican, American and Canadian governments that they believe will transform the North American Free Trade Association into an EU-style superstate.
They point to an agreement signed by Mr Bush, Vicente Fox, then president of Mexico, and Paul Martin, then Canada's prime minister, in Waco, Texas, in March 2005.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership is intended to promote co-operation on security and boost economic opportunities.
But it set alarm bells ringing on the Right because it formed working parties that fall outside the control of Congress.
Republican Ron Paul, a Texas congressman, says it is part of a drive for "an integrated North American Union" - complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and borderless travel. "It would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty," he said.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
London Telegraph
If it were built, the road would be one of the engineering wonders of the 21st century -a trade route a quarter of a mile wide, carving a path from Mexico through the heart of America to Canada.
In its most radical form, it would allow lorry drivers to travel hundreds of miles from the Mexican border deep into the US before reaching customs and immigration controls in Kansas.
Backers of the idea, labelled the "Nafta Superhighway", after the North American trade pact, say it would revolutionise patterns of commerce across the continent and enhance the economic prospects of millions. But its critics say it could spell the end of US sovereignty...
Opposition is strongest in Texas, where the state's plans for a vast road project, known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, are well advanced.
Once complete, the corridor could become the first leg of a Nafta Superhighway, crossing the Mexican border at the Rio Grande, near Laredo, and then pushing north to Kansas.
It would include a toll road with 10 lorry and car lanes, a high-speed railway, and oil, gas and water pipelines.
With costs estimated at $183 billion (£94 billion), the 1,200 ft wide road would consume one million acres in Texas alone. Construction could take up to 50 years.
...In Texas, the superhighway would be so wide that critics say it would be too expensive to construct overpasses except in the cities, severing tight-knit rural communities.
The superhighway is being promoted by a pressure group, the North America's Supercorridor Coalition, which includes business leaders, trade groups and government officials from Canada, Mexico and the US.
...Many conservatives...link the highway to agreements being negotiated behind closed doors between the Mexican, American and Canadian governments that they believe will transform the North American Free Trade Association into an EU-style superstate.
They point to an agreement signed by Mr Bush, Vicente Fox, then president of Mexico, and Paul Martin, then Canada's prime minister, in Waco, Texas, in March 2005.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership is intended to promote co-operation on security and boost economic opportunities.
But it set alarm bells ringing on the Right because it formed working parties that fall outside the control of Congress.
Republican Ron Paul, a Texas congressman, says it is part of a drive for "an integrated North American Union" - complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and borderless travel. "It would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty," he said.
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